‘What, cooking? Fame? Being a’ – he held up fingers in quote marks as they crossed to the track down to the beach – ‘“celebrity”? No. I love it here. And what about you? What’s your story? What’s a lawyer doing at a cookery school? Burnt out too?’

‘No. I’ve worked since I left school. I fancied a sabbatical.’

‘There must have been something that made you decide.’

She laughed. ‘It’s boring.’

They stopped on the edge of the beach. The tide was a long way out leaving a wide expanse of beach striated with patterns of shell fragments and darker sand. Shallow water rippled and undulated across the surface, sparkling with fractured sunlight.

‘Come on. Let’s walk as far as we can. We’ll head back as the sun starts to set.’

She nodded, pulling the pashmina she’d grabbed from her car around her shoulders. Although the sun had unexpectedly come out on her drive home, it was a little cooler outside after spending the afternoon in the cosy warmth of Sorcha and Aidan’s kitchen. No wonder she’d been loath to leave.

‘So try me.’

She turned to him, puzzled.

‘What prompted you to take a sabbatical? I’m pretty sure you said in Dublin you liked your job and you’re good at it.’

‘I am and I do but… well, it’s all I’ve ever done and it’s safe. I’ve never even changed companies. I was worried… I was worried about… being stale. I like it there but it’s all I’ve ever known. So I’d been thinking about whether I ought to make a change but it felt like change for change’s sake. And this is the stupid bit.’

‘I promise I won’t judge.’

She laughed. ‘You probably will when you hear.

‘There was a bake-off competition at work. You know, The Great British Bake Off.’

‘I think I’ve heard of it,’ he said dryly.

‘Well,’ she huffed out a sigh. ‘It’s so embarrassing. I don’t even know why I’m telling you. Basically, everyone took it really seriously and when I rocked up with my very dull cake, I realised I’d been seriously outclassed and it annoyed me.’ She was not going to tell him about Sadie Burns-Coutts, who was probably exactly Conor’s type of woman.

‘Annoyed you?’

‘Yes. At work I’m the smart one, the practical go-to-for-solutions one. I always have the answers. I hate not being competent at something. And it’s such an easy thing. Everyone can cook. It’s not rocket science.’

‘It’s not, but there is quite a lot of science involved.’