‘I know you said no presents, but we couldn’t let the occasion go by without getting you something to mark it.’

‘What have you done? You shouldn’t have.’

‘Ah but we have!’ Everyone laughed and Sam grinned. ‘Wait until you open it.’

‘Oh, I hope she loves it,’ Evie murmured and Chloe died a tiny bit more.

‘I’m sure I will.’ She rested her hands on the paper. It had been so carefully and lovingly wrapped …

‘Don’t keep us in suspenders, maid,’ Troy grumbled.

Unable to delay any longer, Chloe pulled off the paper with trembling fingers. Underneath, she found a bubble-wrapped package.

‘Oh! Thank goodness. It’s a picture!’ Her relief that it was clearly not something with ‘Chloe is 40’ splashed all over it was intoxicating. She sounded like Hannah used to on Christmas morning.

Troy let out a cackle. ‘Did you think it was a voucher for Botox in a great big box?’

Evie batted him on the arm. ‘Shut up, Troy! You don’t need it, Chloe my love. You’re only a spring chicken.’

The bubble wrap was heavily taped so Sam handed over some scissors so Chloe could slit it open. Everyone stared at her like puppies around a food bowl at feeding time. Now the initial tension was over, Chloe was desperate to make her delight seem genuine, even if it turned out she hated the picture. Which she was sure she wouldn’t … She picked off the final piece of tape, opened the layers of bubble wrap and – her gasp was audible.

‘Oh my God, that’s just incredible.’

She lifted the print up, speechless.

It was a canvas photograph showing the harbour in the grip of a tremendous winter storm. It had been taken from the opposite side of the cove to the Crow’s Nest, and a wave of monstrous proportions was breaking over the clock tower and the far sea wall. It was a horrifying scene in one way, but also it summed up what made Porthmellow such a unique and exhilarating place.

‘Do you like it?’ Zennor’s voice was high and hopeful. ‘Ben’s cousin Carla took the photograph. It’s been on the telly.’

‘It’s amazing. I’ve seen small images like this but blown up to this size, it’s breathtaking.’

Everyone moved in to get a better look at the picture. Ben started to explain where his photographer relative had taken the shot from during a famous winter storm a few years before.

‘Oh! There’s the Crow’s Nest,’ said Chloe, spotting her rooftop flat in the middle of the picture. The angle of the shot made it seem as if the crest of the wave would surely thunder down and flood the flat.

‘The water wouldn’t have reached up here, would it?’ she asked.

‘No. That’s only an illusion created by the angle it’s taken from. Clifftop House took a battering from some of the other waves that night. They had to close the coastal path and shore up the sea defences beneath the house. Even Wavecrest had a few stones against the windows.’