He didn’t seem upset, however. He nodded calmly. ‘So you keep telling me, Connie. And I hear you.’ He paused, his gaze suddenly fervent. ‘But what you don’t seem to get is that I can’t just let you go. I can’t simply discard the feelings I have for you, like so much rubbish, just because you’re married. Your marriage has absolutely no relevance to how I feel about you.’

Struggling to make sense of what he was saying, Connie tried one more time to gather a coherent argument. Something that would finally convince him that he was whistling in the wind. ‘Of course it has relevance, Jared.’ She spoke forcefully, although she did not raise her voice – it was vital that he listen. ‘It means we can’t be together.’

Jared lifted his hands in the air triumphantly and grinned. ‘You say that, but here we are, together. The sky hasn’t fallen in. Riley still sleeps by my feet, the cottage still stands, Devan is none the wiser.’

Connie, up against the barricade of his skewed logic, felt only tired. ‘You don’t know what this is doing to me,’ she said quietly. Her choc ice was still in its cellophane, untouched on the table – although Jared had munched through his, spraying shards of dark chocolate onto his T-shirt – and she knew that inside the shell it would now be mush.

Jared, hearing her despair, was instantly by her side. Before she had a chance to stop him, he was leaning down to envelop her shoulders in his arms, but she stiffened, quickly pushing him off and rising from her stool to face him. ‘Listen. I’m sorry if I misled you, Jared. Truly I am. But this has to end … right here, right now.’

He reached out and squeezed her upper arms between his palms. Shuddering inwardly, she shook herself free, moving back out of his reach.

‘Never apologize, Connie,’ he said, his words uncomfortably intense. ‘If I hadn’t met you, my life would be totally meaningless – like it’s always been, till now.’ She noticed the tears again, blurring the turquoise. But unlike last time, they did not move her. Instead they frightened her. What the hell does he mean, ‘till now’?

‘Riley!’ she called sharply to the sleeping dog and turned to pick up his lead and her coat, both of which she’d slung on the hooks in the hallway. When she turned back, Jared was between her and the front door. For a split second she wondered if he would prevent her leaving – she couldn’t read the expression in his eyes in the half-light.

She moved purposefully forward, heart pounding in her throat. At the same time, Jared stepped towards her, and swooped. His mouth was almost on hers, his arms reaching around her body, but she jerked away with a loud, ‘NO!’