‘Yes, it does. It means don’t be so ridiculous, of course I’ll be paying you.’

‘Fair enough.’ He spread his hands and rolled his shoulders and tipped his head one way, then the other, loosening the muscles after his long flight. Even with jet lag, he looked hot. It really wasn’t fair. I remembered the teenage head pat and the thoughts dissipated. ‘By the way, your rent is in an envelope next to the bread bin.’

I snapped my head up to look at him. The green eyes gazed down, challenging me with an unconcerned air.

‘I told Felix to inform you that I was not prepared to take rent as it’s a favour to a friend.’

‘I wasn’t aware that we were friends too. That’s nice to know. But either way, I’m still not accepting any money for work I do in the garden.’

‘Then perhaps I won’t let you do any work in my garden,’ I said, drawing myself up to my full height of five foot two, over a foot shorter than him.

He grinned widely, the perfect white teeth contrasting against his tan, apparently amused, and I knew for sure that his line earlier about only having a good side was complete rot.

Ten minutes later, I was walking around my garden with Jack. After a few minutes, he pulled up, and it took me a few steps to realise he’d stopped.

‘What’s wrong?’ I asked.

‘You.’

The comment seemed unnecessarily blunt and I folded my arms across my chest.

‘I was about to say “and before you get defensive” but I can see from that stance I’m already too late.’

‘I’m not defensive. I haven’t said anything. Yet.’

It looked like he was trying not to smile. ‘You don’t need to say anything. Like I said, the way you’re standing and the way you’re looking at me says it all.’

I made a snort of disagreement.

‘Perhaps I should have been more clear. What I meant when I said “you” was that if we’re going to do this, you need to stop apologising every two seconds for the state the garden is in. It’s easy to see that there’s something beautiful here and it’s also easy to see how that could get out of hand. It’s a large plot. It’s a lot for one person to take on, especially if they’re not going to have help.’

‘It wasn’t that I was against having help, as such. I thought I’d be able to manage it and that it would be a good distraction and a bit of exercise, fresh air – all that sort of stuff. But it got out of hand quicker than I was expecting and then the thought of having to explain what I wanted to a complete stranger, when I didn’t even know what I wanted…’ I let the sentence drift off and gave a shrug to punctuate it.

Jack nodded. ‘I get it. But there’s nothing to be ashamed of here.’