Clancy’s attention was on the sea that glittered in the evening sunshine. ‘Wow! Look at that view. I hadn’t realised your garden would be so close to the cliff edge. The sea’s almost on your doorstep.’

Silently thanking her for breaking the awkward silence, Aaron made a show of peering out at the waves rolling towards them. ‘If that lot arrives on my doorstep we’re going to have to hope that Noah comes by in his ark.’

‘And this garden! It looks like something from Japan.’ Clancy gazed admiringly at the paving, the delicate-leaved acers in glowing greens and purples and the conifers Aaron controlled with close clipping, the ferns and the hostas. Pebbles and shale kept weeds down and slugs away. The only water was in a stone bowl for the birds but he felt the sea was near enough to qualify as part of the scene.

‘Low maintenance,’ he answered. ‘When you garden all day, you want something easy at home.’

Jordy, who he’d primed to engage Genevieve in conversation if she looked at a loss, roared, ‘Gen! Now you’ve finished with that sad loser, come over here and talk to me and Belly,’ which wasn’t exactly what Aaron had had in mind but did act as an ice-breaker, causing laughter and a reason for Genevieve to move further into the gathering, even if Anabelle winced at her name being mutilated into ‘Belly’.

Genevieve knew everybody, of course, but for Clancy it was different. He drew her into conversation with three brothers he’d known ever since he could remember. Their parents had named them Michael, Nicholas and Richard but they were known universally as Mick, Nick and Rick. Nick was the same age as Aaron, Mick a couple of years older and Rick a couple younger. Compared to Jordy – roaring with laughter at his conversation with Genevieve – Mick, Nick and Rick were quiet and personable. Rick sometimes worked for Aaron when he had a job that needed another pair of hands. Clancy didn’t show any signs of being intimidated by having new names hurled at her. She just smiled and fell easily into conversation.

‘Can I hook up with your satellite Wi-Fi, Aaron?’ Rick demanded, waving his phone. Good-naturedly, Aaron gave him the password, and, as he’d known they would, others whipped out their phones too. He retired to the kitchen to unwrap the pizzas and slide them into the oven. He’d change the password tomorrow or he’d have half the village lurking outside to hook up their devices.

The evening was breezy, as tended to be the case in Nelson’s Bar, perched on its spit of land on the east coast of England, but the sunshine was warm enough to make up for it. They’d eat outside, Aaron decided, then move indoors when the sun went down.

When he stepped into the garden again once the pizzas were cooking, he saw Genevieve and Clancy talking together. Jordy had joined an all-male conversation – a loud one, as most of Jordy’s tended to be – about some TV thriller Aaron hadn’t got into. As he’d only had one small beer, he crossed to the drinks table to get another. It brought him close enough to Genevieve and Clancy to hear their conversation as he helped himself to a bottle and flipped off its lid.