She smiled and twirled her fork into the linguine. ‘I love it. I loved it from the moment that I worked in the estate kitchen. The first time I made dinner for my mum and it wasn’t just relief but pleasure I saw in her eyes.’

‘Relief?’

Lily sighed. ‘It wasn’t easy back then, she was working two jobs and hadn’t really got the time to do that and make dinners beyond turkey burgers and sweetcorn.’

‘Turkey— I haven’t ever had—’

‘Don’t!’ she exclaimed, and they both laughed, all the while knowing she would swear on the Bible that she didn’t have a box of turkey burgers in the freezer of her small kitchen upstairs, even though she did. ‘But yeah,’ she shrugged, ‘that’s how it started.’

‘Giving other people pleasure?’ Henry queried, something in his gaze making her pulse spike.

‘Mm hm,’ she said around her own mouthful, not trusting herself to say anything more.

For a moment there was silence between them as they indulged in their meals.

‘It really is good, Lily.’

‘It’s hard for it not to be with such good produce.’

‘All of it locally sourced? Kate mentioned about the menus.’

Lily smiled, thinking of the way her friends always teased her about the way she ran the kitchen. ‘I have certain philosophies about the restaurant. I try as much as possible to do nose to tail—’

‘What is that?’ Henry demanded, half laughing.

‘It’s about using everything from the nose to the tail. Whether it’s meat or fish, or vegetable, I try to use everything so that nothing is wasted. It’s ecologically friendly, as well as challenging. Finding uses for the entire product. There’s so much wasted food in this world, which is a crime. We’ve become so used throwing things away, while there are people who don’t have even the barest of essentials. But so much of what we eat, or what we produce, can be upcycled with a bit of creativity.’

‘You upcycle food?’

Lily laughed. ‘Kind of. My friends have been joking about my recycled mushroom consommé for years.’ And then she couldn’t help her own curiosity. ‘And what about you?’

‘What do I do?’

She nodded.

‘Apps. Investment, finance backing, development, release, marketing and maintenance.’

‘Sounds …’

‘Boring?’ he queried.

‘Involved.’

He laughed. ‘It is. But I’ve left it in my business partner’s capable hands for the moment.’ At her blank look, he clarified, ‘Ben has been with me from the start. If I’m honest, he’s the brains and I’m the money. And yes, it is more than that and I am more involved than that, but without Ben I …’ He trailed off for a moment before huffing out a rueful laugh. ‘I’d still be pouring salt on old wounds and probably would have run through the entirety of my grandfather’s trust by now.’