‘All right, Diggers!’

The show of mutual appreciation was so lavish I had to turn away. ‘Traitor,’ I muttered at the slavering dog, and began to scrub an already clean roasting-tin as if it were Alex’s head.

My father appeared in the doorway, lead in hand.

‘Ah,’ he said, rather pointlessly. ‘Alexander.’

‘Good to see you, sir.’ Alex sprang forward, hand extended.

Sir? The creep.

‘I think – shall we leave you to it, Mag? Jenny was going to come up to say bye but I’ll intercept her – unless –’ My father looked at me closely. ‘Is that all right?’

I tried to smile. ‘It’s fine, Dad, really. Thanks so much for coming.’

My father kissed me, hugged me tight for a moment. If there was anything good to have come out of the past few months, it was this new intimacy with him. It was an intimacy born late, but one that I’d waited a lifetime for, which I appreciated deeply now.

‘Ring me later?’

‘I will.’

‘Bye, Bill. Good to see you.’ Alex looked up from tickling Digby’s tummy.

‘Yes, well –’ My dad was so very British sometimes. ‘Likewise.’

As the front door closed, I turned back to Alex. ‘Leave that bloody dog alone, will you? You haven’t been the slightest bit interested in seeing him in the past five months so don’t bother now. Poor little thing. He’s forgotten what you look like.’

‘Obviously,’ said Alex dryly as Digby slobbered all over his face with great enthusiasm.

‘Yes, well. He’s not very bright.’ I slammed the tin into the drying-rack where it wobbled for a minute before falling onto my bare foot. ‘Ow!’ I bit back tears of pain and anger. ‘For God’s sake! Look, Alex, what exactly do you want?’ I kept my back to the room, desperately trying to collect myself.

Alex picked up the tin. ‘It’s just – well, we haven’t really spoken properly since your –’ His voice faltered.

‘Accident, Alex, is the word you’re looking for, I think.’

‘Yes, sorry. I know I’ve been a bit crap.’

‘A bit?’

‘Okay.’ He held his arms up in submission. ‘Very crap. But when you said you didn’t want to see me, I –’

‘You know why I said that.’ I frowned. ‘But you still could have come.’

‘I didn’t think –’ he faltered, ‘not after – I mean, when Bill –’

‘Whatever.’ I hated Alex’s half-truths with a vengeance. ‘It’s a bit late now.’

‘I’m so sorry. I just couldn’t face seeing you in the hospital.’ He took a look at my face. ‘Right. Well, also, I wanted you to know I’ve been trying to – you know – clean my act up.’

‘Great,’ I muttered ungraciously.

He gave up. ‘Okay. Right, well, let’s just sort the practical stuff out, shall we? Splitting bills and things.’