I jump so much that I nearly fall over. I ram the shovel into the ground and use it as a pole to keep myself upright, slip-sliding in the mud as I turn around to look at Noel. ‘What are you doing here?’

‘Came to make sure the river wasn’t flooding. Now I see I should’ve come earlier.’ He has to shout to be heard from the opposite side of the rushing water.

‘I don’t need your help, I can manage.’ I try to concentrate on digging and not look at him again, but the temptation is too much.

He takes his coat off and throws it aside, picks up one of the spades I’d dropped and starts towards the river.

Within minutes, there isn’t a centimetre of him that’s dry. He’s wearing jeans and only a long-sleeved undershirt with the sleeves rolled up, although I can’t tell what colour either of them started off as because they’re now dark with rainwater. His hair is loose around his shoulders, looking longer than usual with the weight of the water, and he’s covered in mud from the waist down, splashes of it covering his top too, being quickly washed away by the rain that’s still pummelling down.

‘What are you doing?’ I shout again.

‘You’re going to lose all of the Balsams and most of the Blue spruces if we don’t do something now. I don’t care how much you hate me, I’m not letting you lose these trees. You don’t have to handle things like this on your own.’

The passion in his voice makes me realise we can’t avoid the soaking wet elephant standing between us any longer. ‘For you or for me?’ I say before I can chicken out.

He stops and looks up. ‘What?’

‘You want to save them for you or for me?’

His dripping eyebrows furrow. ‘What are you talking ab—’

‘I know who you are, Noel. R-five-hyphens-81. I know you were the other bidder.’

‘That’s what all this has been about? That’s why you won’t talk to me?’ He makes a noise of realisation and smacks his forehead. ‘This is exactly why I didn’t tell you.’

‘Everything you’ve done—’

‘—will be irrelevant if we don’t drain some of this water away now. It’s flooding further with every second we waste here. We are going to save these trees – not for me, not for you, but for Peppermint Branches because this place is special, no matter who owns it.’

I know from the frantic tone in his voice and the panic on his face that this is more serious than I thought.

He jumps into the river and starts shovelling sloppy wet mud from underneath the water, waist-deep and flowing fast.