‘Didn’t you hear Mum calling?’ she asked, her voice tetchy and suspicious. ‘Lunch is ready.’

There were six of them at the table. Jo, having eaten earlier, sat in a corner watching cartoons on his mother’s iPad.

‘No Eva?’ Becca observed, and Abi explained that she was upstairs studying. The Leaving Cert exams were only a few weeks away.

‘She’s a good girl,’ Becca replied. ‘You’ve got no worries there. Always has her head in the books whenever she babysits for us. Isn’t that right, Ross?’

‘I’ll tell you what, I want this guy’s life,’ Ross said, changing the subject and nodding in Mark’s direction. ‘He gets to sit at home all day in his room, playing with his little models while this lady here –’ he nodded to Abi ‘– goes out and earns the dough!’

He laughed to show there was no malice intended, and Becca giggled and poked her husband in the stomach, saying: ‘Like you can talk. Playing all day with your cars. What do you think, Abi? How did we wind up in this position?’

Abi, putting down her glass of wine, said: ‘Honestly, I’m the lucky one. It’s such a relief to be able to go to work knowing that your children are being cared for by the person who’s invested in their needs, who best understands them. And Mark’s always been more attuned to them than I have.’

Mark said nothing. He’d heard Abi do this before: exclaim over his parenting skills while simultaneously disparaging her own. Mostly, he didn’t mind when she did this, understanding that she was not just trying to make him feel better, but assuaging her own residual guilt for the lack of time and attention she had been able to bestow on the girls over the years. Her job demanded so much. Perhaps it was the recent discussion with Andrew, reviving old passions, but he felt a prickle of resentment now.

‘You’re so lucky,’ Becca remarked. ‘You seem to have the whole thing sorted out between you. It’s like you’ve managed to achieve the perfect work/life balance.’

Beth snorted, saying ‘Yeah, right,’ while reaching across the table for the potato salad.

Abi flashed her a warning look, and then Mark sat forward, saying: ‘Actually, that balance is about to shift a little. A friend of mine in the business has asked me to come on board with the production design of a movie he’s working on. Filming begins in September.’

‘No shit,’ Ross said, impressed. ‘Where?’

‘Prague. London.’

‘Cool.’

‘Well, we still have to agree the arrangements,’ Abi said, laughing nervously as she handed around the basket of bread. ‘Nothing’s set in stone.’

A flicker of doubt went through him and he tried to catch her eye.