‘I’m seeing him for lunch in London next week before the radio interview.’ I shrugged. ‘But there’s no point doing anything at the moment; I don’t even know if he’s moving abroad or not. If he’s not, then maybe I’ll tell him how I feel.’

‘And if he is?’

I forced a smile. ‘Then he’ll have got the big promotion he deserves, I’ll congratulate him, wave him off and I won’t stand in his way.’

‘Just like that?’ She looked very unimpressed. ‘That’s not very proactive.’

I sighed hopelessly; taking a firmer stance was harder than it looked. ‘I’ll think of something. Anyway,’ I smiled brightly and patted my sister’s leg, ‘you look radiant. I take it you and Darren are love’s young dream again?’

Her eyes sparkled with happiness. ‘I love him so much. I can’t believe I let him go in the first place.’

‘Don’t be too hard on yourself. You both went through a lot.’

‘If I’ve learned anything from our split it’s to never stop talking to one another. After losing the baby, day by day we withdrew a bit more from each other until we didn’t know what the other wanted any more.’

‘And now you know what you both want?’

‘Yep,’ she said firmly. ‘We want to be parents. Together. Whatever that means.’

I was confused. ‘But wasn’t that always the case?’

‘Darren thought that, for me, being a mother was about giving birth. Because he couldn’t give me a baby, he decided that the best thing to do would be for me to find someone else to have a family with. But he was wrong about that: that was never my priority. Being pregnant is only one part of it. I would have loved to bring our biological baby into the world but it wasn’t to be. But being a mother is about the relationship you have with a child. And that lasts a lifetime; pregnancy is over in the blink of an eye. He was right about fostering, though.’

‘You’d get too attached to your foster children?’

She wrinkled her nose and nodded. ‘So now we’re focusing on adoption.’

I grinned. ‘And when do Skipper and Roni arrive?’

‘At the beginning of October. But that’s not what I mean. We’re going to register to adopt a child of our own.’

I pulled her towards me and hugged her tightly. ‘That’s fantastic. I’m so pleased for you. You’ll be a brilliant mum.’

She dashed a tear from her cheek and beamed. ‘And so will you.’

‘If I wasn’t pregnant I’d be proposing a toast with champagne. But I could rustle up a glass of fizzy water?’