I give a little laugh, although Kit was expecting more. I can see he’s desperate to get his sister back. I want that, too. I lean against the window, watch the rain dancing down. It’s so inoffensive. It gets disliked for ruining a British summer’s day, or, God forbid, a weekend. But it’s not harming anybody. At least the grass will be greener tomorrow.

‘Maybe I should move back …’

‘I wanna say yay! I never wanted you to move to London.’

‘I didn’t just go to London to be with Jack, you know. He was the main reason, of course, but I knew it was the right move ’cause I’d exhausted here. I love Liverpool, but I wasn’t moving forward and it seemed everybody else was steaming ahead. I mean, I was still going to pubs I went to twenty years ago. And it was boss. But the people I liked and hung out with, well, they all started staying in, having kids and I tried to make new friends but it’s hard to give yourself a fresh start in the same place.’

‘And it didn’t help that the school you were working in was fucking miles away!’

‘Right! God, I don’t miss that commute on the M62.’

‘Builder’s?’ Kit asks. There are a few drops of elderflower left in my glass.

I nod and he jumps up to flick the kettle on.

‘Should I come home?’

‘Ah, I’m the wrong person to ask, sis. You know me answer to that.’

My heart swells and in this moment, I feel lucky. Loved. It’s not the love I’ve lost or the love I crave, but it’s still love. And I have it, in abundance.

‘But,’ Kit says, raising his hands as if I’m about to punch him, ‘you can’t stay here. I mean, you can stay here tonight, but after that, you’ve gotta go to Mum and Dad’s.’

‘That’s me plan, don’t worry.’

‘I feel awful – I mean, you’ve had the whole tragic Jack thing and the whole stupid London thing and the whole sad holiday thing and now I’m turfing you out. But the blow-up bed’s broke and Gareth hates anyone sleeping on the sofa, he’s got this weird thing about other people’s feet touching his stuff—’

‘I know about the foot thing.’

‘Hold on, we’ve got a tent. You’re more than welcome to sleep in the garden?’

‘Kit. Stop. I wanna go to Mum and Dad’s. I wanna go home.’

‘Okay. Wow. Weird. But okay.’