‘Excuse me,’ a woman’s voice cut into our conversation. ‘Is there anyone available to help me with a tree?’

‘I am,’ said Maya, thrusting the box of decorations into my arms. ‘Just pop those in the barn, would you Liza?’

‘Of course,’ I said. ‘No problem.’

I deposited the box as requested, then went back to help Theo. When I returned to the barn at the end of the day, I discovered that Maya had managed to do everything anyway.

She really was the ultimate multitasker and, taking in the transformed space, a fabulous decorator too. The barn had been beautiful before, but now it was party-ready perfection. It seemed that there was nothing in the Wynter’s Trees world that Maya couldn’t turn her hand to. It really was no wonder that Ned was so taken with her.

Chapter 24

I hadn’t intended to sleep in on the Saturday, but with no hut to open I hadn’t set an alarm and discovered that dawn had already breached the horizon by the time I opened my eyes and stretched out in the bed. Even though I had plenty to occupy my mind, my first thought, as my brain caught up with my body, was to wonder how Maya and Ned’s date had gone.

Maya hadn’t specifically said she was going out with Ned, but it was obvious the pair were a couple now. Even though I’d played a part in successfully pushing them together, the realisation didn’t cheer me at all. If anything, it made me feel as bilious as Wren currently did at the beginning of the day. It didn’t seem to matter how hard I tried, and whatever tactics I adopted, I still couldn’t shake off my feelings for Ned and the thought of him with Maya, although painful to imagine, was also impossible not to dwell on.

‘It’s for the good of Wynter’s,’ I quietly muttered to myself as I pushed back the duvet and swung my legs out of bed. ‘Ned, Maya and Liam are the ultimate dream team and the ideal candidates to take Dad’s vision far into the future.’

Which reminded me, I still needed to talk to Ned about offering Liam a job at some point. I might have felt that I no longer had the same right to comment on what went on in the business as before, but I was determined to help secure the lad’s future before I repacked my belongings and left Wynter’s Trees for good.