‘No. I didn’t. I kept meaning to tell him but I had so many other things on my mind, I couldn’t face disappointing him.’

Hannah tucked her arm through Chloe’s. ‘You are silly. You look amazing for your age.’

‘For my age. That’s the point. I’m twelve years older than Drew.’

‘Does it matter?’

‘He says not but it does matter to me. I’m still not sure it’s a good idea for us to get more closely involved.’ She sighed. ‘Even though I do really like him.’

‘Wow. He must be special. Is he anything like Dad?’

Chloe burst out laughing. ‘No. Not in any way. He has a ponytail and an earring and he’s the skipper of a vintage sailing trawler.’

‘An earring? Oh my God. He sounds like Captain Jack Sparrow!’

‘Jack Sparrow? I’ll have to tell him that,’ Chloe said.

‘Don’t you dare. Oh Mum, if he likes you that much to drop everything and drive you to find me and he doesn’t care how old you are, you should go for it. What are you waiting for?’

To be sure I was over Fraser, thought Chloe. To make sure there was no hope of us ever getting back together … But before she’d been sure of that, she’d actually moved on herself.

‘We’ll see. I’ve other things on my mind at the moment.’

Hannah kissed her. ‘“We’ll see”. You always said that to me when you wanted to give me what I asked for, but weren’t sure you could.’

‘There you are, then,’ said Chloe, hesitating. ‘I’d appreciate it if you didn’t mention Drew to your father.’

‘Of course. And talking of cards, I’ve got something for you.’ Hannah went into the room Chloe had made up for her and came back with a card. ‘It’s very late and not much. I’ll get you a present. I promise.’

‘You don’t have to.’ Chloe took the card. The envelope was a bit the worse for wear, creased and with a red mark on it.

Hannah wrinkled her nose. ‘That’s jam. Ruby got some on her fingers and grabbed the envelope.’

Choked up, Chloe opened the envelope and slid out a card, which had a simple picture of a hippopotamus on it, wallowing in mud. It simply said: Hippo Birthday, Mum.

‘Don’t you remember you always used to sing that silly old song that Grandad Farrow likes? Mud, glorious, mud … It’s a silly card and I never plucked up the courage to send it, but there you are.’

‘It’s wonderful. It’s … perfect. Wait.’ Chloe hurried off, not daring to look at Hannah. She went into the hallway and found the gift bag from the cloak cupboard.