After they’d made love, she lay nestled against him.

‘You felt very much like a woman to me,’ he murmured.

‘A woman in love.’ She gave in to the temptation to stroke his face, loving the lean angles of it, the long narrow nose, the still abundant hair, which had been tied back when they started making love, but was now tickling her face. ‘You’re going grey, do you know that?’

‘I do. They wanted me to dye it for the last cover photo, but I wouldn’t. If my fans can’t count the years, journalists can, and I think it’d look silly to pretend I’m still thirty.’

‘It suits you.’

‘You’ve hardly any grey in your hair, just a thread of silver here and there.’

‘My family don’t go grey, but the colour does fade a little. Mine was as bright as Andi’s when I was younger.’ She pulled his face closer to kiss his cheek. ‘Thank you.’

‘For what?’

‘Making me feel good about my body again.’

He gave her the grin of a triumphant, post-coital male. ‘Any time. But if we’re going to eat our meal before Tom gets back, I think we should get dressed now. Do you want a shower?’

They showered together, dressed in a leisurely way and wandered down to the kitchen hand in hand to get their meal.

She loved him so much.

Andi stared at her as they went into the house. ‘You look different tonight – glowing.’

‘Do I?’

‘Oh, no! You’ve had sex with him tonight, haven’t you?’

Sophie could feel herself blushing. ‘None of your business.’

‘No. I suppose not.’

She couldn’t help asking, ‘Does it show so clearly? How embarrassing!’

‘Only to me, because I know you.’

Her daughter was still radiating disapproval, so Sophie tried to explain. ‘I’ve not made love to anyone since the cancer. It made me feel – whole again – still a woman. He didn’t mind the scars at all.’ Had kissed them, actually.

Andi looked at her in shock. ‘I never thought of that. How you must feel. I’ve never thought of you, have I? Only of myself. What sort of horrible person am I?’ She began to cry.

Sophie sighed for the loss of her happy mood, but pulled her daughter into her arms and let her weep. When Andi had stopped, she said firmly, ‘You’re going to see this counsellor. You can’t go on berating yourself like this.’

‘It’ll do no good.’

‘You might at least try, if only to please me.’

‘Oh, very well.’

‘And try to understand about me and Jez, too.’

Andi turned and went up to her bedroom without answering that one, but something about the stiffness of her spine said that she still hadn’t forgiven her mother for taking a lover, not really.

As if you could stop yourself falling in love, Sophie thought as she went to get a mug of hot chocolate. As if you should even try. She took it up to bed with her, leaving the door open in case Andi had another nightmare.