‘I know exactly what she means.’ And Liv did, because they’d probably all be a bit relieved that Barbara Quirke was finally out of their lives for good.

‘He won’t be happy,’ her mother said, because of course, she knew without ever saying so that Eddie Quirke had been on to a good thing.

‘It doesn’t matter what he’ll be now,’ her father said. ‘As long as our lovely Liv is okay, that’s all that matters to us,’ he said and Liv thought she’d burst with gratitude for having both of them as her parents. Really, after all this time, what more could she possibly ask for?

10

‘Hello, Liv?’ Barbara rang that afternoon, which was unusual, because normally when she rang Eddie, it seemed she made a point of not even asking after Liv, much less actually speaking to her and certainly never ringing her up for a friendly chat.

‘Yes, Barbara, how are you?’ Liv was just washing the dishes after lunch. Her parents had ambled out for a walk about the farm and Maya was still at the office.

‘Well, I’m not great, obviously,’ Barbara said and Liv wasn’t sure what to reply next. ‘I’m stranded here without so much as a drop of milk and I’m too nervous to walk up to the supermarket with the state of the footpaths.’ It had frozen over the night before, although, it seemed to be thawing a little more now the winter sun was shining.

‘Oh.’ It took a minute for Liv to realise what she was meant to say next. ‘Well, would you like me to pick up some shopping for you and drop it off?’

‘If you wouldn’t mind?’ Barbara snapped. ‘Only, Eddie had to go on an errand and I don’t know when he’ll be back.’

‘An errand?’ Liv asked a little guiltily, because she didn’t want to alert Barbara to the notion that he might have done a disappearing act after their disagreement on the beach earlier. He regularly did that in Dublin – stormed out after an argument, probably went to the pub and then slept on someone’s sofa for a day or two until he needed to come home for clean clothes and a proper bed to sleep in. In the beginning it had really upset Liv – the idea that he could just walk out the door and leave an argument hanging for days on end, but like everything else about living with Eddie, she’d gotten used to it, and now it didn’t bother her so much.

‘He was bringing Anya back up to Dublin. She has to move out of her apartment apparently.’ Barbara had even less interest in Anya than she had in Liv, presumably. ‘Just so you know, I’m very particular about my shopping…’