I’m so overcome, so moved by his beautiful words and halting delivery and intently burning eyes, that I barely know where to begin. The enormity of what he’s pledging is so hard to comprehend. Yes, he’s here, and yes, he’s been fantastic with Tabby. But if I understand him correctly, he wants a future with me and my daughter. He’s not asking me to take a chance on him. He’s asking us to take a chance on him.

‘Bren,’ I murmur. ‘I don’t know what⁠—’

He drops his forehead to mine. ‘Please don’t say anything,’ he begs. ‘Don’t write me off before I’ve had a chance to prove it to the two of you. There are no shortcuts here, I know that. But I promise I’ll put the work in, because it won’t even feel like work. It’ll feel like a privilege. I know how I feel about you, love, but I know you’d never let a man in if you weren’t completely convinced that he’d make a good father figure to Tabs. And quite right, too.

‘But I know what I want, and what I want is to give the two of you everything you deserve. Forever. So please, just give me a chance.’

I want to believe him. After all, it’s a hell of a sales pitch. It’s every single mother’s dream to have a beautiful man tell her he wants to carry her and her child off into the sunset, to make all their problems go away.

But he told me in my first audition at the club that he was a hell of a salesman. That he could close anyone.

Only time will tell if he can come up with the goods to back up these pretty promises.

CHAPTER 53

Brendan

Ifeel like a schoolboy as I sit in my office waiting for Marlowe to show up. I wanted to get in before her today, on this first day of our “new normal”. I’ve made an effort. I’m wearing a tie today, a favourite sky blue Hermès one with dolphins on it that far too many women have told me makes my eyes pop.

I’m nervous, and I’m not sure why. I suspect it’s because I’m worried about fucking up. Not only is this a big change from the past week we’ve spent together in North Carolina, but it’s a huge shift from our previous office dynamic.

I’d gauge her reaction to my impassioned speech the other day in the hospital as “hopeful but seriously fucking dubious”. I’d like to think she has feelings for me, but those feelings come way, way below her concern for Tabby’s welfare and have been badly tarnished by my behaviour.