‘You got kids of your own, Danny?’

‘Me? No.’

But when I heard myself say it, instead of feeling like I’d dodged a bullet, like the guys down the pub would always tell me, I found myself thinking about George and Wolfie and those four little blinders waiting at home for Jaz.

‘Not to worry. I’ve made up for it in spades, haven’t I?’ She flashed me a wink in the mirror. ‘But we sure did make some cute ones, Lucas and me.’

She hauled the steering wheel around and headed down a side street I hadn’t even noticed and, as we bumped along, I thought about the cute kids I’d quite possibly narrowly avoided with the various lovely patient women who’d endured me. And about Jaz being so sure at thirteen that Lucas was the one for her, and how she could still get up every day and be a decent, productive person even after she found out he wasn’t. I thought about myself at thirteen and how the only thing I’d been sure of was that I was never going to see my mother again, and how it was possible that thirty-nine-year-old me was maybe just now figuring out how much that had affected everything I’d ever done since. Or not done. Because, if I was honest, I’d never really believed in anything since my mother died. Not even myself.

We crawled past a community centre with a load of OAPs standing around chatting on the footpath. I scanned the crowd of bobbing grey and white heads for a small, dark, teenaged one, but there was no sign of Wolfie.

‘No?’

‘Nope. Not really her scene, though, I wouldn’t think. But good try, thanks, Jaz.’

She executed a neat three-point turn and we headed back to the high street. A couple of the oldies looked curiously into the back of the cab and I gave them a wave. One old dear looked so delighted it nearly made me cry. Was life going to be so simple when I got to her age that a game of bingo and a wave from a stranger in the back of a black cab were the highlights of my day?

‘I tell you what though, Danny, there’s nothing better than seeing those crazy buggers’ little faces in the morning.’ It was a second or two before I realised Jaz wasn’t talking about my pensioner friends. ‘They’re a handful, no doubt about it, but I’d literally lay down my life for those little ones, no questions asked.’ She braked sharply. ‘Hold on, I’m just going to duck down here. There’s an alley at the back of those offices where I’ve seen some schoolkids having a sneaky smoke once or twice.’

I held on to the door handle as Jaz swerved elegantly left, still thinking about what she’d just said. Her words had jolted me back to the day Lou was born, when my father had come into my room to say goodnight, holding my sleeping baby sister. He held her close to my face and said, Room for a little one, Danny? Then he tucked her under my chin in the nook of my neck, and I remember being scared to breathe because I’d never felt anything so wonderful in my life.