He bends to kiss her, wondering if he should suggest that Cosmo be invited to the party, but decides against it. The presence of a complete stranger might throw the balance and Jack wants it to be fun. He’s surprised at how much he’s looking forward to it.

CHAPTER SIX

Cosmo walks by the estuary, Reggie a little way ahead, the late morning sun warm on his back. There have been two days of south-westerlies, bringing rain and shrouding the hills in clouds, but this morning the skies are clear and the countryside is sparkling in the autumn sunshine. With his camera slung around his neck, Cosmo is continually amazed by the jewellike colours in the landscape all around him: crimson new-ploughed earth, green meadows, dark blue seas, gold and orange beech leaves. As he walks, he studies angles and shapes, pausing to take photographs and mentally writing small headings to accompany them. His new blog isn’t attracting much attention yet – everyone is a photographer these days – but he still hopes that he will come across that once-in-a-lifetime picture that might set him on a different path.

As he walks, he thinks about Amy. She is like nobody he has ever known: so quick, so amusing, so ready to seize the moment. He loves the way she drives him around in her car, clearly enjoying herself: competent but always ready to stop, in a gateway or on a bridge, to say, ‘Look. Isn’t that amazing? Want to take a picture?’ He’s very attracted to her but he is in denial. After all, there is Becks. He still hasn’t mentioned her to Amy. He’s allowed her to believe he’s a free agent. He has mentioned his small pad in Hackney, bigging it up a tiny bit, but not much.

Cosmo stands for a moment, watching the passenger ferry chugging down the estuary from Kingsbridge. The point is, he tells himself, nobody is being hurt. There is no evidence that Amy is getting too serious. Despite the fact that she’s obviously attracted to him she has a casual way about her that indicates she can look after herself. Last night when they got home, she waited, engine running, while he got out of the car. Something made it difficult for him to kiss her, even lightly on the cheek, and though he invited her in for a coffee or a nightcap she shook her head.

‘Nothing more for me,’ she said, ‘or I shan’t sleep. See you around.’