‘Does it?’ Nick sniffed the front, spying the matching food splatters on his jumper. ‘Hey! That’s onions, not me. I had a shower this morning.’ Freddie giggled. ‘Let’s both get changed and then we’ll head off, shall we? This is nearly done. You can have a play in the playground before it all gets started.’

Giving everything one last stir, Nick left it to simmer and raced Freddie up the stairs to change. Bella would be at the park but probably wouldn’t have time to talk. They’d hardly seen her recently except for school drop-off and pick-up. Heartbreak was an uncontrollable thing, very much like grief. One minute you were fine and the next it could creep up on you without hurting as much as it had the day it happened. Shaking off the shadow of his own pain, he pulled out some clothes and changed.

After a few reminders to hurry up, Freddie was eventually ready in his thick winter coat and they began the short walk to the park. It was at times like these that Nick remembered how small the village actually was. After walking through three small lanes, lined either side with pretty cottages, they were on the edge of Meadowbank and at the country road. If you went one way, you’d come across the farms that belonged to Amelia Williams, Adam Noble (though he was now living with Amelia at Meadow Farmhouse) and Mr MacMahon with his ever-faithful dog, Bobby. Walk the other way and you came across the posher houses where people like Mr Hoffelmeyer, their crazy local historian, lived. Settled somewhere between them was Bluebell Park.

This giving tree idea was a new one though. He’d never heard of the concept before and at first, he hadn’t been sure what to make of it. His father had always taught him charity began at home and it was a lesson he’d found hard to shake off. It had only been necessity that had forced him to seek help from his best friends Len and Trish when he’d been stuck in traffic one day and unable to make it back to pick Freddie up. With no idea how long he was going to be there he’d called his parents first, and after telling him he should have been more organised and checked the traffic through the day, they’d said they couldn’t get Freddie as they were out with friends. He’d then had to call Len and Trish and ask them. Afterwards, Trish had insisted they all have dinner together and had rustled up an amazing feast of homemade burgers with big fat chips.