“She’s backstage. She has been helping them all week,” Milly said. And also staying out of the way so that she didn’t draw attention to herself. The focus of tonight was the children. “I’m sure she’ll be around afterward if there was something you felt you wanted to say to her.”

She knew he wanted to apologize, and she wasn’t going to stop him. He and Nicole had been friends once, and even if they couldn’t reach that point again, she hoped they could at least find some sort of harmony.

“She’ll be with me,” Joel said calmly, “so we’ll come and find you.”

His message was clear. That Nicole wasn’t going to be on her own for any part of the evening. That there was a whole gang of people who loved her and had her back.

Fortunately, at that moment a bell rang to indicate that they should take their seats, and they all moved to the chairs that had been laid out in front of the stage.

“I never noticed it before,” Nanna Peg said as she settled next to Milly, “but Richard’s eyes are really close together. I don’t trust a man whose eyes are close together. And he certainly doesn’t have Brendan’s sex appeal.”

“Shh.” Milly sent a mortified glance at Brendan, who was seated the other side of her. “Sorry. I’m so sorry.”

“Don’t be sorry.” He was laughing so hard he was almost crying. “Your grandmother is priceless. And she’s given me an idea for my next book.”

“Oh please, no, don’t tell her that. She’ll never stop going on about it.” She held her breath as the lights came on and everyone’s attention was directed to the stage.

The set was an enchanted forest, lit by what seemed like thousands of tiny lights.

And suddenly Milly was terrified. There was a huge number of people in the audience, far more than she’d anticipated.

“I hope this doesn’t go horribly wrong. It’s so important to Zoe.” She couldn’t remember ever feeling so nervous, and when Brendan reached for her hand, she didn’t pull away.

But she needn’t have worried because the play was wonderful, and not just because she’d known so many of the children (she still thought of them as children, even though they were teenagers now) for years. And Zoe was without doubt the star, acting the part that Milly had heard her and Nicole rehearsing over and over again.

Brendan tightened his grip on her hand and leaned closer to her. “She has talent,” he whispered. “Maybe she’s a star in the making.”