He nodded slowly, smoothing my hair back from my face, his thumb tracing the faint scar at the end of my eyebrow where a silver birch branch had once flipped up and scratched me.

‘I’m surprised they’re still together; it can’t be easy living with the knowledge that your wife is barren. A man wants a woman who can bear his kids. Darren’s still young enough to meet someone else and Evie, well, maybe she’ll get a cat or—’

‘What are you talking about?’ I pulled away from him, shocked. ‘That’s a terrible thing to say. What about marriage vows? In sickness and in health, for better, for worse?’

‘Sorry, that was a bit harsh.’ Harvey grinned, released me and walked back to the kitchen. ‘But I just think if someone doesn’t keep their side of the bargain, the deal’s off. Let’s get dinner on; I’m starving.’

‘Marriage isn’t a deal, it’s a commitment, a declaration of love,’ I said crossly, folding my arms. ‘And we don’t even know if the medical issue is on her side.’

‘Oh, Lottie, look at these.’ He bent over the vegetables I’d chopped and shook his head. ‘You know I don’t like massive chunks of onion. I’ll have to do it again. And the peppers. Look at the size of them.’ He scooped up a handful of my perfectly acceptable strips of green and red pepper and then dropped them in disgust.

‘Please yourself.’ I poured myself a glass of water, still fuming over his comment about Evie but glad he seemed to have changed the subject.

He picked up the knife and bent over the chopping board, slicing the veg into slivers so fine they were almost transparent. I suppressed a sigh. I liked them chunky; you could taste them properly, appreciate the different textures.

‘Anyway, of course it’ll be Evie’s fault. Women’s plumbing is complicated. Men are simple creatures.’ He winked boyishly.

I raised an eyebrow at that but stayed quiet.

‘He shoots, he scores,’ Harvey continued. ‘Simple. No irregular cycles, no blocked tubes. Just in, out, shake it all about.’

He thrust his hips forward comically in a deliberate attempt to make me laugh. It worked. I shook my head, smiling at him.

‘It’s got me thinking, though,’ he went on idly. ‘I wonder if it runs in the family?’

‘What?’ I set cutlery and plates out on the breakfast bar.

He slid the wok on to the hob and lit the gas. ‘Being barren.’

I frowned. ‘Will you stop saying that word? And of course not, otherwise neither Evie or I would be here, would we?’

‘Think about it.’ He dropped a blob of coconut oil into the pan and swirled it around. ‘You’re thirty-two. And you’ve never got pregnant.’

I laughed in disbelief. ‘Well no, because I’ve never tried and we take precautions.’