Oh God, he is so nice it is making me sniff. If I ever feel the urge to date a charmer, he’ll be top of the list. ‘I do have to go.’

‘I know.’

Bea doesn’t say anything when I finally step into the shop and target a pile of books that need sorting. She ignores my flushed face and just raises an eyebrow. I nod and smile weakly. She knows what I’m like after a message from Dad.

***

‘Somebody,’ Bea says, just as I am trying to decide which of the Tolkien covers deserves pride of place in the display, and I’m still debating whether I do like myself just as I am, ‘is asking for you.’

‘Hang on a sec.’ Am I happy? Do I feel good about myself? It’s not something I’ve really thought about. I’ve just drifted on. Tried to ignore Dad’s barbs, been soothed by Robbie’s casual acceptance.

‘Rosie!’ She sounds unusually impatient for Bea.

‘I said hang on! I’m coming down in a sec.’

‘Really, you’re saying hang on when that is calling your name?’

The way she says ‘that’ makes me twist round on the stepladder, and I nearly fall off my perch. Not because she is fanning herself and making wide-eyes (I have excellent peripheral vision), or because she is mouthing ‘is it him?’ I am feeling like somebody has turned me upside down and is shaking me because it is him. Noah.

‘Hey!’ He winks.

Bea puffs up like a cat that’s about to wind herself round his long legs and smiles as though he’s said ‘hey’ to her and not me. ‘And hey to you too!’

Where the hell has that sultry voice come from?

Oh my God, it really is Noah and he’s about to talk to, or more likely be pounced on by, Bea.

I’m in such a hurry to get between the two of them that I dismount in much the same way a fireman goes down a pole and end up staggering around, still clutching J.R.R. ‘Here.’ I throw it at Bea and rush towards him, making herding gestures until I’ve got him cornered next to ‘Software for Geeks’.

‘What are you doing here?’ It comes out as a bit of a hiss. ‘You can’t be here!’

‘Ah, but I am. You didn’t answer my last message!’ He wags a finger at me and looks very amused.

‘The message you sent about two minutes ago?’ I’d felt my phone vibrate whilst I’d been shifting Harry Potter to a more prominent position. ‘I was up a ladder!’

‘That’s the one.’

‘I haven’t had time to read that. Don’t you have any houses to build or anything? It’s not Thursday yet!’ I need time to prepare in my head. He can’t just be, well, spontaneous!

I suddenly realise he has stopped talking and is studying me intently with a concerned look on his face. I shut up.

When he speaks, his tone has lost its earlier teasing quality. ‘I was worried about you.’