‘He’s thinking it’s something to do with that Bradley and Kyle,’ Chelsea added in spite of Liam’s warning. ‘Is it?’

‘Oh Liam,’ I said, upset that he’d been so worried. ‘It’s absolutely nothing to do with them, is it, Ned?’

‘Nothing at all,’ he confirmed, turning to me. ‘And in view of your concerns, Liam, I think we’d better get straight to the point. Would you like to do the honours, Liza?’

I looked at Liam. In spite of our reassurance, he was wringing his hands and his gaze had dropped to the floor.

‘We’d like to offer you a job, Liam,’ I quickly said and his head snapped up. ‘If you’re interested, we’d like to take you on, when you leave school, and make arrangements for you to study land and wildlife management, or something similar, at the local college.’

Chelsea burst into tears.

‘You’d need to keep working hard at school to get the results you need to get into college, but the job’s yours if you want it,’ added Ned.

Liam looked from one of us to the other. He’d gone from pale to poleaxed. I hoped excitement would take over once our offer had sunk in.

‘You obviously love Wynter’s Trees,’ I carried on when he didn’t say anything. ‘And Ned and I would love you to work alongside us. We want you to be a permanent member of the team, Liam. What do you think?’

‘I don’t know what to say,’ he eventually stammered, as Chelsea continued to sniff next to him. ‘Do you really think I can do it?’

His self-doubt made my heart twist.

‘Which bit?’ Ned seriously asked.

‘All of it.’ Liam croaked.

‘Well, you’ve no worries where the practical side’s concerned,’ Ned told him. ‘And your experience here, and the knowledge you’ve already gained, will definitely help on the course and we’ll be here to help if you get stuck with anything.’

‘These are the details of the courses we’ve been looking at,’ I said, handing him the sheets I’d printed out, ‘and we can easily arrange your working hours around the days you need to be at college.’

Chelsea reached for Liam’s hand and Ned and I exchanged a glance.

‘We’ll leave you to look through it all and come back in a few minutes,’ said Ned, ‘but there’s no rush. You don’t have to decide today. Take your time.’

‘I don’t need to,’ said Liam, jumping up and holding out his hand. ‘I’ll do it.’ He beamed. ‘I want to do it.’

‘In that case,’ I said, shaking his hand and feeling my own excitement leap to meet his, ‘welcome to the full-time team.’