While it was nice to feel that she was appreciated, she needed Lorcan to know how much Harry would’ve appreciated his visit. Perhaps it wasn’t her place to be cross about it all, but nonetheless she was. Harry asked for so little from the world. ‘He needed us and we did what we had to do. And we did it because we wanted to,’ she told him.

‘I should’ve come over then,’ Lorcan said and he had the decency to blush.

‘He would have loved that,’ Jo said. ‘Your grandad idolises you. He always has. Always boasting about your achievements. It would’ve have given him such a lift to see you then.’

Lorcan couldn’t meet her gaze. She couldn’t help but notice he was becoming fidgety – her words had clearly rattled him. Maybe she’d said too much. It wasn’t her place to make Lorcan Gallagher feel guilty. She shouldn’t have upset him. But no, she wouldn’t apologise for telling him the truth. He needed to know how important it was, even if it did make him feel uncomfortable.

‘It was complicated,’ Lorcan said, his voice almost a whisper. ‘I know that’s not much of an excuse. But I had a lot going on back then.’

Jo wanted to probe deeper, but she was interrupted by the arrival of Kate, one of the bar staff, with a tray laden with food. If she wasn’t wrong, Lorcan seemed absolutely delighted at the distraction. He was more than happy to change the topic of conversation.

‘Let’s tuck in,’ he said. ‘This smells amazing.’

Paddy was only too delighted to have someone new to drag along the quay and to chase after him when the notion took him to chase some birds. Jo could only surmise that Scraps, Lorcan’s dog now living with his ex-girlfriend, was both smaller and better behaved than Paddy.

The look of abject panic on Lorcan’s face the first time Paddy pulled at the lead and tried to set off at pace along the riverside walk was priceless, and Jo couldn’t help but laugh. She was glad they’d fallen back into an easy way of talking to each other. In fact, she was happy that Lorcan had changed the topic of conversation when their food had arrived. She’d made her point and there no value in labouring. Besides, instinctively she knew that the selfish Lorcan who didn’t come to Derry when his grandad had a heart attack was not the real Lorcan. She felt in her bones that he was a good person.

She grinned as she watched him run for a few metres behind Paddy before he finally managed to persuade the overexcited dog to walk to heel. She wasn’t sure if it was joy or relief, or a combination of both, that prompted the grin on Lorcan’s face when he looked at her.