Laurel reached out a hand but didn’t quite let it touch his. ‘Presumably, her aim was to warn me off. As we’re out together, I mean.’ Neither of them had mentioned the word ‘date’. Laurel was glad. He still exerted a magnetic pull on her but he was also still related to Mac.

Grady gaped. Then thunder entered his eyes. ‘What the fuck? She dumped me because I can’t make kids and now she’s telling people I got her pregnant?’ He clutched his head, disordering the dark shininess of his hair. ‘What is she even thinking? In these days of DNA tests she doesn’t stand a chance of making paternity stick. Excuse me.’ He jumped up and brushed past her, striding into the body of the pub like a man on a mission.

She twisted in her seat to crane after him but his trajectory took him out of sight, so she grabbed a waitress and ordered two more drinks. Grady looked as if he needed it and she didn’t mind keeping him company.

Laurel watched winking fairy lights that hung like icicles down the wall and listened to a woman on another table saying smugly that she’d done all of her Christmas shopping already.

Then, just as their waiter returned with their meals, Grady slipped back into his seat.

He paused while the waiter checked they had everything they needed, then leaned in close to Laurel to murmur. ‘Her sister Zelda said Pippa’s already gone. Now let’s forget her.’ He gestured with a firm hand, as if shoving something away. ‘Will you help with the Christmas scene for the village hall?’

Laurel was glad he’d put his momentary frustration aside but made him wait while she ate a delicious mouthful of sea bass. ‘Aha. You just brought me out to butter me up.’

He grinned as he wound spaghetti around his fork. ‘You got me. We’ve bought this big sheet of MDF board to paint a Christmas scene on and put up as the centrepiece of the art wall during the Middledip Christmas Fair. It’ll be for the whole village from the Craft Stuff crowd. I wondered whether you’d rough in the scene and then sort of show people the right technique to paint their bit.’

She gazed at him while he ate his forkful, at the thick black hair and brows, the hopeful expression in those brown eyes. ‘Like, maybe a mountain landscape and I’d show people how to paint fir trees and Swiss chalets?’

His eyes brightened. ‘Exactly. Tess is involved, too, but can spare only limited time. It would be most of the core Craft Stuff folk.’