‘Don’t worry, love, I’m just feeling a bit low in myself, but I’ll get over it. I just feel like I’ve thrown all I worked for away and I’ve let my family down. Again,’ I say to Jack, who I know is worried sick about my state of mind right now.

He clears the table and when I go to help him he pulls me closer for a hug.

‘I’m a big believer in things happening for a reason,’ he says to me, his voice as soothing and comforting as ever. I look up into his stunningly beautiful midnight-blue eyes that manage to make me go weak at the knees even when I’m feeling a bit dead inside like I am now. ‘Yesterday is just part of your history, Char, but it’s not going to stop your future. Take this time to reflect and plan for the next step in your life, whatever direction that will take you. You’ve the world at your feet and any school in the country would be foolish not to give you a chance. Miss Jean Brady and her team of sharks are only big fish in a very small pond.’

I can’t help but giggle, which I think was Jack’s aim with his big speech.

‘You really love throwing in a metaphor or two just to drive your message home, don’t you, Doctor Malone,’ I laugh, and he ruffles my hair playfully.

‘You love my metaphors,’ he says, giving me one of his million-dollar smiles. ‘It works on my patients, so I kind of hope that someday it will work on my beautiful wife.’

He wraps his strong arms around my waist and pulls me closer to him so that I’m touching a part of him that tells me what’s on his mind.

‘I’ve a dreaded feeling your mother is going to really step up the baby pressure now that I’m officially unemployed,’ I say to him as he nuzzles my neck, forcing my eyes to roll back in my head with pleasure. ‘She’ll think I’ve no excuse not to fill this house with little people since I’ve no pupils to take up my attention any more.’

Jack’s attention is most definitely on other things and he’s driving me that way too as his hand slips down below my waist.

‘We can always go and practise,’ he says, gently tugging my hair with his other hand and kissing me, taking my breath away. ‘What do you say?’

For the first time I allow myself to visualize what it would be like to have our very own little family here in Ardara. The thought of a mini Jack or mini me gives me an unexpected glow. Maybe the time to think about it isn’t so far away, after all.