He got out of the cart and held the flag while the others had their putts.

‘You’ve got good pretty quickly, Mum,’ Ben said after Kelly sank a twenty-foot putt.

‘Thank you, darling. I’m taking lessons from the assistant pro.’

‘Wait, what?’

‘I’m taking lessons.’

‘Pity Dad doesn’t play.’

‘Yes, it’s usually men who give up their marriages to go and play golf.’

It was perverse that Kelly had accepted Norma’s long-standing offer, designed to bring her closer to the Grimes family, just as she was distancing herself from them. But she had her reasons, Gordon thought. An assistant pro? That wasn’t perverse; that was sick. He watched a smile come to Kelly’s lips as, having plucked her ball from the hole, she tossed it nimbly from hand to hand.

‘Wait, what?’ Ben said.

Kelly said nothing, and Ben didn’t understand her meaning.

‘Dad hasn’t given up on your marriage,’ Ben said.

After Norma putted out, Gordon walked her back to her cart, passing Ron and Lou in theirs.

‘You’ve got to oversteer,’ Ron was telling Lou. ‘The small steering wheel, the small tyres, it’s not like a normal car.’

‘Thanks, Ron, I’m getting the hang of it.’

‘If you’ll just let me show you. One hole?’

Lou shot Gordon a pained smile. ‘I don’t know what the equivalent of losing your licence is on a golf course, but if I let your father get behind the wheel I’m pretty sure I’ll never be allowed back.’

‘Do you care?’ Ron interrupted, jealous of Lou’s attention.

‘No. But I’m still not letting you drive.’

‘Are you lot all like this?’

‘Like what?’

‘Determined to drive. Or is it just the ones who are the man in the relationship?’

‘Maybe I’m just the man in this relationship.’

‘You know, we’ve had a few through our family, quite a few surprising ones.’

‘A few what?’

‘Lezzos. Going right back. Only, they didn’t talk about it in those days. You have to join the dots, but there were more than anyone knows.’

‘Fascinating, Ron, but you’ll have to back off a little, I don’t like the way you’re grabbing at my handbrake.’

They were at the fifth tee when it happened. The players had to leave their carts and walk up a steep set of stone stairs to hit off, and then descend a flight on the other side of the tee box to where the cart paths looped around to pick them up. Coming off the fourth green, Ron approached Norma after she tapped in, and shuffled her under a spreading coral tree for a private conversation. Gordon and the others were pretending not to watch, but Norma’s voice carried across the green.

‘I can’t, Ronald! I just can’t!’