I couldn’t tell if it was the prospect of Christmas, being employed at Wynter’s Trees or having the opportunity to work with Maya, that had got him so fired up.

‘Can I take Bandit for a walk before I start?’ he asked Ned. ‘I wouldn’t mind a few minutes among the trees before it gets busy.’

‘Be my guest,’ said Ned.

‘Where does he get his energy from?’ David laughed as boy and hound jogged off.

‘Liam or Bandit?’ asked Ned.

‘Both,’ said David.

‘It’s the exuberance of youth,’ I told him. ‘I used to have to cope with it every day at school. Sometimes there were getting on for thirty Liams in every class.’

‘Ah youth,’ David wistfully smiled. ‘I remember it well.’

Ned rolled his eyes.

‘I’ve got something for you, Liza,’ said Maya, returning her siren shade lipstick to her bag and rifling through it for something else.

She pulled out a tube and held it out for me to take.

‘What is it?’ I asked, accepting it.

‘Arnica,’ she said. ‘It’s good for bruises. That one on your face is a real shiner now.’

Ned and I had told everyone I’d fallen over while planting the family tree. We’d kept the champagne, failed athletics and subsequent revelations to ourselves. My gaze momentarily flicked to his face but his expression thankfully gave nothing away.

‘That’s really kind,’ I said to Maya. ‘Thank you.’

‘You’re welcome,’ she said, smiling brightly, before putting her bag in the staff locker and bouncing out again.

We all watched her go. She had just as much pep as Liam did. With her glossy ponytail and her sparkly smile, she was an absolute vision and she had kindest personality too.

‘You’re a lucky guy, Ned,’ I said, just to hammer home how blessed he was and in spite of what David had confided. ‘A very lucky guy indeed.’

The weather on Sunday was every bit as grim as it had been beautiful the day before. The car park was half empty practically all day, but the lack of customers gave me the opportunity to have a proper catch up with everyone in the beach huts.

‘Do you want to borrow my chair?’ asked Abbie with a cheeky grin as I cautiously negotiated my way around the wet yard and into her and Noah’s hut.

‘That’s very kind of you,’ I told her, ‘but I can just about manage. Thanks.’

Wren stuck her head out of her hut and then joined us, while Noah went to buy some lunch from Hope who had been cooking up a storm in the barn all morning and was destined to have lots left over if we didn’t have a rush of visitors soon.