She avoids my eyes. ‘Probably for the best.’ She suddenly swings round. ‘Hey, Joe, why don’t you come with us?’ He looks floored and glances at me, but Bethany carries on talking. ‘I’ll need to keep training. And we could do those photos you were talking about for the book. Nick’s a photographer. He’ll take them. Joe wants to write a book,’ she tells me, speeding up, her words scrambling out of her. ‘He’s got to write a synopsis and add some photos, to pitch it to a publisher. We could shoot them on the beach. I’m going to write the introduction.’

‘It doesn’t seem appropriate,’ says Joe, pushing his hair off his face.

I notice he’s wearing an Alice band, like Lotte’s, but it’s not particularly girly on him, in spite of his long hair.

‘You don’t need to be there for the… for the anniversary. Just come for a few days. Two or three. Think of it like a working holiday. We’ll come up with the pitch. We’ll do our workout in the mornings and you can chill in the afternoons.’

‘What do you think?’ Joe asks me.

‘Don’t talk to him! He knows nothing.’ Bethany glances at her watch, which is one of those bands that measures your heartbeat and the number of calories you’ve burned. ‘I’ll let you know if my boss okays it. We need to finish up at Joe’s studio. See you around.’ She slaps me on the back and jogs off. Joe, a small line deepening between his eyebrows, shakes my hand.

‘Nice to meet you, Nick,’ he says, and sprints after my sister.

My sister. Always hustling. I sit back down on the stone bench and finish my espresso. Joe seems like a nice guy and it might make Bethany less intense if he’s there for a couple of days. Bethany has puppy-like traits, not because she’s adorable – she certainly isn’t – but because if she doesn’t have regular exercise she’s insufferable. A bit weird, though. If Joe comes, there’ll be two people there who aren’t part of our family – him and Luca. Two and a half, if you count Chloe. I text Amy to tell her that Bethany is thinking about it and wants to bring a friend for a couple of days. I’ll let them work out the room arrangements.