Helen poured them both another glass of wine, to try and dispel the image of little dark-haired chubby bespectacled Liam – his photo was all over the papers – being unstrapped from his car seat and removed. CCTV in the supermarket car park showed a single glimpse of a muffled-up person carrying him away, but there was no trace of where and no indication whatsoever of who it was. Liam’s mum had only nipped back into the supermarket to retrieve some dry cleaning she’d forgotten. She was gone barely two minutes.

Sean gave Helen one of those long, impenetrable gazes where he could be thinking anything from ‘This is the woman I really, really love’, to ‘Wow, you make my life a living hell.’ She didn’t really think it was the latter, but by the same token, she did find him unreadable sometimes. It wasn’t that she didn’t feel loved by him – perhaps just not loved as much as she’d have liked. Not loved as much as he’d loved Alice’s mother, all those years ago. Helen had given up fishing for information on that score. She had long realized that the shutters clanged down the moment she even mentioned the woman’s name. The dreaded dead perfect first wife – pretty much impossible to live up to that ideal, so Helen had stopped trying, and Sean never spoke of her.

‘I just can’t stop thinking about those children – both younger than Frankie. Hardly more than babies . . . Let’s change the subject – what shall we talk about?’

Sean smiled properly at her. His smile could still make her heart quicken. He took her hand across the table, sliding her phone into his pocket so she couldn’t keep checking it. ‘There was something I wanted to run by you, actually,’ he said, and she was puzzled at the slightly shy tone of his voice.

‘You’re not going to beg me to let you buy a new car are you?’

‘No . . .’ He took a deep breath and gazed into her eyes. ‘Hel, I know I was joking about the nightmare of having two screaming babies, but Frankie’s almost four now and—’

She felt a sudden sharp pain of love and excitement in her belly.

‘—do you think it’s time we had another one? It would be so nice for Frankie to have a little brother or sister. Alice would love it too.’

Helen’s smile broadened into a beam, and she squeezed his hand tightly to stop tears of joy spilling down her cheeks. He’d been anti the idea of a second child for so long that she’d given up hinting.

‘Really? You’re ready?’ Every atom of her danced when he nodded slowly back.

‘Yeah,’ he said. ‘Actually I think I am.’