‘Well, in that case,’ I said, ‘I’m pleased. Shall we get some supper now…’

‘No,’ said Ned. ‘Hang on. I haven’t finished.’

I looked away from his face and down at my hands.

‘I want to say sorry as well as thank you.’

‘Sorry?’ I asked, my gaze snapping up again.

‘Yes,’ he softly said. ‘I should never have taken my temper out on you. Given how busy the place was, how short of staff we were for the visitor numbers and all the extra worry about Wren, it was no wonder there was a hiccup in proceedings.’

‘But even so,’ I put in, ‘I should have checked that label more carefully.’

Ned shook his head. ‘If I tell you something, will you promise not to go mad?’ he asked.

‘That will depend on what it is.’

He bit his bottom lip. It was an incredibly sexy look.

‘What is it?’ I demanded, willing him to talk again and stop turning me on.

He took a deep breath. ‘When I realised which of the trees had been switched,’ he told me, ‘I was as angry at myself as I was with you.’

‘Why?’

‘Because I’d been meaning to change the labels to make the names more obvious and I was going to mention to Dad that they were both due to be collected yesterday too, but I forgot.’

Without thinking, I grabbed a cushion and whacked him with it. Bandit jumped up, keen to join in the fun.

‘Are you telling me,’ I said, hitting Ned again, ‘that it was as much your mistake as mine?’

‘I wouldn’t go that far,’ he said, putting his hands over his head when I threatened to inflict another feather filled blow. ‘All right,’ he conceded as I lined up my aim. ‘It was about even.’

I dumped the cushion back on the sofa, much to Bandit’s disappointment.

‘Bloody hell,’ I muttered. ‘And to think I spent a sleepless night worrying about it.’

Ned had the grace to look a bit sheepish as he pushed his hair away from his face.

‘Sorry,’ he grinned.

‘You don’t look it,’ I tutted. ‘But at least it’s all sorted now. Thanks mostly to Maya.’

Ned nodded.

‘We had a real laugh today,’ I told him, remembering our out of tune rendition of Mariah’s most famous festive tune. ‘She’s a wonderful woman. You could certainly do a lot worse than her, you know?’

‘She’s certainly good for business,’ he said, properly running a hand through his mussed-up hair and making it look even worse.

‘That wasn’t what I meant…’

‘So,’ he said, swiftly changing the subject. ‘What do you think of this tree?’

Knowing he wouldn’t be pushed, I let him get away with the switch of topic, but I was determined to track back to it at some point.