‘Let’s get Dad out of the heat,’ Nick says.

The children pull their grandfather into the holiday house, talking excitedly. Once they’re inside, Lotte snatches the Skittles from Theo and rips the bag open. The plastic tears and hundreds of coloured sweets cascade across the floor.

‘Lotte!’

‘Oops-a-daisy,’ Amy’s dad says and ineffectually tries to pick up a few of them, wincing as he bends his knees.

‘He’s not staying.’ Skittles skitter beneath Matt’s flip-flops and he almost slips.

Amy feels as if she can’t breathe. She holds onto the table to stop herself from folding in two. Bethany pours them both Prosecco and takes a long drink. She regards her father coldly.

‘Dad, why are you here?’

He looks perplexed. ‘I thought we were all gathered together for Ruby-May’s anniversary.’

‘That’s why we’re here,’ Bethany says. ‘I asked why you are here.’

Amy, in spite of how she feels about her father, winces. His face sags, as he realizes. He turns to Nick. ‘I thought you said I was invited?’

Nick looks at the toes of his Converse.

Her father braces himself against the back of a chair and pulls himself straighter. ‘I wanted to see you. I’ve missed you. My children. My grandchildren. I love you. And I would like to be here, with you all, for Ruby-May’s anniversary.’

Amy can’t bear the sound of her daughter’s name on her father’s lips. She sees Chloe, almost hiding behind Bethany, biting her nails as she looks from her grandfather to Amy and Matt.

‘You need to leave right now,’ Matt says.

‘He’s only just got here,’ Theo says. ‘Where are you going to sleep, Granddad?’

Luca gets out a brush and pan and starts sweeping up the Skittles, and Lotte and Theo chase the coloured balls round the floor on their hands and knees, scooping handfuls into their mouths.

‘Okay, that is enough,’ Luca tells them, and tips the sweets into the bin. ‘David can have my room. I will share the apartment with Joe.’

‘No, you won’t,’ Amy says, finally managing to speak. ‘Dad, I don’t know what you were thinking, coming here. You’re not welcome. You ought to have known that. I’d like you to leave. Nick should never have invited you.’

‘Amy, my darling—’ her father says.

‘Don’t call me that!’

‘Hey, kids, want to go and kick a ball about?’ Joe asks.

He ushers the children outside.

‘Chloe, why don’t you go with them?’ Amy says.

Chloe makes a face at being lumped in with the children, but she looks relieved. She slouches out, conspicuously pulling her headphones back over her ears. Luca slides a tray of pizza into the oven for Lotte and Theo and follows them, shutting the door quietly behind him.

‘What were you thinking, Nick?’ Amy rounds on her little brother.