She knew that, just like ripping off a plaster, her best approach would be to just do it really fast. Open the email, read the words, deal with the aftermath. But, she’d had such a nice day – a day free from responsibility and self-doubt – she wasn’t sure that she wanted to risk anything detracting from it. She’d discovered that Lorcan was not the self-entitled spoiled little shit she had always taken him to be and she had definitely felt something more than just a burgeoning friendship between them. She thought of his lips, smooth, soft – just full enough. Jo realised she was smiling.

She took another deep breath and walked on home. She’d face whatever the email held soon, but just not quite yet.

‘Where have you been all day?’ her mother asked as they sat together enjoying a cup of tea before bed. ‘I called in to see Noah about talking to Clara and he said he hadn’t seen you. I know you’re taking some time off, but you normally still call by to see Paddy if nothing else.’

‘I know I normally do. And actually I was planning to call in, but I bumped into someone and we ended up spending the day together. What did Noah say about Clara?’ Jo asked, trying to deflect attention away from the ‘someone’ she’d bumped into.

But she should have known her mother wasn’t easily knocked off track. ‘Woah there,’ her mother said. ‘No changing the subject. Noah will talk to Clara and it will all be fine, but that aside – who was this someone you bumped into? I know Erin was working, because I saw her at the pub…’ Jo’s mother would have made a great interrogator in a different life and she stared at her daughter, determined to get an answer.

Jo felt a hint of a blush creep up her neck. ‘It wasn’t someone you know. More of an acquaintance than a friend, to be honest.’

Maureen Campbell raised an eyebrow inquisitively. Jo should have known her mother’s radar for gossip would detect there was more to this story. ‘Does this acquaintance have a name or is it a state secret?’

‘He does,’ Jo said, and noticed the slight change in her mother’s expression at the use of the word ‘he’. Damn it! She knew she had given away too much, but now it was done she knew there was no way she was getting away without revealing much more.