‘My fault,’ he said, resting his hand briefly on my shoulder. Evie’s eyes followed his every move as if trying to work out what was going on between us. ‘There was an emergency on the vineyard.’

‘Oh no.’ Evie glanced at me sharply. ‘What sort of emergency?’

‘Don’t worry, nothing major.’ Jensen held his palms up calmly. ‘All sorted now.’

‘Right. Good.’ She took a sip of her tea before setting it down. I gulped at mine; I’d cut down on caffeine just recently, but this was hitting the spot. Jensen had put some sugar in it and it was just what I needed.

Evie gripped my knee. ‘Lottie, when you didn’t return my calls I thought you were ignoring me. And I don’t blame you; I feel so ashamed of how I’ve behaved. I’m so, so sorry about the way things have been between us.’

‘Don’t apologize,’ I said, taking her hand. ‘I understand how hard it must be for you, knowing I’m pregnant. And I’d never ignore you.’

She cast her eyes down, her chin wobbling.

Jensen cleared his throat. ‘I’ll leave you two to talk. But if there’s anything I can do, anything at all, let me know and …’ He waited until my gaze was focused on him. ‘I meant what I said about Friday; you probably won’t need me but I’m here if you do.’

‘Thank you.’ I felt awkward suddenly. I wanted to get up and kiss him goodbye but there was no way I could do that in front of my sister. Not at a time like this. I did my weird windscreen-wiper wave, which made him smile, and then he was gone.

‘Well.’ Evie raised an eyebrow. ‘He’s lovely.’

‘He is.’ I allowed myself a small smile before turning my attention back to her. ‘So. What do we do now about Dad?’

‘I’m going to fly out there,’ she said, tucking her blonde hair behind her ears. ‘Tonight, if I can get a flight. Goodness knows where I’m going and where I’ll end up sleeping but he should have family around him.’

‘Okay, let’s see what seats are available.’ I got up to retrieve my phone from the bedroom. The home screen was full of notifications of messages and voicemails from Evie and I quickly scrolled through them and returned to the living room, opening up Google. ‘I’ll come with you.’

‘Is that wise?’ Her eyes flitted to my stomach. ‘It’ll be tiring and I don’t know when I’ll be back.’

‘There’s nothing going on here that I can’t miss,’ I said, not meeting her eye. ‘So I’m coming. Here we go. Manchester to Munich …’