‘I parked at the Sea Rescue Sanctuary. It’s closer. Are you on the seafront?’

I nodded. An awkward silence settled round us and, for that brief moment, we felt like strangers.

‘I should probably get home so they stop worrying about me,’ Sam said.

‘Yeah. Me too. Sort some tea out for Mum and Logan if they haven’t had it yet.’

‘Can I walk you back?’

‘Don’t be daft. It’s not like it’s the dead of night. There’s lots of lighting and there are plenty of people around once I get to the corner.’

‘Then I’ll walk you to the corner.’

So he did. In silence.

My stomach tensed with each step. He hadn’t needed to say it. I knew that this changed things between us. He’d regressed. He wasn’t ready. He’d probably been kidding himself that he ever was.

‘Thanks for coming to find me,’ he said when we reached the end of the promenade.

I nodded. ‘I’m so sorry, Sam. Losing Nikki must have been devastating, but losing your baby too… I can’t begin to imagine what you went through that day and what you’ve been going through ever since.’

‘I thought I was okay. I really did.’

And there it was – what I suspected conveyed in words. Too much, too soon. ‘I know you did. I guess that box was never going to stay closed forever, was it?’

‘I’m sorry.’ He raised his arm as though he was going to reach out and touch me, but he dropped it to his side again. ‘I didn’t blank it out, you know. I just… I don’t know. I don’t understand what’s happened today.’

He looked broken. I longed to kiss him and try to take his pain away but I knew I couldn’t. ‘Go on. Get home. Tell your parents. Bye, Sam.’

‘Bye, Jem.’

I turned away, feeling like I’d just lost him. Shit! The text.

‘Oh, Sam.’ He stopped and turned round, his shoulders slumped. ‘I sent you a text earlier. Ignore it. Don’t read it. Please.’

‘What did it say?’

I shook my head. ‘It doesn’t matter. Just ignore it.’

Then I turned away and hurried back to Mum’s car, my heart breaking for him and everything he’d gone through and still was going through. What a tragedy.