By the time he was behind the bar again Lily was up and heading Hayley’s way. After asking after her health, Lily offered, ‘Come and join in, if you want to.’

Hayley hesitated. ‘I feel rather a pariah because I’ve still got my drain. It’s horrible to have to carry around a bag of goo.’

‘Bag of goo?’ Uncomprehending, Lily glanced into the bag Hayley had been wearing over her shoulder and got a shock to see a tall, thin bottle of pink liquid, its tubing vanishing under Hayley’s shirt. ‘Oh.’

Hayley grimaced. ‘I was scheduled to have the drain out yesterday but I was told there was too much blood and stuff still coming out. I nearly cried with disappointment. The tube under here—’ she lifted her right arm slightly and gesticulated at an area beneath it ‘—is driving me mad. Honestly, there is no comfortable position. I swear it’s rubbing directly on my ribs.’

Sympathy flooded through Lily. She sat down in the chair across from Hayley. ‘You’ve really been through the mill.’

With a brittle laugh, Hayley nodded. ‘It’s been a nightmare since I found the lump. I should have had the histology results on Monday to find out if there was more bad news but my consultant’s on holiday so I have to wait until the 23rd.’ She blinked several times and laughed again. ‘I feel a little bit as if she shouldn’t go on holiday when I’m waiting for something so important!’

Then Carola arrived to join the conversation. She’d had friends who had mastectomies and so was able to chat to Hayley about radiotherapy, chemotherapy and implants. It all sounded so grim that Lily even found it within herself to feel glad that Isaac had agreed to help Hayley.

Even if it had got in the way of Lily having a Christmas adventure with him.

She glanced up the bar and saw he was watching her. His eyes seemed to see right through to her heart before he turned away.

When Lily’s phone rang on Thursday afternoon she’d been scrolling through jobs on the internet. No longer did she have the Switzerland trip to look forward to. The thing with Isaac wasn’t going to happen. Her brothers hadn’t greeted her with open arms. She felt rootless, more so than when she’d come back from Spain because then her parents had been there to give her a home.