Laughing, and deciding it was time to drink something stronger than tea, Ellis fetched a bottle of wine and some glasses and told Lucas everything.

When he’d finished talking, Lucas nodded. ‘So, to sum up, all is hunky-dory between you and Naomi, but potentially there’s a problem with your future evil stepdaughters who don’t fancy you usurping their beloved daddy’s place in their affections. I’m not sure I like the idea of them as my stepsisters.’

‘They’re not evil, they’re just reluctant to accept such a huge change. And really, it’s only Martha who is proving resistant. Their father died a couple of years ago, and for her it probably feels much too soon for her mother to be contemplating marriage again.’

‘Can I meet the sisters while I’m here? After all, if we’re to be family, meeting them before the actual day of your wedding might be preferable. When do you plan to tie the knot?’

‘We haven’t got that far yet. The more immediate plan is for me to move in next door with Naomi. Then we’ll think about the details of marrying. I’m quite happy to be led by what Naomi wants.’

‘Which means she’ll be led by her daughters.’

‘Not necessarily, although understandably she wants to be sensitive to their feelings, especially as they’ve both just announced they’re pregnant. Do you really want to meet them, and their partners?’

Lucas shrugged. ‘Yeah, why not? I’m not flying home until Monday evening. Maybe I can talk them round. I can be very persuasive when I want to be. And don’t forget, I was in their shoes when I was a kid. I knew all the tricks to play on you when you became my newly minted stepdad.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘Guilt presents! I could get you to buy me more or less anything I wanted.’

Ellis laughed. ‘You conniving little sod!’

‘Yeah, every child knows every button to press. No matter what age we are.’

Chapter Thirty-Three

Willow would have been happy to go down to Anchor House to meet Ellis’s stepson, but Martha had made it clear she would do no such thing.

‘If we’re being forced to meet him,’ she had told Willow on the phone, ‘then we’ll do it on our own terms. Everyone can come to Tom and me. I’ve suggested to Mum that they come for lunch at one o’clock on Sunday.’

‘We’re not being forced,’ Willow had pointed out in response to her sister’s high-handedness, ‘we’re being invited to meet him, there is a difference.’ Martha had ignored the comment and asked if Willow was going to bring Rick.

‘Of course I am,’ she’d said. ‘Why wouldn’t I?’

‘I just wondered if he might have something better to do,’ Martha had said. ‘It would be perfectly understandable if he was thoroughly sick of us all.’

In the car now, as Rick drove them out of London, the address for Martha and Tom’s house put into the satnav, Willow wondered what Lucas would be like. All they knew about him was that he was in his mid-thirties and that he lived in Los Angeles and did something clever in the world of digital media, which didn’t really mean a lot to Willow. Odds-on he was one of those geeky types who only got excited when talking about software code, or computer games.