But then her mind drifted to the other bit Iona had just said and the warmth started to dissipate. She wished Iona wasn’t coming to dinner tonight, sitting around the table with the rest of the family. Why did her mum always have to ruin everything? She was doing it again, watching over her. Waiting for her daughter to do something that would suddenly click – a light-bulb moment when she’d know what was supposedly wrong with Bonnie.

She sank back against the lounger and mulled over ways she could convince Iona not to come. The thought of keeping her new friendship to herself was much more appealing.

Danny’s face dropped when he walked into the garden at dinner time and saw Iona sitting at the table. It was bad enough when Jill came, but he was kind of used to her. Even though they’d all known Jill for years, she still didn’t say much to any of them but Stella.

The chairs were squeezed in a little tighter and there was practically no gap between Bonnie and Iona. Danny slunk around the other side of the table, pushing his own chair closer to Stella’s.

Iona was chattering away like a bird. Her voice was all high-pitched and excited and Bonnie was giggling like a child. He supposed it was better than hearing his sister moaning, but already it struck him that if he closed his eyes he wouldn’t be able to tell their voices apart.

His mum’s arms stretched over his shoulder as she placed a bowl in the centre of the table and told Iona she hoped she liked chilli. He thought it was a funny thing to say when the poor girl could hardly say she didn’t. Sometimes people weren’t very perceptive.

When his mum pulled her arm back, she rested it on his shoulder and Danny knew she was trying to tell him she hoped he was okay.

He only hoped Iona would carry on rattling away to Bonnie and wouldn’t talk to him. He didn’t even want her to look at him. He hadn’t seen any other girl like Iona before and suddenly she was glancing up and smiling straight at him and Danny thought that the burning through his chest was going to make him puke all over the table.

From now on he was just going to have to avoid her, though he didn’t like the idea of that either.

Maria should have realised sooner how uncomfortable her son would be. The moment she’d seen him dragging his chair alongside the table she knew she’d done the wrong thing, but it was too late to change it. What was right for one child was clearly not for the other, and her eyes brimmed suddenly at the sight of her three children who could not be more different. How she wished they could all be more like Stella.