‘Can you wash your hands, please, before you start poking around in the lunch,’ she said, unable to help her voice tightening with irritation. She thought wretchedly of Izzie, fuming upstairs no doubt, and vowed to take her up a cup of tea in a minute. Maybe suggest that the two of them have a Netflix binge that afternoon or something. Christ! Being a parent was hard at the best of times, but ever since they’d arrived in Cornwall she felt as if she’d been getting it all wrong. She was trying to play two different roles – mum vs girlfriend – and it didn’t seem possible to combine them with any success. By avoiding conflict with George, she had let her daughter down. Did everyone find this sort of situation so hard?

Glancing round, she saw that Seren was still investigating the sandwiches, peeling the tops off to check the contents, and Em had to bite back a sharp telling-off. Not now. Don’t make things worse. ‘Hey, I’ve got a job for you,’ she managed to say with forced brightness instead. ‘Could you wash these strawberries for me?’ She dumped the punnet into the colander and pushed it along the table towards Seren. ‘Then we can whip up some cream and have them with the scones. Yum!’

Thudding footsteps were heard overhead – hopefully Izzie coming down again, lured by the prospect of lunch, Em thought – but before she could go and check, Seren had dropped the colander of plump scarlet strawberries all over the floor. ‘Whoops,’ she said and Em had to bite her tongue as she crawled around retrieving them.

It was just an accident, she told herself, grabbing a cloth to wipe up the juicy red smears that now adorned the flagstones. Accidents happened. ‘Don’t worry,’ she said. ‘I’ll do this – how about you go and shout to Izzie and Jack that lunch is ready instead?’

She and George exchanged a look as Seren left the room. ‘This is going well,’ he remarked, then came towards her and took her in his arms. ‘Kids, eh? Shall we just turf them out in the nearest forest, leave them to it?’

She laughed, grateful for the reassurance of having him hold her, his warm solid body telling her, We’re still a team, you and me. ‘Don’t tempt me,’ she said. ‘Not least because I’d quite like to get you all to myself for a while.’ He slid his hands round to her bottom and they kissed one another for a delicious few minutes, Em pressed against the worktop with the colander of strawberries digging against her back.

But then –

‘Izzie’s not there,’ said Seren, sounding agitated as she burst back into the room. ‘She’s gone.’