As she stared into the fire, her expression changed to one of incredulity. Luca waited, watched, knew that first taste of redemption as well as he knew the blissful slake of Scotch burning his tongue. She had got there. She’d mined the past to find its seam, just as he had sitting together in a car in a lay-by, believing he was lecturing her on how to avoid the path to ruin.

He took her hand, running his thumb across her knuckles. ‘My poor angel.’

‘The one thing I was absolutely determined about was that I didn’t want to desert my marriage like Mummy had.’ Her fingers threaded through his. ‘Only now I have.’

‘And here we are.’ He turned her rings in his fingers, wishing their still being there didn’t bother him so much.

She looked at them too. ‘Don’t let go.’

She drew her hand back, slowly easing the finger out from the gold hoops, before looking up at him. It seemed ridiculous that it felt so intimate, the heat rising between them. Luca hooked the two rings on the end of his forefinger and handed them to her, and she smiled, dropping them in her bag without a second glance.

She laughed as he held up his own hands, the rings a hotchpotch of love tokens and souvenirs, the Claddagh a gift from his ex in Canada that he’d hurled across more than one room. One by one, Pax took them off his fingers. Again they both caught their breath, glancing furtively around as though they’d stripped each other half-naked and might be caught at any moment. Then, putting their hands together, unadorned fingers briefly intertwined, they formed fists so they could dovetail their knuckles again.

‘Step Three,’ she repeated. ‘Trust.’

‘We’ve got to Five,’ he pointed out as their eyes locked together, brimming with gladness.

‘Remind me, what is Step Twelve?’

‘I think it’s going to feel a bit like this…’ And he kissed her.

20

Ronnie finally coaxed an exhausted Kes to bed, which he would be sharing with her when she came up a little later. But the novelty of it was giving him another energy spike and he wouldn’t settle. Every time she tried to creep out of the room, he thought up another excuse.

‘Gronny, I think there’s a spider…’

‘Gronny, can I have a glass of water?’

‘Gronny, my tummy hurts.’

Trotting in and out, Ronnie hoped her uninvited guest would wake up and let himself out eventually. Having fallen asleep stretched out on the sofa with all four dogs on him, Bay was still downstairs. She hadn’t had the heart to wake him for the dogs’ sakes.

‘Gronny, I’ve dropped Rab C. and can’t find him!’

‘Gronny, when will Mummy be back?’ He was behind the curtains looking out of the window.

As she settled him into bed again, she heard an engine outside and guessed it must be Bay’s car leaving. Phew. His company wasn’t something she felt entirely comfortable with. It wasn’t that she feared Bay’s seductive reputation – hers was far worse and they’d already chalked that adventure up to bitter experience – it was that she feared that he was going to pour out his anguished soul to her. Given he was shallow as a puddle, this would probably take all of five minutes, but she didn’t want to test it. He was still very sweet on Pax.