‘How did you meet?’ she couldn’t help herself from asking.

He shrugged. ‘Like any two teenagers from small towns. She was in the pub.’

‘The Hope and Anchor?’

‘No. John wouldn’t have served her. It was the Half Moon, on the way to the old Merrow’s Rest property.’

‘Ah. Yes, I know it.’

He looked at her skew-eyed.

‘What? I have been to a pub before, Henry,’ she scolded.

‘Really? When was the last time you were in pub?’ he demanded, his tongue practically sticking in his cheek.

She had to think. Because it had been an age since she was last in a pub.

‘All work and no play,’ he teased.

‘You’re getting off topic.’

‘I am. Mum had sent me down here after my A Levels. I was pretty much the youngest in the year, so everyone from school had already gone travelling or stayed up there. But Blake …’ Henry shook his head. ‘He’d seemed more interested in the estate and the vineyards than anything else. At least, that’s how it had felt then.’

Lily wanted to reach for him. To touch him, to offer him some kind of … but she didn’t. She could see that he was lost in the memories.

‘Anyway, I’d gone to the pub with some of the guys from my year at Hawke’s High and saw Claudia. I recognized her from the year below, but she knew some guy called Finn who worked there.’ He shrugged. ‘She was … stunning. And cocky,’ he added, smiling at the memory. ‘She took me down a peg or three even though it was my birthday. And I was hooked. All the other girls had looked up to Henry Hawkesbury as if I were lord of the manor. But she didn’t care. She made me work for every bit of attention she gave me. It was hot and heavy for that summer and then I had to leave for uni.’

Lily knew that there was a lot he wasn’t saying, but it wasn’t right to push. She smiled her thanks when he refilled their glasses.

‘What about you? I imagine your eighteenth was with the rest of the “awesome foursome”?’ he said with a corny American accent.

‘The what, now?’ she demanded.

‘You know, you, Victoria, Malie and Zoe.’

‘I know you who were talking about, but what was that name?’

Henry shrugged. ‘It’s just what we called you.’

‘Who’s “we”, Henry?’

‘The guys at Hawke’s.’

Lily knew she must have looked shocked, but Henry only started to laugh which made it worse. ‘That’s an awful name. Just … awful.’

‘But it’s … awesome,’ he repeated in the accent.

‘That’s it. I’m out. Done. You’re on your own.’

‘No, wait,’ Henry said through his laughter. ‘Stop. Please don’t go.’

‘One condition. Never, ever use that phrase again.’