I sent it to Miles, with a clear stipulation that my fee would go to the Ferrington Bridge Fund. I would not be filming any YouTube videos or commenting on social media. He replied within an hour to inform me that it would be the main feature in the Saturday supplement.

He also asked if I would write a follow-up on the Ferrington Feud. I said that I would think about it, which I did, for most of that night and several more that followed. Wondering if I would ever be brave enough to turn up in Ferrington with a notepad, my phone set to record.

Then, one week exactly after the article was published, the Tufted Duck had a new booking.

‘A walk-in?’ I asked Mum, incredulous. The Tufted Duck had no room for walk-ins at the best of times, let alone mid-June.

‘Can you handle it? I need to… do something else.’

‘You want me to stop cleaning this room, and handle a walk-in? But Dad’s on check-in today.’ I was talking to an empty doorway, she’d disappeared as quickly as she arrived.

Putting down my cloth with a sigh, gathering the bucket of spray bottles and dumping my gloves in a bin bag, I made my way down to the reception area.

When I glanced up to see who was waiting in the foyer, I nearly tripped down the remaining few stairs.

Giving myself a mental slap for still being so pathetically obsessed with Daniel that I saw him everywhere I went, I quickly yanked myself together, swallowed back the lump in my throat and carried on.

Then he turned around.

The man smiled, hazel eyes crinkling, one hand automatically reaching up to rub at his scar.

Daniel.

Here.

In the Tufted Duck reception, holding an overnight bag and smiling.

‘I’m sorry.’ He shook his head. He didn’t look sorry. His grin was growing by the second. ‘I shouldn’t be smiling. That’s not what I had planned.’

‘What did you have planned?’ I stammered, coming to a stuttering stop a few metres away.

He shrugged, trying and failing to tug down the corners of his mouth. ‘An appropriate level of contrition to show you how completely sorry I am, and that I am fully aware of what a total arse I was.’ He took a hesitant step towards me. ‘Miserably lost and utterly heartbroken. Because that’s how I’ve been since you left.’

I don’t know how I did it, but despite my thumping heart and wild thoughts running around inside my head, I managed to reply in a manner that was just about on the right side of composed.

‘So why are you smiling?’ I don’t know why that was the question that popped out. Seeing the state the rest of me was in, my mouth appeared to have gone rogue.

He looked at me for a long moment. When he blinked, it was like someone flicked the lights off and then on again.

‘I’m happy to see you.’