‘Oh, I don’t think so. I need to rest up,’ he began and she started to laugh.

‘Come on, Eddie, you’re not that old.’

‘No, but neither is Ronaldo, and you don’t see him killing himself out the days after a game.’

‘And you’re not a premier league player either. A walk on the beach is just what you need. We can have breakfast in Diane’s first and then take a gentle wander afterwards.’

‘Well, if you’re paying for breakfast?’ he checked crankily.

‘Of course,’ she said.

‘Fine. Not that I’m hungry, but I probably need something to line my stomach. I told the lads I’d meet them for the hair of the dog later.’

*

Diane’s was busy. Mainly the local old dears on their way from mass, with nothing else to do but sit and drink tea or increasingly sweet variations of coffee for an hour before their next planned activity. Eddie ordered the full Irish breakfast with a large mug of tea on the side, which he took outside while he smoked his (she guessed) third cigarette of the morning. She’d given up telling him how bad cigarettes were for him after he’d told her once she sounded like his mother nagging on and on about them. But she still hated that he smoked, even if she didn’t say it anymore.

‘It’s flipping freezing out there,’ he said when he sat at their table again and she could feel the iciness from his clothes as he took off his jacket.

‘So, what did I miss last night?’ She knew it wouldn’t be a lot, but felt compelled to make small talk all the same.

‘It was quiet. Just a few pints, the usual crew, minus Mick,’ he said as Diane’s daughter delivered his breakfast to the table.

‘Has there been any word on his shoulder?’ Mick Divine had been taken off with a suspected fractured collarbone halfway through the match.

‘Broken shoulder. He’ll be off work for a couple of weeks.’

‘That’s a pity. Poor Mick,’ Liv said automatically, although it was hard to figure how he couldn’t still teach in the secondary school in the next town. You hardly needed to put your back into standing up in front of a dozen kids and going through the course curriculum for Irish. ‘Anyone I’d know call in?’ she asked, wondering about Pete, although it was unlikely he’d turned up – he wasn’t exactly a pub man.

‘Yeah, Anya came in for a while. We had a drink together. She’s taking it all very badly, about the coffee shop, you know.’

‘Did she mention Pete at all?’ Because it seemed to Liv that losing a man like Pete should cause her much more pain than losing her business.