‘Of course,’ I insisted, dragging my eyes away from his. ‘Your dad’s cajoled me into staying, so I might as well make myself useful when I can. That said, I do have an ulterior motive,’ I admitted.

‘Another one,’ he muttered, holding out the pen. ‘What is it this time?’

Our skin briefly touched as I took the pen and I felt my face flush. It was the briefest moment of skin-on-skin contact, but an unwelcome butterflies in the tummy feeling accompanied it. I hastily put it down to a combination of needing more sleep and feeling put out by Ned’s peevish tone, rather than a potential spark of attraction.

‘Go for your run,’ I swallowed, nonetheless unsettled by my body’s reaction, ‘and I’ll tell you when you get back.’

‘All right,’ he agreed, dashing off to change into his running gear. ‘I won’t be long.’

The high-cholesterol breakfast I cooked up was exactly what we needed. Cooking it was a distraction and stopped me further analysing the ‘oh my god, we just touched’ moment and Ned, just as I’d predicted he would be, was far happier once his belly was full. He was thrilled with the name signs I’d drawn up and hastily laminated, just in case it rained, too.

‘These look fantastic,’ he said, shuffling through the pile.

I’d written everyone’s names in the middle in cursive lettering and added a simple but pretty border of bright green holly leaves and shiny red berries to the corners. The pattern helped fill the space and looked appropriately festive. They hadn’t taken long, but I’d enjoyed embellishing them.

‘We’re having a grand opening and late-night shopping event on Thursday.’ Ned carried on, eyeing me speculatively. ‘Word of mouth has been our main source of advertising so far, but do you think you could come up with a poster and flyer decorated like these, that we could distribute around the village?’

I couldn’t remember any mention of the event in David’s emails, but I knew there was no point grumbling about it. In fact, I was now resolved to not moan about anything for fear of giving either man the wrong idea. If I objected to anything, they’d assume it was because I cared and the last thing I wanted to do was fan the flames of any hope they were still holding on to.

‘I don’t see why not,’ I therefore acquiesced, sneakily feeding Bandit the last pieces of the sausage I’d cooked for him. ‘If you think they might pull a few more customers in.’

‘I’m certain they will,’ Ned nodded as a car horn sounded outside.

He swallowed down his last mouthful of breakfast and rushed over to the window.

‘They’re keen,’ he said, at last sounding more excited than exasperated. ‘It’s Theo and Wren. Do you want to come out and meet them before the others arrive?’