He pauses, his hand on the door handle and frowns. ‘Yes? Can I help you?’

‘I hope so.’ I pull the rolled-up plans from under my arm. ‘Do you have a few minutes? You built an extension for my husband a little while ago and I wondered if I could chat to you about it.’

Nick looks wary. ‘Why? I give everything a guarantee, but if there’s a problem…’

‘No, there’s no problem.’ At least, not with the building. At my words he visibly relaxes, and I swoop. ‘Do you think we could maybe go inside for a few minutes? I won’t keep you long, I promise.’ It’s starting to rain, and I shield the plans with my jacket.

Nick makes a show of checking his watch. ‘It’ll have to be quick. I’m already late for a job.’ He bangs on the driver’s window and a young lad looks up from his phone. ‘Tom, I just need a word with this lady. Go up the road and get us a bacon roll each, yeah?’ He turns to me. ‘Come on then, you’d better come inside.’

I follow him into the house, through to a small but airy kitchen. A woman, presumably his wife, looks up in confusion from where she sits at a breakfast bar feeding a chubby baby.

‘Sorry, love,’ Nick stoops to kiss her head, ‘this lady just wants a quick word about her extension. Can you give us a minute?’ With a curious glance between us, Nick’s wife wipes the baby’s face and scoops him from the highchair, leaving Nick and I alone. ‘Right, what did you want to know?’

I lay out the plans, and as Nick looks them over, he nods his head. ‘Yep, I remember this one well. Lovely, light airy room, and a nice couple to work with. The architect did a brilliant job on the design.’ He frowns. ‘You’re not the lady I did the work for, though, did they move already? Seems a shame to spend all that money and then move away. Wait… didn’t we speak about a swimming pool?’

‘We did, and no, they didn’t move,’ I say, my cheeks flushing warm and pink, ‘Caro, the lady you did the work for, isn’t around anymore. Her husband got remarried… err, to me.’ I give him a small smile and he just nods again.

‘So, what’s the problem?’

I flounder for a moment, not sure what to say, everything I’ve prepared melting out of my head. ‘The pool. I wanted to get some more clarification on the pool. Make sure there won’t be any surprises if I go ahead with it.’ Tucking my fingers into my sleeves to hide their shaking, I incline my head towards the plans.