‘I’ll toss a coin for it,’ I said. ‘Or you can play rock, paper, scissors in the taxi.’

‘Taxi?’ Rachel peered round me towards the waiting car as Logan and Eden raced each other down the drive. ‘You should have said. I’d have picked you up. I assumed you were in your mum’s car.’

‘I didn’t dare take it after this morning’s incident. Thought it might be my turn to be accused of theft.’

‘Oh, Jemma. I’ll go round to see her while you’re out with the kids.’

‘Anything you can do to calm her would be forever appreciated.’

I’d like to say that I did myself proud at Bay Bowling but I was completely thrashed by two kids. Embarrassing. It was exactly the distraction I needed, though. Listening to their incessant chatter was so refreshing and it warmed my heart to see how close the pair of them clearly were. I wondered whether their friendship would turn into something more as they got older. If it did, I hope it lasted. Good friends were a precious find.

With friendship on my mind, I thought about Sam earlier. I was so proud of him for what he’d done. It couldn’t have been easy. I’d looked up at him to ask how he was feeling and then Kirsty had appeared and things had turned sour. Why had she had to appear at that point? I pictured us just before, arms round each other and, suddenly, I imagined him cupping my face then kissing me. Where on earth had that come from? Leah! It was her fault for questioning our relationship. I’d never have thought of it if she hadn’t planted the seed.

While Logan and Eden played on the penny falls machines before we left the arcade, a text arrived:

✉︎ From Rachel

I’m at Bear’s Pad. Your mum’s OK. She’s more mad with herself than you. Do you want to bring the kids back here? xx

Logan and Eden spent most of the taxi journey to Bear’s Pad debating whether it was better to have the highest overall score like Eden or the most strikes like Logan. I spent most of the taxi journey trying to control my nausea. I genuinely had no idea what was going to happen with Mum. Rachel had obviously smoothed the waters but I wasn’t sure what the future held or if I was strong enough to cope with it if the incident this morning was an indication of how things were going to be.

They were in the lounge when we got home. It was all a bit awkward at first. Logan and Eden immediately launched into telling Mum and Rachel every miniscule detail of our game. All the while, I loitered in the doorway, watching as Mum laughed in the right places, feigned interest, and seemingly did anything to avoid eye contact with me.