My words hung in the air and a silence I hadn’t been expecting replaced the whoops of joy I had assumed would follow my announcement. I had thought the pair of them would be thrilled, but neither man looked excited at all.

‘But Wynter’s Trees needs a Wynter at the helm,’ David said eventually.

‘Wynter’s Trees hasn’t had that in a very long time,’ I pointed out.

I turned my gaze to Ned. He looked paler than David.

‘I can’t buy you out, Liza,’ he distractedly said. ‘It’s going to be a push for me to buy Dad’s shares.’

I hadn’t been so naïve that I assumed he would shake my hand and pass over the cash there and then, but I had thought that his excitement to take over would guarantee a promise that he would find a way to make it happen. A firm and immediate ‘no’ had never entered into the equation when I had played this moment out in my head.

‘And before you suggest it,’ Ned said, addressing his dad, ‘I’m not buying Liza out instead of you. You’ve already put your trip off once for this place, I won’t let it happen again.’

‘What does that mean?’ I frowned. ‘When did you put it off, David?’

Ned opened his mouth to speak, but David cut him off. ‘It doesn’t matter,’ he resolutely said, brooking no contradiction. ‘Are you really sure you want to do this, Liza?’

‘I am,’ I said, lifting my chin.

‘I can’t believe it,’ he sighed. ‘This is the very last thing I was expecting you to suggest. I thought when you agreed to come back, that you might…’

‘What?’ I cut in. ‘Somehow fall in love with the place when I drove through the gate? That would be a fairy tale, David, and I don’t believe in fairy stories. Do you, Ned?’

He didn’t look as though he knew what he believed anymore.

‘Wouldn’t you like to be sole proprietor?’ I asked him.

‘I don’t know,’ he said, his voice shaking a little. ‘I’ve never thought about it. Given that Dad’s always been so convinced that you’d come back, I thought you would too, and after this redundancy. Well, I thought this was it. Whenever I’ve thought about the long-term future, I always imagined the two of us working here together, side by side.’

For the briefest moment, I allowed myself to imagine what that future might look like. Working with Ned was a tempting prospect. The sight of him, kitted out in a chunky knit, certainly made my pulse race, but my heart beat fast when I thought about my life without Wynter’s Trees in it and setting up my own business too.

‘I’m sorry,’ I told him, repeating what I’d already said, ‘but that was never going to happen.’