‘Words spread like wildfire around here,’ he reminded me. ‘This will be all over Wynmouth by closing time tonight.’

‘But what about Patrick,’ I reminded him. ‘I daresay he’d already told everyone anyway.’

‘No, he hadn’t,’ said Sam. ‘You only had to see the look on everyone’s faces. This was completely fresh news. The only person Patrick told was his boss and that was because he no doubt wanted to curry favour.’

The implications of what I had just done were beginning to hit home and I rather wished I’d ordered a stiff one when asked.

‘And it won’t matter that nothing happened and I’ve told everyone that nothing happened,’ Sam went on, ‘not when the alternative is so much more appealing.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘Well, which version of this do you reckon will have the most mileage?’ he asked. ‘The landlord catches a drunk punter as she stumbles, or, the landlord who happens to be renting his cottage to an attractive holidaymaker is caught in a steamy embrace with her after hours.’

‘The one with the most sex in it,’ grinned the lad serving as he reached behind Sam for a bottle of tonic mixer.

‘Oh god,’ I said, snatching up my keys and ignoring how flattered I’d felt that Sam had said I was attractive. ‘I need to speak to Hope.’

I dashed out of the pub before he could stop me and ran down to the café, hoping to catch her before she closed up for the day.

‘Hope!’ I called, spotting her as she was just about to leave.

‘Hey, Tess,’ she smiled.

‘Hey,’ I puffed, as I bent to nurse the stitch in my side and catch my breath.

‘What’s going on?’

‘I need to talk to you,’ I panted. ‘Have you got a minute?’

I was more than mildly confused by Hope’s reaction when I described what had happened between Sam and I. Obviously, I didn’t share that he had made mention of his head and heart, or the fact that I had really wanted to kiss him and have him kiss me back. Neither did I mention the role Joe had played in the whole debacle, nor the total arse I had just made of myself in the pub having taken his words at face value.

I stuck to the simple facts, i.e. that there was now a rumour going around that Sam and I had kissed, but we absolutely hadn’t. It was all a silly misunderstanding and the person who had thought he’d seen us in an embrace had actually seen me fall and Sam catch me.

‘Okay,’ Hope shrugged.

She seemed completely unconcerned.

‘You do believe me, don’t you?’