Sam turned to me and I suddenly knew what he was going to say. No! That wasn’t fair.

‘She was pregnant,’ he said, confirming my suspicions. ‘We’d had our first scan that morning. I didn’t just lose Nikki that day.’

His voice cracked and he crumbled.

‘Oh, Sam! I’m so sorry.’ I shuffled down the steps and wrapped my arms round him, holding him close as he sobbed in my arms and icy tears rained down my cheeks at the tragedy of it all.

When the worst of his grief subsided, he loosened his hold but kept one arm round me as he sank back against the sea wall, staring out across the sea once more. I squeezed his shoulder and he rested his head against mine.

‘I didn’t tell anyone. I couldn’t. It was so hard losing Nikki without losing a baby too. The staff at the hospital were sworn to secrecy. How could I tell her parents that they’d lost a daughter and a grandchild that day? So I put it in a box and closed the lid and have refused to think about it until today when they said the due date for Jack and Millie’s baby.’

‘Your baby would have been born on 21st May too?’

‘Of all the dates, it had to be that one. It was like the lid sprung off the box and the grief started pouring out again. I had to get out. I never paused to think about how worried they’d be.’

‘They’ll understand but you’re going to need to tell them. You know that, don’t you?’

He sighed. ‘I know. Nikki and I met on 21st May too. It seemed like the perfect date for our baby to be born. Just like having our wedding on her thirtieth birthday.’

‘The day you met was the day of my dad’s funeral. And the day you would have married was the day after my twenty-eighth birthday and Scott’s proposal.’ I don’t know why I said that. It probably had no relevance but, to me, it felt like another connection we had.

‘We’d been trying for two years and we’d pretty much given up hope of it ever happening. Then, suddenly, we had our little miracle and they were both taken away from me.’

I tried to pull him fully back into my embrace but he didn’t respond. He didn’t move his arm from round my waist but he now seemed stiff and uncomfortable instead of relaxed. We huddled awkwardly on the steps, both staring into the water until the wind picked up and I shivered.

‘You’re cold. We’d better go.’

I wasn’t going to argue. I was freezing and he had to be too.

‘I didn’t see your campervan,’ I said, when we’d made it back onto the promenade.