‘Oh for the love of God, woman.’ He hauled her against his chest and kissed her again, this time with a thoroughness that left her reeling. ‘I love you, all right. I didn’t want to. Didn’t plan to and I’ve been fighting it all the way. You caught me by surprise when you said you were staying because I realised that I wanted that more than anything and it shocked the hell out of me. I panicked, OK. Because I’m an eejit. Actually, I think you said I was a “big, stupid, arrogant, up-yourself eejit”. And you might have had a point.’

‘You love me,’ said Hannah, dazed by the words. ‘You can’t.’

‘Why can’t I?’

‘Because people like you don’t fall in love with people like me.’

‘What arrogant, up-yourself eejits can’t fall in love with smart, beautiful women? Darn it, that’s a shame because I just did.’ He flashed his Conor grin at her.

‘Do you ever take anything seriously?’

His face sobered and he trailed a finger down her neck. ‘I take this seriously. I want you to stay in Ireland. I want you to be here in the winter. In the spring. In the summer, and all the way to next autumn. I want to share all the seasons of Killorgally with you.’

‘Excuse me,’ said Jason. ‘I’d say get a room but we need to get this bugger down.’

Hannah turned around and realised that everyone had stopped to watch them. She felt her cheeks burn until she spotted Meredith and Izzy grinning broadly at her and even Fliss who rolled her eyes had a smile on her face.

They were moving onto the last few posts when there was an angry shout.

‘Hey! Hey! What do you think you’re doing?’ Hannah recognised him immediately. This had to be Moss Murphy’s nephew. His face was so screwed up with incandescent fury that his features seemed to blur like a crumpled tissue.

Running and almost tripping in what looked like oversize wellies, he stormed up to Seamus who was shaking one of the posts loose. ‘Get off that. That’s my property.’

‘Aye, fella, Niall Flanagan, isn’t it? The post is yours. Not the land,’ said Seamus, relinquishing his hold of the post quite calmly. Flanagan was left holding the post, clearly not knowing what his next move should be.

Conor strode over and Hannah, secure in her legal knowledge and buoyed up by a remnant of anger at their initial confrontation, followed.

‘Flanagan, is it? You’re most welcome to your fence. We’ve put it on your land. All neat and tidy. Doing you a favour, like.’

Flanagan’s mouth bunched as if he wanted to spit tacks and then his eyes zeroed in on Hannah.

‘You. The lawyer. This is your doing. I knew I should have kept a better eye on you.’