‘A drink when we get back?’ he suggests swiftly. ‘Supper?’

She laughs, feeling a huge relief that everything has sorted itself out, and that it looks like he’s reconciled to coming to the party. Relief makes her generous.

‘Sounds good to me,’ she agrees lightly. ‘I’ve got nothing else planned.’

Her anger and embarrassment have passed and she is glad, now, that she took the chance. She’ll text Charley later and let her know that all is well. She longs to know what her old friend thinks about Cosmo and decides to ask her to Dad’s party, too. She glances sideways at Cosmo and is filled with all sorts of sensations: happiness, excitement, lust. He senses her glance and stretches a hand to her, his eyes on the lane ahead. She holds his hand tightly, rerunning the scene in the tapas bar.

‘How did you guess I’d set it up?’ she asks.

Cosmo laughs, gives her hand a squeeze and releases it.

‘Male intuition,’ he says.

Charley smiles when Amy’s text comes in: she’s been expecting it. It’s rather sweet that Amy’s seeking approval, reassurance. Perhaps it’s because she doesn’t have a mum that she looks to the older woman for confirmation of her feelings. Now that she’s met Cosmo, Charley can understand Amy’s anxieties. Despite his friendly, confident, extrovert approach, he’s very clever at diverting questions he doesn’t want to answer, at protecting his privacy. She was frustrated by his slickness. At the end of their afternoon together she still didn’t know a great deal more about him than the things that Amy has already told her and it was impossible to pin down his intentions as to what he might have in mind when his house-sitting commitment is over.

Charley has an unwilling respect for Cosmo’s deft handling of the situation but she can’t see that Amy should be too worried. He’s clearly fallen head over heels in love with the South Hams, with Amy, with the converted barn he’s living in – even with Reggie. He’s utterly sold on the whole experience and Charley feels certain that Amy should be able to take full advantage of it. Although she can’t imagine Amy ever moving to London, it’s not impossible that Cosmo should relocate to Bristol or Exeter.

As she rereads Amy’s text – So what did you think of him? – Charley wonders if Cosmo has a girlfriend in London. It seems unlikely to imagine that he hasn’t – he’s a very attractive, amusing man – but, if he has, it’s odd that he should take a three-month sabbatical alone, and when he talks about his flat, making fun of its lack of space, it’s clear that nobody else is sharing it with him.