‘You’ll knock his eyes out with that underwear!’

‘I hope so!’

They ordered their food from a young waitress with streaked blond hair and a nose ring.

As they settled in the booth, Sharon said seriously, ‘Has Reggie got a regular bird?’

Gerry laughed at that. ‘Not him. He’s the love-’em-and-leave-’em type. Reckons he has got plenty of time for all that.’

‘I suppose he has a point. If I hadn’t got pregnant, me and Lenny would have waited a few years before we got married. Funny thing is, I’ve been with him since I was thirteen and he was fifteen. We knew even then that we were for keeps. That sounds mad, doesn’t it?’

Geraldine shrugged. ‘Not really. I mean sometimes it’s just meant to be, I suppose.’

Sharon nodded sagely. She held out her hand and admired her wedding and engagement rings. To Geraldine she looked so young, like a girl playing at being a grown-up.

‘We were meant to be, all right. I couldn’t live without my Lenny.’

Geraldine slapped her hand in a playful way and said seriously, ‘Well, you won’t have to, will you? Don’t be so bleeding morbid.’

Sharon grinned. Geraldine was right, there was nothing to worry about with her Lenny. He adored her and their little boy. She was a very lucky girl; she knew that better than anyone.

Book Two

Death is the privilege of human nature,

And life without it were not worth our taking.

The Fair Penitent, Nicholas Rowe (1674 – 1718)

Chapter Forty-Four

1989

‘Lenny, will you talk to your sons! They have been right little fuckers today.’

Lenny sighed. This was getting to be a bit too common for his liking. He saw his two handsome sons, blue eyes wide and worried-looking, and he felt the usual rush of love for them.

He put on a stern face and bellowed, ‘What is it now, Sharon? What they done?’ He had to stifle the laugh that was threatening to break out at the look of shock and awe on the boys’ faces.

Liam, at three years old, was a natural-born bastard, as his dad would say. If he was walking in the Gobi Desert he would find a puddle of mud and fall in it. He was one of those kids who trouble seemed to follow around.

Sharon looked at her two boys and rolled her eyes in pretend annoyance.

‘Where do I start? Oh, yes. Young Lenny swore in school – at his teacher, no less! And that Liam kicked over Mrs James’s shopping. Bold as brass, he was. Then he down and out refused to apologise.’

Lenny gave his sons a ferocious look that made them cower and said, ‘What have you got to say for yourselves?’

They were both silent, watching him warily.

Then little Lenny, always the first to break, said quietly, ‘I’m sorry, Daddy.’