‘Apparently not. Maybe he agrees with you on the subject.’ Just a hint of snark. ‘He went with a male friend. He had a bit of a rant to me. Said the guy was a widower and they’re just friends and seriously, if Richard was gay, he’d be perfectly happy to tell us, his daughter’s transgender for goodness’ sake and he’s fine with that, do we seriously think he’d have a problem with being gay, so could we just drop it because this bloke is a friend and Richard has no desire to meet anyone for a relationship anyway, and they had a fantastic time on their safari, thank you very much, now shut up about it.’

‘Accurate replication of a Richard-rant there, Jai. And I like it. Great outcome.’

Jai pulled up outside Mum’s house. Drizzle was drifting sideways through the trees. ‘It’s difficult to imagine we had all that hot weather,’ I said. ‘It was like a different country. Do you want a cuppa?’

‘You don’t want some time to talk about … your dad?’

‘That bastard? No, I’m done with him.’

We splashed up the drive and knocked on the door. It opened to a frazzled-looking Mum, but her face lit up when she saw Jai. ‘How nice! Are you having a cup of tea.’ With Mum there was never a question mark at the end of that sentence.

‘That would be lovely, Mrs Dalton,’ Jai said. ‘Shall I give you a hand making it?’

‘Oh for God’s sake,’ I spluttered. ‘She already thinks the sun shines out of your arse.’

‘Meg, really.’ Mum led us through to the kitchen, and then noticed my face. ‘Oh, good heavens. You have been in the wars, you poor thing.’

We sat at the kitchen table and Mum bustled around. I realised she wasn’t frazzled – she was excited. Buzzing with energy.

‘Are you going to sit down for a few minutes?’ I asked, pretending to be irritated. She was more herself than she’d been since Gran died. Possibly more herself than she’d ever been, and I was happy for her.

Mum ignored me. ‘How’s that girlfriend of yours?’ she said to Jai.

‘Oh. Um. Yes, actually we decided to call it quits. It’s fine.’

‘Oh goodness,’ Mum said, putting tea mugs in front of us and sitting at the table, still for the first time in God knows when. ‘I’m sorry.’

Jai glugged some tea. ‘She doesn’t like my kids. At first we avoided the issue, but it’s kind of a deal-breaker. And she was going to want kids of her own, and I don’t want more. Two is plenty.’

‘Yes, I can see that,’ I said. ‘Sorry, that sounded wrong.’

‘So you’re both single,’ Mum said.

‘It’s the best way for cops.’ Jai took a biscuit. ‘Isn’t that right, Meg?’