‘No. Seriously, I know she can be a bit overbearing, but really, she hasn’t had an easy life and she might be my mother-in-law one of these days,’ Liv said the words quietly, but she could feel Pete’s eyes glide towards her. Eddie had never made a secret of the fact that he had no intention of getting married; it was one of those things that sat silently between the two friends, making Liv uncomfortable and Pete roll his eyes and silently seethe. He should be thanking his jammy stars; he’s bloody lucky to get you, he’d said more than once. Pete couldn’t care less if he never got married. What bothered him most was that he knew Liv wanted to settle down, have children and maybe, someday, lots of grandchildren too. He’s too flipping busy being a child himself. You spoil him, you really do.

‘She hasn’t exactly made life easy for herself either,’ Pete said under his breath.

‘Anyway, it’s just for a few hours and I’m determined to make it the best Christmas ever,’ Liv said and once again she was glad to be making it home – she had a feeling that it was going to be a holiday to remember. She glanced across at Pete. ‘Sure you’re going to be all right?’

‘I told you, I’m fine about me and Anya. I wouldn’t have ended things if I wasn’t.’

‘I know but…’ Liv knew no good could come of going over the same old ground. Anya had been fooling around behind Pete’s back. It was nothing serious, apparently – well according to Anya – but Pete had ended it on the spot. ‘I just thought, you were both, you know…’

‘Soul mates?’ Pete laughed and shook his head. ‘No, I’m afraid not. It’ll be awkward for a while, disentangling everything.’ He had set Anya up in her own business and she was living in his apartment too. It had all moved very quickly between them, but then, Liv always had that niggling feeling that having a rich boyfriend was as important to Anya as actually being in love with Pete. Pity Liv hadn’t said that earlier to Pete, but then, how could she have? She’d been so thrilled to see him finally fall in love with someone. It had seemed no-one could take Rachel’s place before this.

‘As long as it’s just awkward. You’ll call me, if you need… anything?’

‘Of course.’ He glanced across at her now, his smile more of a reassurance than anything he said. Liv was relieved. ‘Now, it’s after one-thirty in the morning. Why don’t you close your eyes for a while and, hopefully, I’ll have us back in Ballycove before you know it.’

*