‘It’s at times like this,’ Jack is saying, ‘that I really miss Sally. You know? A woman’s instinct and all that? I know Amy talks to Charley but Charley’s more like a sister. She doesn’t have quite that same sense of responsibility as a parent. It’s just that I don’t want Amy to get hurt, which is a stupid thing to say because everyone gets hurt one way or another, don’t they? You can’t protect the people you love from life.’

For a moment he looks so serious, so vulnerable, that she wants to reach across and take his hands, which are lightly clenched on the table as if they are holding on to Amy, keeping her safe. She wonders how to cheer him, but at this moment Lydia brings her coffee, the tension is broken and Jack sits back again. He turns to look at Amy and Cosmo whilst Cara sips her coffee. Amy is getting up. She comes across to them, smiles at Cara and taps her father on the shoulder.

‘If you want that lift to Kingsbridge we need to get going,’ she tells him.

He nods, stands up and looks down at Cara.

‘We’ll be seeing you at the party,’ he says.

He and Amy go out together and Cara drinks her coffee, deliberately not looking at Cosmo. As she gazes at her cup, held between both her hands, she sees that there’s a little blue sail painted on it. She’s never noticed it before. Out of the corner of her eye she sees that Cosmo is standing up, grabbing Reggie’s lead. They pause beside her table and she looks up at him. His smile is infectious; his vitality is almost tangible. She smiles back at him, longing to be wrong; willing him to be trustworthy, loyal, and in love with Amy. Yet even as he smiles she recognizes the gleam behind its friendliness, a kind of exaltation, as if he has got away with something, brought off something risky. It’s the look of a gambler; of someone who risks all on the roll of the dice.

‘I’ve been invited to a party,’ he says. ‘Shall I see you there?’

She nods. Cosmo laughs, tips his head towards the words on the beam above her head, Dolce far Niente, and goes out into the sunshine with Reggie.

As Cosmo strides away from the Coffee Shop, out of the town, he’s still feeling on a high. It was a shock, meeting Amy’s dad like that but, after all, it’s always been on the cards. It was bound to happen sooner or later, and better in that natural crowded environment than formally at the party amongst their friends and family. Amy was a tad tense to begin with, which wasn’t surprising after their previous evening together, but she was able to get over it.