‘And I love spending time with her, but God… Mum, have you ever felt as if your life was just on hold? Everyone else is chasing their dreams and getting hooked up and married, and I’m wondering whether to move back in with my parents and six-year-old sister?’ Jo sighed.

‘You make a good point. But you’ve chased your dreams. You’ve travelled, and you have the business with Noah?’

‘Mum, you know that’s more Noah’s dream than mine. I mean, I love it, but I never thought it was going to be my whole life.’

In fact, until Noah had raised the idea of her investing in the pub and coming on board to work with him she had never really seen herself as someone who would ever be a business owner. As it had happened, it had saved her sanity during a particularly difficult time in her life but it wasn’t her dream. It wasn’t how she thought her life would pan out.

‘Tell me this,’ her mum said, ‘what did you think your whole life would be?’

Jo felt her face redden. Could she find the strength in herself to say it out loud? She took a deep breath… ‘I want to be a writer. A proper writer.’ She thought of how brave her friends had been and she closed her eyes. ‘I want to write things.’

‘You do write things! You’ve so many notebooks full of writing. And you’re at Libby’s every Thursday.’

‘But I want to write things people will actually read!’

With more than a hint of frustration, her mother replied: ‘I’m always offering to read your work, darling.’

‘No, I mean… God, I’d just love to be published.’ Her face now blazed. As if she had admitted to some horrible seedy secret.

‘So get published,’ her mum said.

‘But what if I’m not very good?’ she asked, her voice small and quiet. She could barely even look at her mother, afraid she’d see her fears reflected back at her.

‘Then learn how to be very good. If you want it, then do it. I know you, Josephine Campbell. I know you better than you know yourself and you have never been a person to look for the easy route or run from a challenge. You’re the girl who went to university in Scotland, not knowing a single other person who was going and who had the best time and got a great degree to boot. Then you wanted to travel, so you did. You worked your arse off and you were good at it and then, when you came home, you helped your brother set up in business.’

‘He’s the brains behind the operation,’ Jo said.