Clancy mused on his suggestion, quite tempted by the opportunity to meet more of the villagers. She had got on with Genevieve on the couple of occasions they’d met and evenings at the Roundhouse were solitary. She’d been made welcome to share a cup of cocoa with Dilys over a puzzle mag but going to someone’s house and meeting people her own age was more appealing. ‘OK,’ she responded, before she could change her mind.

Aaron looked relieved. ‘Thanks. You know which cottage it is, don’t you? Come round the back because it’s meant to clear up later this afternoon so we’ll probably gather on the patio. Any time after seven-thirty.’

‘That’s a date,’ said Clancy, feeling brighter. ‘I don’t mean a date date, obviously,’ she added hastily.

He gave a rueful smile as he got up. ‘Those certainly wouldn’t be the right circumstances in which to face Gen for the first time.’

They laughed. Aaron went off on his own errands and Clancy turned back to her laptop but the idea of Will pitying her kept swooping around in her head, making it hard to concentrate. Almost as a counterpoint, the realisation that she was now free to date for the first time in over three years kept occurring to her too. Visions shimmered of being taken out to dinner in a pretty summer dress. White tablecloths. Candlelight. Maybe music.

If that happened, she decided, she could email Will and say: You don’t have to worry about me. I’m dating again.

She filed that in her head under ‘not yet’.

Sometime, she’d have to face Will again, and everyone at IsVid too. There were things to be sorted out.

She filed that under ‘not yet’, too.

Chapter Nine

Aaron wasn’t looking forward to ringing Genevieve but she sounded OK when she answered. They exchanged awkward hellos.

He went straight to the point. ‘I’m having a few people round for pizza tonight and wondered if you’d like to come. Clancy’s coming. She doesn’t know many people in the village yet.’

Genevieve took from that more than he’d meant her to, but it worked in his favour. ‘And you don’t want her to be the only girl? I suppose I could. She seems nice.’

‘Great,’ he said, relieved to get it over with so easily, then went up to shower before searching out plates and glasses. His freezer already held a variety of pizzas.

Several of his friends had already arrived by the time Clancy and Genevieve rounded the corner of the house together, including his noisy second cousin Jordy – the father of Harry who Clancy had met at The Leap – and Jordy’s quiet wife, Anabelle. Aaron thought it likely that Genevieve had loitered outside until she saw Clancy coming so she was spared the ordeal of walking in alone. Nelson welcomed both of them on his hind legs, honouring Clancy as a new source of walks and ball games and Genevieve as a long-beloved purveyor of coffee. After greeting Nelson, Genevieve’s unhappy gaze flickered to Aaron. He waited for some pang of regret or hunger as, awkwardly, she offered her cheek to be kissed, but all he felt was a renewed urge to apologise – which was crazy when she’d dumped him.