‘Oh well, I’m here now and I have a spare key, so you can surprise me any time.’ Liv grabbed her sister’s bag from the back seat and led the way to the front door. She couldn’t wait to get inside. Was it bad that she wanted all the gossip from Ballycove? Well, maybe not all the gossip, but certainly, she wanted to hear if the word was out yet about Eddie and Anya.

‘Old news,’ Maya said as they settled down to tea and toast on the sofa. ‘No, the big news doing the rounds in the village now is that Lucy Nolan just got engaged. You remember Lucy – she was a year or two ahead of you at school.’

‘The doctor, yes of course, she was seeing that guy… the one who wrote the book?’

Maya nodded between mouthfuls, so Liv couldn’t be sure, but no doubt her mother would fill her in when she eventually got home. ‘And of course, everyone is looking forward to the New Year’s Ball this year.’

‘Oh, no, I forgot all about that. I had tickets for both of us too,’ Liv said but it seemed like the New Year’s Ball was happening in another lifetime. Everything had changed so much since she’d bought those tickets. ‘It doesn’t matter now anyway – I volunteered to work. Francine owes me so many hours, I’ll hardly have to cover a shift until the end of January,’ she said.

‘You will come home, if you’re off for a few weeks? Dad would love to have you helping out on the farm – all that midwifery experience, he couldn’t have a better helper.’ She fell against Liv now, both of them laughing, but the truth was, by then, the season would be almost at an end and there wouldn’t be a lot to do apart from look after any weaker lambs that needed a little extra care.

‘We’ll see. I’m having this place painted, so…’

‘That’s exciting. Have you picked colours yet?’

‘No, I haven’t even thought about it, but I’ll probably go for something neutral, nothing that I can go off too quickly.’ That was the story of her life though, wasn’t it: playing safe?

‘I think you should go mad – hot pink and fuchsia, lime green and zesty yellow, give the place a complete facelift. It would do you good – feng shui the crap out of it!’ Maya said nabbing the last slice of toast.

‘You know what, maybe I will.’ Liv looked about her now. She was beginning to see the flat in a way that she hadn’t properly noticed it in years. Maya was right: she needed to break out a bit, forget about keeping everything the way it was and shake things up.