Andi looked at her, eyes narrowed. ‘You’ve seen him again, haven’t you?’

‘Just a brief meeting.’

‘I’m surprised he’d bother with someone your age. No offence, Mum, but you’re not exactly this year’s model and you don’t even try to lose weight or keep up with fashion.’

‘I don’t feel I need to lose weight. I like the size I am.’

Andi shrugged. ‘Whatever. Anyway, good luck with him. It’d be quite a feather in your cap to have an affair with him.’

‘I don’t regard Jez Winter as a feather in my cap. I try to get on with all my neighbours and—’ She broke off, aghast that she’d done it again.

‘Neighbours? He’s not coming to live next door, is he?’

‘Yes. But I don’t think it’s public news yet, so keep it to yourself.’

‘Yeah, yeah. Wow, imagine living next door to him.’

Sophie sought for some way to lead her daughter’s thoughts in another direction. ‘Actually, I’ve got a date next week with another guy, someone I met recently.’

Andi looked at her in puzzlement, as if unable to believe her own ears.

‘This one’s a journalist and he’s rather dishy.’ Might as well lay it on thick.

‘So you’re not dating Jez Winter?’

‘I keep telling you: he’s going to be a neighbour and, I hope, a friend.’

‘Oh. Right. Makes more sense. Good luck with this journo guy, then.’ She looked round, sniffing. ‘What’s for tea? I can usually smell something delish when I come in but there don’t seem to be any smells wafting from the kitchen.’

‘I forgot the time.’

Andi brightened. ‘Can we go out, then?’

‘I would normally, but wherever I go at the moment, those stupid paparazzi follow me. It’s embarrassing.’

‘There wasn’t anyone there when I drove here.’

‘They seem to appear miraculously the minute I set foot outside.’ She went to look in the freezer, but her stocks were lower than remembered and she didn’t feel in the least like cooking. ‘We’ll have to go out or get a take-away.’

‘Fine by me. I could murder a curry and they’re best eaten in the restaurant, I always think.’

‘They’re the safest food for me, not a lot of wheat dishes. Oh, let’s do it. If they follow us, they’ll see only a mother and daughter out for a meal.’

Sophie and her daughter were halfway through their meal when the restaurant door opened and Talbin came in. She groaned. Did that man never go off duty?

Andi followed her gaze. ‘They really are following you! How cool! Don’t you ever – you know – talk to them? You’d get your photo in the papers and they’d pay you a fortune for the hot goss on Jez Winter.’

‘I wouldn’t dream of gossiping about him and I don’t want my photo in the papers, thank you very much. Just ignore them.’ But her pleasure in the meal was destroyed and she was glad when Andi declared herself ‘stuffed’ and they could leave.