‘Just didn’t hear you come up.’

‘Maybe just step back from the water a few paces.’ Concern creased his brow as he guided me. Did his arm linger a little longer than was necessary?

‘I’m fine. I’ll just go in and sit down.’

He nodded, looking a little confused as I marched off back to the house.

Bloody Poppy. Now she had me overthinking every little moment. I needed to just stop. Yes, Jack was gorgeous, and yes, I’d had feelings and sensations at times in his company that I hadn’t experienced for a long time, but none of that meant anything. Any warm-blooded, heterosexual female with a pulse would be able to see that Jack was the epitome of tall, dark and handsome, with a strong, hard body gained from manual work and a love of being outdoors. As the weather had warmed, I’d had to close the blind in my office on occasion when Jack was out working in the garden, because the sight of Jack stripping off his top to wade into the pond and add rocks or plants or whatever else he was doing was seriously affecting my word count. On the other hand, he was damn good inspiration for writing a hero.

‘Just came to check on you. Seemed a bit odd out there.’

‘I’m OK, honest.’ I held a glass of cool water to my head as I sat on the kitchen sofa facing the garden.

‘How do you think it’s looking?’ He motioned in the direction of the pond with his chin.

I let my eyes drift up from his fitted T-shirt, over the strong jaw now darkened with a day’s growth of stubble, and met the hypnotic eyes.

‘It’s gorgeous,’ I said.

‘Great! I was hoping you’d say that.’

‘You were?’

‘Yes. But what do you think about adding a fluffy diplodocus over on this side?’

Obviously that wasn’t his exact wording, but as he was talking about plants and also using a Latin name, it may as well have been.

‘Huh?’ I snapped out of it.

He showed me a photo on his phone. ‘One of these on the far side of the pond?’

‘Oh. Yes. Looks nice. You really have free rein on this as I have no idea. I just like the idea of introducing more wildlife into the garden.’ I looked down at the dog, who was now leaning against Jack’s leg and getting a rhythmic head rub as he sat there. ‘That doesn’t include you though, mister. No more warnings.’

‘Oh no, has he been in again?’

‘It would be more accurate to say we both have, as he decided he was quite happy sitting in there and refused to come out.’

‘So you went in?’

‘Yes. Little sod,’ I said, looking down at the now angelic face turned to the sun as Jack rubbed his head.

‘I wish I’d been here for that.’

‘If you had, it would have been you going in and not me. He’s your dog and it’s your pond when that happens!’