Who was she kidding? She and Nick were forever connected by the girls. They had a lifetime of birthdays and Christmases, graduations, future weddings and grandchildren ahead of them. In the immediate future, they had years of school runs, dance recitals, swimming and soccer to juggle, not to mention a million shared parenting decisions. Their lives were inextricably joined and the only end to it was death.

As it was, it felt like part of her had already died.

Jess was working at the patisserie doing the accounts. Sitting in the back room and enjoying the spicy scents of baking and the aroma of good coffee was a welcome sanctuary from all the other parts of her life.

“Café et gateau, cherie.” Patrice put down a tray as she always did at 11:00.

Jess patted her belly, which was more rounded than it had been since her pregnancy. Not only was she comfort eating, her exercise routine of walking, running and surfing with Libby, had come to an abrupt stop. “Thanks, Patrice, but as amazing as it looks, I think I better pass on the cake.”

Patrice gave a Gallic shrug and returned to the kitchen.

It had been a rough few weeks but Patrice was one of a handful of people who only judged Jess by her ability as an accountant. Jess wondered if it was because the woman was French, but she hadn’t asked, because she wasn’t about to open herself up to unwanted comments. She got enough of those from the rest of the town.

Having finished with Patrice’s ledgers, Jess logged into her own bank account. While she waited for the page to load, she sipped her latte. The balance finally appeared, lower than expected, and she set down her mug and clicked on the recent transactions. Double-checking everything, she swore and automatically reached for her phone to text Nick. She dropped her hand and swore again.

In moments of high stress, she forgot she no longer had his number. Not that it was from lack of trying. The first time she’d heard the disconnected message, she’d phoned the boat hire office. Missy confirmed Nick had a new number but instead of giving it to her, she’d only offered to pass on a message. After the sixth unanswered message, Jess called Will.

“Sorry, Jess. I don’t have his new number.”

“That’s BS!”

“It’s not. Libby’s got him on a pretty tight leash. Not many people have it.”

“So, she’s not only stopping Nick from seeing me and his son, she’s blocking you too?”

There was a long silence. “Will?”

“What?”

“You’re his best friend.”

“Yeah.”

“So how do you contact him?”

“I call him at the office.”

“I’ve tried that but he’s not calling back. You need to tell him to call me. He’s Leo’s father. He’s got responsibilities!”