And there you had it, Adam had not-so-subtly stroked my parents’ Achilles heel. Mum pursed her lips, muttering, ‘I hope you’ve offered your guest something to eat,’ as she marched out of the room, gesturing for the rest of my family to join her.

‘This must be the first time your parents have voluntarily left us alone together,’ Adam joked, taking a sip of coffee.

I watched him slouching back in his chair, and knew that this time there’d be no rash decisions made in a moment of passion, no ‘love will find a way’ mentality, choosing the now and ignoring the heartbreak that came later. It was time to grow up, and if Adam wanted to try again then he had to feel the same.

‘You were explaining why you’re here.’

‘Yes.’ He shifted in his seat, for the first time looking genuinely anxious. ‘Like I said, I really missed you, and have been thinking about you – about us – and why we went wrong.’

‘That would be because you chose your mythical career over me.’

‘Yes. That’s true, and I wanted to say sorry. Not just for that time, but for all the times I made that choice. Not that I should never have said yes to a gig or a tour, but, well, I could have done things differently. I lost the best thing I had while going after something that might never happen. That was stupid and even worse, it hurt you. I guess I’m here because I wanted to say that I’m sorry.’ He shrugged. ‘It felt like the kind of thing that needed to be said face to face.’

‘On Christmas Day?’ It was getting harder to keep up a tough exterior when inside my walls were crumbling. I’d never heard Adam suggest that he might not succeed in music before. Let alone that his choices might not have been the right ones.

Maybe I wasn’t the only one who’d done some growing up recently?

The tiny ember of hope that I’d very nearly snuffed out a few hours ago began to glow. I couldn’t be certain that Adam meant it, that this was any different from any other time, except that it was Christmas Day, and he was here, at Charis House, and didn’t actions speak louder than a whole album full of words?

He put down his mug and slid his chair closer to mine, reaching for my hand again. ‘It seemed too important to wait. I hope that’s okay. I didn’t mean to ruin the day for you. I was hoping it might make it better.’