Aaron could do little but agree to his brother’s request. That strained note was in Lee’s voice again and if Lee lost his shit, the consequences could be major. ‘But you need to tell Mum and Dad.’

‘Already discussed.’ Lee’s voice hardened. ‘Mum’s agreed to continue to look after Daisy while I’m at work in the short term, maybe until I get a childminder sorted out in my new place. We’ll be civil to each other and everything but I just can’t live here any more. I’ve already spoken to the guy I’m supposed to be working with to say I’ll be missing tomorrow while I move our stuff over – if that’s OK – and make sure Daisy feels as settled as she can be. She’s asleep now, or I’d come straight away.’

‘Right.’ Aaron made sure he didn’t sigh. ‘There’s always a key to my place hanging in Mum and Dad’s kitchen so just come and take over the two spare rooms. I’ll be working till late afternoon tomorrow but you know where everything is. Make yourself at home and maybe we can talk in the evening.’

‘Thanks, mate.’ Lee sounded relieved but not noticeably happier. He hesitated. ‘Will it kind of … make things awkward between you and Clancy?’

Biting back the impulse to say, ‘You and Alice are always making things awkward between us,’ he said instead, ‘That’s one of the many subjects I suppose we’re going to have to discuss. Don’t worry. We’ll work it out.’

When the call was over, he clicked his tongue to Nelson and stepped outside, feeling exhausted yet a long way from sleep. He was sorry for Lee, who was not resilient, but he was sorry for their mum too. She loved her kids, but she’d obviously gone in too hard with Lee and alienated him in the process. She saw Alice as wrong for Lee – Aaron didn’t disagree with her – and a married woman. Going into protective mode must have caused her to fail to treat Lee like an adult.

As the wind blew through his hair, Aaron watched the clouds moving across the moon and acknowledged that he’d sometimes fallen into the same trap himself.

He, like his mum, had to learn to let Lee live his own life, mistakes and all.

Chapter Twenty-Three

‘Alice has what?’ It was Wednesday morning and Clancy was staring across the lounge area of the Roundhouse at Hugo in horror. ‘But I was only talking to her a few hours ago!’

‘Talking’ was one way of describing the way Clancy had flown at Alice about what she’d shared with Genevieve.

‘She’s left me!’ Hugo repeated, white and visibly shaken. ‘While you were out chatting with one of your precious holidaymakers we had a few words and suddenly she was packing a bag. She said our marriage was over, jumped into the motorhome and drove off.’

Wordless, Clancy could only gaze at a Hugo who looked even less appealing than usual in shorts and T-shirt that Clancy suspected were actually pyjamas. She didn’t doubt his story that Alice had packed her things and gone. Nobody could manufacture Hugo’s hit-by-a-truck look. She’d seen a similar expression in her mirror after catching Will and Renée with their respective pants down.