‘Just shush for a minute will you,’ Sam cut in. ‘Let the man speak.’

‘Okay,’ Joe said for the third time. ‘The thing is—’

‘Just spit it out man,’ Sam cajoled. ‘Don’t worry about how you say it, just bloody get it out!’

Joe closed his eyes and when he opened them, he was looking at Hope.

‘I’m still in love with you, Hope,’ he blurted out. ‘I always have been and I always will be. I didn’t know how I would feel when I came back to Wynmouth, but the second I caught sight of you again, I knew I was still as smitten as I always had been.’

Well, if Sam hadn’t worked it out before, the look on Hope’s face was proof enough that Joe’s feelings were well and truly reciprocated. That said, it was Sam who had just encouraged Joe to make this declaration and, given the look on his face, I got the distinct impression that a whole lot more had been talked about than just the Sunny Shores deal after I had rushed back to the sanctuary of the cottage.

‘Oh Joe . . .’ Hope whispered, cutting off my train of thought.

‘And I know I said always way too many times just then,’ Joe blushed, ‘but Sam hardly gave me time to rehearse it, did he? And anyway, it is the right word. It’s always been you, Hope. Always.’

‘Joe,’ Hope said again, this time with tears in her eyes.

‘I should never have let you go,’ Joe carried on. ‘I should never have been so jealous of you wanting to look out for Sam after the crash and if I hadn’t let my stupid imagination get the better of me, I would have known you were nothing more than friends.’

Sam nodded and my thoughts rolled on, only I wasn’t sure I believed them. Was Joe suggesting that Hope and Sam had always been just friends?

‘And I need to apologize to you too, Tess,’ Joe then said, making me jump.

‘Do you?’ I asked.

Sam shifted in his seat.

‘Joe,’ he said.

‘No,’ said Joe, looking at him, ‘we need to get this sorted.’

‘What are you talking about?’ I frowned.

‘I recognized you, Tess,’ Joe stunned me by saying, ‘the very second I stopped you tumbling over the top of the cliff.’

‘What?’ I squeaked.

‘I knew you were the girl who used to holiday here with your parents all those years ago, because you’d hardly changed at all.’

‘Joe,’ Sam said again.

‘You were the very one I’d promised to kiss behind the beach huts,’ Joe went on, ‘but the thing was, Hope had arrived back in town just after I’d made that promise and as it was love at first sight, I found I didn’t want to kiss anyone else.’