The dog, Tank she learnt from the yelling, was heading straight for the sea, making a beeline for Rufus, Cookie, and Spot, which wasn’t particularly a problem. All three were well socialised and Tank might be the size of his namesake, and disobedient too, but he didn’t appear to be vicious. Despite his size, he was still a youngster and probably just wanted to play.

Still, she edged towards the water, wanting to be close by in case she had judged it wrong.

Delighted to see the newcomer, Rufus and Spot ran in circles around him, while Cookie kept her distance. Unfortunately, it seemed she was the one Tank was keenest to meet and seeing Liam Quinn hopelessly chasing and failing to catch his dog, Hannah sped up her pace.

‘It’s okay, sweetheart,’ she coaxed, stepping into the foray and reaching for the terrier.

As she lifted her out of Tank’s reach, Quinn managed to clip the lead on his collar.

‘Sorry,’ he apologised, turning to scold Tank. ‘I didn’t realise he would take off like that.’

‘He needs training.’

‘Sorry?’

‘You’re telling him off, but it’s not his fault.’

‘You’ve lost me.’

‘There are no bad dogs, just bad owners. You need to take him to training classes if you can’t control him.’

‘I see.’ From the faint smirk on his face, he didn’t see, or care, what she meant at all. ‘I’ll bear that in mind.’

Of course you will. Hannah kept her thoughts to herself, not wanting to get into an argument, not wanting to get into anything with Liam Quinn that would give him an excuse to keep up conversation. The sooner he left, the better.

She turned her back on him, stroking Cookie behind the ears as she stepped away, and hoping he would respect her privacy and go. Instead, she heard him yell, ‘TANK’, and didn’t have time to react as the disobedient fluffy monster charged in front of her, trying to get to Cookie, his lead tangling around Hannah’s legs.

It all happened at once. Liam trying to control his dog while Hannah did her best to keep Cookie away from Tank. The lead tightened further and the next thing she knew, she had lost her balance, Cookie scrambling out of her arms as she fell, and she was flat on her back in the sand.

For the briefest moment, there was silence, then she was aware of the dogs barking and Liam was crouched down beside her, a hand on her shoulder.

‘Shit! Are you okay?’

Anger and embarrassment heated her cheeks as she tried to sit up, shaking him away. ‘I’m fine. Get off me.’

‘Are you sure? You hit the ground pretty hard.’

‘We’re on sand.’