Bex wasn’t sure of the answer to that. But before she’d had a chance to reply, Kirsty skipped up to their bench and stood in front of them in the sunlight, her golden hair back-lit so it looked like she had a halo. ‘We’re going to have a barbecue,’ she said. ‘In the woods over there, on Bex’s last night in Gritton.’

Anna smiled up at Kirsty. ‘Brilliant!’

Lucas put his arm around Kirsty and pulled her to him. ‘Isn’t she fab?’

Anna nodded. Bex wasn’t sure organising a barbecue warranted this level of adoration but she was happy that everyone was getting along.

‘I can sort out the booze,’ Lucas said. ‘Kirsty can sort the—’

Kirsty shot him daggers and then pointedly looked at Bex.

‘What?’ Bex said.

‘Nothing,’ Lucas said. ‘Who’s being invited?’

‘Just our gang,’ Kirsty said. ‘Me, Lucas, Daniel, Gary, and these two babies here.’

‘Hey,’ Anna said. ‘We’re not babies.’

Now Bex had no chance of asking Anna if Daniel was a weirdo. He was standing right in front of them smiling at her. She gave him an uncertain smile back, thinking about the photograph on his wall.

It felt humid and thundery as if it was about to rain.

‘Definitely not babies,’ Lucas said, and winked at Bex.

Kirsty untangled herself from Lucas’s arm and gave him an icy look.

‘It’s good that Dad’s being okay with you, after what happened,’ Kirsty said to Bex.

Bex felt like she’d been hit. Where had that come from? She felt hot and cold and sick all at once. Every time she thought Kirsty was being nice, she’d come out with some awful comment and ruin it. Was it because Lucas had flirted with Bex? That hadn’t been her fault. And had he even been flirting? Something brushed against her foot. She looked down and jumped. It was the rabbit. ‘Oh my God! What’s up with it?’ she said.

‘Oh no, it’s got mixi,’ Anna said. ‘Poor thing. You can see from its eyes.’

Kirsty took a step away, but then moved back and leaned in close. ‘Ugh. Look at that.’ Her voice had taken on an odd tone. Almost as if she was enjoying the drama.

‘We’ve got to kill it,’ Anna wailed. ‘It’s awful. It’ll be in horrible pain. Poor thing.’

Bex had never seen a rabbit with myxomatosis before. Its eyes were swollen and covered in growths, and it was clearly blind. Looking at it made her want to cry. ‘Won’t it recover?’ she asked.

‘Not when it’s got to that stage.’ Lucas had moved away, un-volunteering from the role of executioner.

Anna’s voice was shaky. Panicky. ‘We’ve got to kill it. It’s in agony. How can we kill it?’

‘Bex, run and get a shovel off Dad,’ Kirsty said.