‘The thing is, he finishes school next year and I was wondering if there would be any possibility that you might be able to take him on full-time. Offer him a traineeship or something. I think he could be a great asset to the business.’

Ned looked at me and smiled.

‘What?’

‘I didn’t know you had telepathic skills,’ he smiled.

I rather wished I had. It would certainly have saved me some recent heartache.

‘You’ve thought of it already?’ I frowned.

‘It had crossed my mind.’

‘Really?’

‘Yes,’ he said. ‘With Dad going and you, of course.’

My gaze dipped to the floor. I would get to the part about me going once we’d finished talking about Liam.

‘It’s going to be important to have someone else working here and learning the ropes.’ Ned carried on. ‘Maya’s great of course.’

‘Of course,’ I agreed.

‘But can only be here when she isn’t needed on her family farm.’

‘So, you’ll talk to Liam.’

‘Yes,’ he said. ‘I’ll ask him and Chelsea to come and see me next week.’

‘That’s fantastic,’ I smiled.

I knew Liam would be over the moon and Chelsea would be too. The pair might not have had the ideal start to their mother-son relationship, but I could see their lives coming together now and I was thrilled for them.

‘And it will give Liam an incentive to keep studying,’ I said, my teacher brain kicking in and forcing to the front of my mind what I was going to say next.

‘It will,’ said Ned, uncrossing his arms. ‘Thanks to Wynter’s Trees, and your insistence that we took him on in the first place, his young life has had a total turnaround.’

My breath caught as I geared up to confess that mine might be poised to, too.

‘Right then,’ said Ned, standing straight. ‘We’d better get back to the party.’

He’d reached the door before I found my voice again.

‘There’s just one more thing,’ I hurriedly said, my voice barely audible.

‘What’s that?’ he asked, turning to look at me.

My heart beat a rapid tattoo against my ribcage.

‘I…’ I faltered. ‘I sorted the recycling earlier.’

‘Oh,’ he said, looking confused. ‘Great. Thanks.’

‘And I found the envelope in there addressed to me,’ I pushed on.

The change in his expression told me the penny was about to drop, in spite of the roundabout way I’d approached the subject.

‘And I opened it,’ I further said. ‘It was the brochure about forest schools.’

He looked at the floor.

‘You sent for it, didn’t you?’ I whispered, my voice thick in my throat. ‘You sent for it because you thought it might be a way for me to carry on doing the job I love and stay here at Wynter’s Trees.’

‘Yes,’ he simply said, his eyes still on the floor.