“Ha!” When Jonathan clapped Daisy on the back, her glasses slid down her nose. “See what I mean? You need to get out there, Pops. I know!” He took a poster from the top of his remaining pile and bestowed it upon Daisy as if it were the Holy Grail.

“Activities Fair?” Daisy read aloud with a frown. “Wasn’t that weeks ago?”

“They had to move the date because the old venue had black mold and had to be quarantined. Come along and say hi—I’ll be there with the rugby lot.”

The bartender returned and waved grudgingly at the posters he’d tacked up. “Satisfied?”

“Perfect, my man. Right!” Jonathan turned back to Daisy. “Must get on. See you at the fair . . .”

Once he was gone, Daisy folded the poster into quarters and handed it to the barman to put in the recycling. There was no need for her to “get out there” when she could stay in with Esther and Susan.

“Who was that you were talking to?” Esther began her interrogation before Daisy had even set the drinks down. If it hadn’t been for Susan restraining her, she’d have barged up to the bar already.

“Jonathan.”

“And what were his intentions?”

“To put up a poster advertising the Activities Fair.”

But Esther waved this answer away. “I meant his intentions toward you.”

“I don’t think he had any.” Sitting down next to her on the sofa, Daisy adjusted her cardigan, which had slid off Esther’s knees and exposed goose-bumped porcelain skin.

“Oh. Well. Good. I didn’t like the cut of his jib.”

“I’m surprised. Thought a basic model like that would have you wooed from fifty paces, Es,” Susan chipped in.

Ignoring her (even though Esther did have a fondness for boys at the blander end of the spectrum), Esther continued, “Don’t trust anyone in a rugby shirt, Daisy. His sort view women as conquests, like pints to be downed, not savored. You’re too precious a vintage to waste on the likes of that.”

Daisy smiled, her glasses steaming a little as she blew across the top of her hot chocolate. “I think I’m immune to whatever charm Jonathan possesses, but it’s very sweet of you to look out for me.”

As Esther gave Daisy an affectionate little shoulder bump, Susan raised her glass as if in a toast.

“Here’s to watching out for each other.” She took a sip and grinned. “We’re your family now, Daisy. No getting rid of us.”

Before the words were even out, Esther met Susan’s gaze and watched her friend’s eyes widen in horror. What would have been a perfectly innocuous thing to say took on a different meaning when addressing someone who had been raised by her grandmother because her parents had died. As in: Daisy.