She didn’t touch hers. She knew the courage she was seeking had to come from within, and she needed her head straight for what would undoubtedly be the most difficult conversation of her life. She pressed her hand to her stomach, feeling physically sick. How should she put it? Would the order of the words make a difference to the impact? How did you soften something so harsh?

Jack put his glass down on the table. “It’s not fair that you should do this, so I’m going to do it. You’re trying to find a way to tell me Becca was having an affair.”

She looked up at him. “Jack—”

“And after you’ve told me that, you’re going to tell me she was leaving me.”

A heron swooped, skimming the water close to them but neither of them noticed.

At that moment her whole world was him. “You knew?”

“Yeah, I knew.” His shrug was all pain. Hurt. Raw. “I knew.” He stood up, and she pushed her chair back and stood up, too.

“Oh Jack—” It hadn’t occurred to her, not for a minute, that he might already know. But why not? She was fairly sure she’d know if things weren’t right with Todd.

She couldn’t find the right words so instead of speaking she went to him, wrapped her arms round him. She’d never punched or done physical harm to anyone, but if Becca had walked onto the deck at that moment she would have knocked her out cold.

She felt his arm close around her shoulders, comforting.

“I’m sorry, Clare.” He held her. “So sorry.”

She pulled away. “You’re sorry? Why would you be sorry?”

“Because you were caught in the middle of this. You’re a kind, decent person. If I’d had the slightest idea that you knew, I would have said something a long time ago.”

“She told me during that last vacation, on the last night. We were barely speaking when you all left. And then she wrote me a letter—” She clung to him, this man who had married her friend and then become her friend. Yet again she was questioning all the decisions she made. “I didn’t know what to do. She was dead, Jack. I didn’t see the point of hurting you and the girls by telling you. It didn’t occur to me that you knew.” But perhaps it should have done, because Jack had always known who Becca was. Right from the beginning.

“I’d known for a while.”

“A while? How long had it been going on?”

“Not sure. At least six months. You didn’t know that part?”

“No. Not until the end. And you stayed together?”

“I’m not one to give up on things, you know that. It’s a flaw.”