She invited him in for coffee and was inordinately pleased when he said yes. As they went into the house she felt the trembling inside her. The only man she had ever been with was Lenny Scott. They had courted from when she was thirteen years old and married at seventeen. She felt like a teenager again, not a mother of two sons. She was so nervous she felt ill!

In the kitchen she went to put on the coffee but he stopped her, saying quietly, ‘Sit down, Sharon. I think this might be the time for a brandy, don’t you?’ He could sense how nervous she was, and he knew why she was feeling that way. He wanted this to be perfect, or at least as perfect as he could make it. He followed her into the lounge and as she perched on the sofa he poured out two generous brandies. When they were sitting side by side he smiled at her and she felt the pull of him; it was almost a physical pain she wanted him so much.

‘Look, Sharon, I know you were happy with Lenny, and I don’t want you to feel that I will, in any way, denigrate the man who married you and fathered your children. But I have to tell you, before we go any further, that I have fallen for you, in a big way.’

She felt the tears come into her eyes. Oh, the big-heartedness of him, the kindness of him.

‘I am looking for a real relationship. I think the world of your boys, as you know. I think they like me too. At least, I hope they do. But I need to know how you feel about me . . . About us.’

She felt so shy again, and she wished she had more experience. But she guessed that, had she had the experience, he might not be so enamoured of her. Ray was a man who would not love lightly. For a start he had never been married, but that might be because he was banged up for nine years. She understood the world he lived in. He grabbed her hand and she felt the love inside her like she had never felt it with Lenny. Lenny had broken her heart; it was hard on a woman to find out she had lived what she believed was a good life with a man that, in reality, she had never really known. It still bit into her and hurt her. Now, though, the hurt came more from the knowledge that she had been duped by Lenny, that he had believed she was so naive she would never cotton on. She wouldn’t have known anything if it had not been for Liam.

She looked into Ray’s eyes and said honestly, ‘We weren’t that happy, Ray. Not when he died.’