‘Thing is,’ Clancy was saying, ‘that I know my ex is feeling sorry for me.’

Aaron did a smart about turn before he could hear Genevieve’s reply. That absolutely didn’t sound like a conversation he wanted to be part of. He was feeling ridiculously on edge at being around his ex-girlfriend as it was.

In half an hour the pizzas were golden and bubbling. He sliced them up and each plate was fallen upon as soon as he carried it outside. ‘Please don’t feed pizza to the dog!’ he called, knowing Nelson would make ‘staaaaaarving’ faces at everyone.

The pizza vanished and empty beer bottles began to outnumber full ones as the sun sank into the sea in a blaze of glory. Anabelle asked Aaron to play them something on his guitar. He’d left his acoustic in the sitting room so fetched it and played ‘Duelling Banjoes’ because that’s all anyone ever seemed to ask for. Then he spotted Clancy watching the sunset as if it were a movie, her fascinated gaze fixed on the streaks of deep vermillion. The light made her chestnut hair appear redder and her white jeans look pink. As no one requested another song, Aaron stowed the guitar in the kitchen and moved up to stand at Clancy’s side.

‘I didn’t know you played,’ she commented.

‘A bit,’ he replied. ‘This piece of coast gets some amazing sunsets. If you were on a boat out there the cliffs would look dark red.’

She didn’t remove her gaze from the sky. ‘I can’t believe the colours.’

‘I could take a pic of you with the sunset as the backdrop, if you like.’

She glanced his way as if assessing whether she should be reading anything into the offer, then fished for her phone and handed it to him. ‘Thanks. I can email it to my parents.’

He took several shots, trying to make her laugh to get a natural result, capturing her streaky hair mirroring the fiery reflections in the sea. He’d just tapped in the password to his Wi-Fi into her phone for her when he was surprised at the sound of Lee’s voice. He turned around and, sure enough, there was his brother, looking strained, but smiling.

‘I thought you didn’t have a babysitter?’ Aaron gave his little brother a quick man-hug. He’d been sorry to learn that his parents and Aunt Norma had already made plans for this evening because he’d felt Lee could use a night off.

Lee returned the hug. ‘The folks came home early. Daisy was already asleep so I thought I’d come up to join the party.’ He halted. ‘Hello again, Clancy.’

Aaron turned to follow his line of sight and saw Clancy regarding Lee. She returned his greeting and Lee stepped closer, Clancy looking like a cat prepared to flee, Lee like a dog not sure of his welcome.

With an effort, Aaron turned away to join another conversation. Sometimes being the elder brother meant protecting Lee for all he was worth or helping him when he was at rock bottom, but right now it meant leaving him to interact with someone who’d never done him any harm but nonetheless was a connection to bad memories.