It was the perfect opportunity. Jodie pulled out her house keys, opened her front door, dashed inside, and slammed it behind her with a triumphant yelp. But her satisfaction was short-lived. Flynn had looked upset… shocked even. She held an ear to the door wondering if he’d come back and was on the other side, or whether he’d kept going and had gone away for good.

She straightened and took a step away. When she heard the letterbox flap open, she whirled around and stared at it.

‘Jodie? Jodie, are you there?’

She held her breath.

‘Jodie, I’m not going anywhere until I talk to you… convince you I couldn’t do such a thing.’

Two steps took her back to the door. ‘Why would I believe anything you said? Flynn Douglas, the important sales rep, eh? Except you aren’t, are you? You’re a liar.’ She could hear the bitterness in her words and shook her head. ‘Go away, Flynn.’ She wanted him to leave, it was too hard being close to him, seeing the man she thought he was and trying to remember the reality. He was a liar. ‘Please, leave.’ The bitterness had faded, her words now laced with sadness and a hint of despair.

‘I can’t, Jodie. I’m going to stay until you listen to me. You’ll find me here in the morning, cold and wet, frozen to your doorstep. Reporters will come and take photos of the poor fool who simply wanted to explain what an idiot he was to the woman he was sure he was falling in love with.’

Falling in love with? Words… they were empty words, easily said, and meaningless when said with a liar’s tongue. She should walk away, leave him there, step over his frozen body in the morning. Then she heard heavy rain peppering the uPVC door and, almost without thought, she reached for the catch and pulled it open.

He was standing there, wet hair plastered to his forehead, rain… or tears… running down his cheeks. Jodie felt her heart stumble on a beat as he stepped inside and stood dripping raindrops on the wooden floor, the space between them full of unsaid words and mixed emotions.

‘I didn’t leave those packages.’

Jodie kept her eyes locked on his brown ones. She’d read somewhere that you could tell when someone was lying – they looked to the right, or maybe the left, she couldn’t remember which – but his eyes never moved, looking straight into hers, right into the very heart of her, making it beat faster and stronger.

Flynn wiped rain from his face with his hand. ‘I lied to you about my job, but not about that, I swear.’

Jodie indicated the wet floor. ‘You’re making a mess, you’d better come into the kitchen.’ She turned and walked away. A loud sigh tugged at her heartstrings and she knew she was weakening fast.