Ray caught young Lenny smoking outside and he saw the worry in the boy’s eyes at what Ray might have to say to him. He removed the cigarette from the boy’s mouth, crushed it out beneath his huge foot and, smiling his easy smile, he said quietly, ‘A mug’s game. Look at me and your mother, both hooked! If you are determined to do this then please make sure you don’t get caught in the future, OK?’

Young Lenny could not believe his luck; he had expected to be read the Riot Act. Ray wondered at why this boy didn’t irritate him; after all, he was the living image of his father. Yet that wasn’t an issue because he knew the boy was more his than he had ever been Lenny Scott’s. These lads of Sharon’s had needed a male presence and he had provided that. And he actually did care for them.

In the beginning he had courted them to get to Sharon, but now he looked on them as his own flesh and blood. He knew they adored little Kathy, and that pleased him because he really did not want them to be jealous of her. He had great plans for these boys and it did not involve university or any of the other shit that Sharon wanted for them; he had just said that to go along with her in the early days. They had a natural cunning and he felt that should be utilised. Also, as they had grown, they had expressed a desire to be a part of his world and that suited him down to the ground. Not that he would want that for his child, of course, but then Kathy was a female and, as such, would have no value to him in any way. But these were the offspring of Lenny Scott and that would never be forgotten.

‘Do you ever think of your real dad, Len?’

It was a question he had always wanted to ask, but there never seemed a right time to do it. Now he felt he could ask it without fear of the answer.

Young Lenny screwed his eyes up. It appeared that he was seriously considering the question, and then he said sadly, ‘Not really, Dad. It was so long ago and, even though he used to do things with Liam and me, he wasn’t doing them like you do. You know, just us together, laughing and that? It was always with Uncle Reggie.’