‘But, he—’

I turn back round, but Gavin is very wisely doing as suggested, and fucking off. He’s walking backwards across the lawn as though backwards means nobody will notice. Then he bumps into the fence, spins round and finds himself face to face with Noah.

Noah doesn’t look amused. He’s gone a bit shouty if I’m honest and is waving his mobile around, and prodding Gavin in the chest.

‘We never liked him,’ says chubby guy. ‘Always seemed a bit too blokey.’

‘You don’t like blokey?’

‘Not OTT blokey. Only put up with him because of Linda. She’s sound, and Gemma loves her to bits, and well, what can you do?’

I nod, not sure what to say to that.

‘I’m Jed by the way.’

I find myself smiling with pure pleasure. So, this is tragic Jed, who I’d imagined looking devastated, a worn-out shell of a man. Instead he looks quite normal. He hasn’t got tragic hero tattooed across his forehead. ‘Rosie, pleased to meet you. Noah’s talked about you.’

‘Oh really?’ he says in slow motion.

‘Nothing bad!’ I add hastily.

‘Don’t panic, I meant oh really, as in you’re Rosie. I’ve heard about you too.’

‘Really?’ I suddenly feel nervous. What has Noah said to his best mate about me?

‘All good, promise. We can swap notes! Fancy a burger?’

‘Sure.’

I smile back at him and it feels like I’ve met a long-lost brother. My heart rate has already gone back to normal, and I’m sure in a few minutes’ time I’ll have lost my beetroot hue and smoke will have stopped coming out of my ears. ‘You can protect me from Gemma.’

‘Oh?’

‘I think she wants to interrogate me!’

‘Ahh. I’m sure she does, she’s very fond of her big bro, whatever she says. Protective instinct kicks in.’

I laugh. ‘Noah doesn’t need protecting!’

‘You’d be surprised.’

‘Why?’ I am genuinely interested. This is something that I would have never thought could be true. Noah looks after number 1 quite capably.

‘He’ll tell you himself when he’s ready! Right, are you a beer out of the bottle girl, or do you want one of those disgusting paper cup things?’

***

‘Jed’s lovely, isn’t he?’ I say to Noah a couple of hours later when some very good burgers have been consumed, washed down with several beers and we are wending our way home.

‘Lovely. You two seemed to hit it off.’ His tone is dry.

‘Hey, what’s wrong with that?’ Then it hits me. He’s warning me off. He’s been a bit on edge since he picked me up to come here.

Why would he want his best mate and the girl he’s teaching to date to get on together? Our worlds weren’t really supposed to collide like this. We are on separate tracks.

‘I just—’ He stops dead. ‘I’ve not seen him laughing like that for ages, it was almost like the old Jed was back.’

‘So, that’s good, isn’t it?’

‘Good, except he’ll feel duped when he finds out we’re not actually dating, and he’ll probably never see you again. I don’t want anybody to get the wrong idea.’