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Chapter 1

‘So obviously I said no problem.’

‘Absolutely not!’ I said at exactly the same time.

‘Huh?’ My brother took a large swig of the revoltingly strong, expensive coffee I got in for his visits and nabbed another biscuit from the jar.

‘I said absolutely not.’

‘But I’ve already told him now.’

‘Then you’ll just have to untell him.’ I glanced out of the open bi-fold doors that formed one entire wall of my kitchen-diner, over to where my nephew and niece were playing in the garden. ‘Umm. Should he be doing that?’

My brother looked round, rolled his eyes and walked to the threshold. ‘Freddy! What have I told you about hanging your sister upside down? Her tooth will come out when it’s ready, not by you trying to shake it out.’ My nephew and niece looked over at us, from their opposite perspectives. A large sigh escaped from Freddy as he laid his sister on the ground. She hauled herself up, staggered once or twice as though she’d just left a good night at the pub and then ran off to play on the swing.

‘Where was I?’

‘Uninviting your friend to my house.’

‘He’s your friend too.’

I gave Felix a look.

‘Well, you know him, at least.’

‘I know a lot of people but that doesn’t mean I’m about to invite them to stay at my house for an indefinite length of time!’

‘It’s not indefinite.’

‘OK, then,’ I said, hand on hip as my brother fished around in the bottom of his mug for an errant bit of biscuit, following some mismanaged dunking. ‘How long would he be staying for?’

‘Just until he gets himself set back up over here.’

‘Which will take how long?’

‘I don’t know exactly.’

‘Would you say then that, at present, the length of time it will take for your friend to restart a business he abandoned years ago is of an undetermined time?’

‘Possibly.’

‘Which would mean his stay here would be for an unstated duration.’

‘I’m sure it wouldn’t be long. I mean, no offence, Lils, but you’re hardly the life and soul of the party, so I’m sure he’d want to get out and set up in his own place as soon as possible.’

‘Then that works out marvellously.’

‘It does?’