‘It was ours too if we were out for a walk, although it was obviously the other end if we were surfing.’

We stopped at one of the service stations on the M1 for a quick leg stretch and toilet break, although Jemma was nervous about leaving the campervan unattended so we took turns. She insisted on going second and returned, grinning, with a McFlurry in each hand, her purse tucked under her arm, and a big bag of wine gums dangling from between her teeth.

I took one of the ice-creams and released the sweets so she could settle herself back into the campervan. ‘I knew you were up to something when you insisted I go first.’

‘I know it’s not exactly ice-cream weather but we’re off to the seaside in a surfer’s campervan so it feels right.’

We ate our treats then set off again.

‘I have a question for you,’ Jemma said when I’d pulled back onto the M1. ‘You don’t have to answer this if you think it’s too intrusive.’

‘I like your style. You wait until we’re back on the motorway, trapped together, before you say that.’ I glanced across and smiled at her. ‘Fire away.’

‘You said that you nearly backed out of your date with Nikki because it was too soon after your ex whose name I’ve completely blanked on.’

My jaw tightened. ‘Kirsty.’

‘You said that Kirsty had been unfaithful. What happened? Only if you don’t mind telling me.’

‘I don’t mind. It would probably do me good to talk about her too because, like Nikki, I’ve bottled that up as well. Kirsty was… still is… a nurse at Whitsborough Bay General. I’d seen her around and she’d always given me this big grin and sometimes a cheeky wink when she passed me in the corridor, but we’d never had the opportunity to speak. Until the work Christmas party five years ago…’

Jemma listened as I told her how I couldn’t take my eyes off Kirsty that night and despite Jack’s warnings that she’d worked her way through most of the men at the hospital, I convinced myself that she simply hadn’t found the right man yet. And, of course, I was that man.

‘I’d like to think that there was a significant part of the two years we were together when it was just me she was seeing but, from what I discovered afterwards, I think it might have been as little as two weeks.’

‘How did you find out?’

‘I caught them at it. A meeting got cancelled and I came home early, hoping to surprise her, but it was me who got the surprise. I walked into what I can only describe as a scene from a porno film. They were both wearing these studded dog collar things, he wore a muzzle and she was attached to a lead.’