‘Why didn’t you tell me that night? I would have put him out in the garden.’

‘I didn’t think you’d understand.’ But actually, I was wrong about that.

‘If it’s any consolation, you hide it very well,’ he said after a moment. ‘You always look confident.’

I was pleased he was impressed. Hiding was one thing I was really good at. I took a sip of my mojito and the ice cubes chinked against my teeth. ‘You had the dog with you the first time I met you.’

‘So I did.’

‘I was wearing that Fifties-style suit with a pencil skirt. Did you like me when you first saw me?’ I asked, knowing that people’s impressions of me are usually superficial judgements which, to be fair, I’ve always encouraged.

‘I didn’t know you then,’ he replied with his customary honesty. ‘But I liked you when we went to the Cotswolds.’

‘Did you?’ I ask hopefully. ‘What did you like about me?’

‘You weren’t pushy.’

‘Oh. That’s a negative. What positives did you like about me?’

‘You fitted in, I suppose.’

‘And that’s why I didn’t tell you about the dog, because I wanted to fit in here, too.’

I wonder if he’s ever looked at our star signs for compatibility, even if just out of curiosity, even though I don’t believe a word of it. If we were governed by our star signs the world’s population would be divided into twelfths. We’d all be doing the same thing in the same week, and the whole idea is completely ridiculous).

A blue beachball bounced our way and David kicked it back. ‘I’ve seen the way you look at people,’ he said. ‘It’s as if you get inside their heads and know just what they need to feel better about themselves. It seems like a heavy gift to carry around with you.’

‘Why? It’s nice.’ I turned to look at him. I’m not sure how serious this conversation was. I didn’t know whether it was influenced by Dinah’s story and the way she woke Moss, or the mojitos. ‘As for Duncan, I suppose I could try facing my fears rather than avoiding them. When I imagine a dog jumping on me I can feel its paws on my shoulders and smell its breath in my face as if I were a kid, but Duncan’s not a very big dog and he’d probably only come up to my waist.’

‘That’s because you’re a grown-up now,’ David said logically, reaching for my hand.

He brushed the sand from my palms and I felt a surge of excitement, which tempered the dread from the dog talk, and I tightened my fingers in his.

‘Am I? I’m always hiding behind my clothes,’ I said.