‘Really. I promised you everything was going to be okay, didn’t I? Now come here.’ He waves me closer, and I lean forward to rest my head in the crook between his neck and shoulder. My breath intermingles with the fragrance of apples.

‘Why does your hair smell like fruit?’ I ask.

‘Maybe the answer’s in the bag.’ He smiles.

I pull out a green bottle of apple-scented shampoo. Mystery solved.

‘I’m sorry,’ I say, nestling back in.

‘For what?’

‘For everything.’ My eyes fill up yet again. ‘For being so judgemental.’ I sit up and sniff. ‘It’s just been hard for me.’

‘I know.’ He takes my hand.

‘But I don’t care what you do for a living,’ I say. ‘I mean, I do care a bit, of course. But it’s way more important that we can be together. I don’t want to lose you.’

‘I refuse to lose you.’

‘Really?’

‘Really.’ A few minutes pass, then my father says, ‘Sky, do you still think about the moose?’

‘Yes. And the baby who may still be searching for his father.’

‘Bulls are solitary animals, Sky. They don’t care for the young. There won’t be a calf missing him, I promise.’

‘Oh.’ I feel a great weight lifted off me.

My father is silent again, but eventually he says, ‘I feel terrible about it. But maybe … also …’ He stalls. ‘Did it also bring up some issues for you, like a trigger?’

Images of Mum dying float across my mind, and then the searing pain of being totally alone, a boat in a stormy harbour without an anchor. ‘I guess.’

‘I’m sorry, Sky,’ he says, and I feel his eyes on me. ‘About putting you through that, and your mum passing. I know I’ve said it before but I am so sorry I didn’t fight and try harder to see you, to be in your life.’

‘I know,’ I say. And I do.

Speaking like this, side by side, feels good. We’re finally alone together with time to talk.

‘How about a brownie? There’s a box in my bag.’ He points to a backpack by the window.

I get up and rummage around in the bag. ‘Are these the—’

‘Vegan ones I told you I’d buy a few days ago? Sure are.’

He kept his promise.

I eat one, and then another, brushing crumbs off my lap. They taste like heaven.

But there’s still something unresolved. ‘I did want to ask you,’ I say, glancing sideways at him, ‘about Melody. It was kind of horrible when I found out you guys were together and—’

‘Sky.’ He sighs and shakes his head. ‘That was one night, never to be repeated, never to happen again.’

‘Okay.’