Since that awful night, he’d called in on Grace regularly and she enjoyed spending time with him. He always knew when Nathan wouldn’t be around. But it was two months later before Ben first kissed her. They were standing in Grace’s kitchen and Ben had just finished his mug of coffee and was about to say goodnight. Grace leaned in for their usual parting embrace, but instead of wrapping her in one of his trademark bear hugs, his lips had found hers.

‘Sorry,’ he mumbled, red-faced. ‘I shouldn’t have—’

Before he could finish his sentence, she pulled him to her and kissed him right back. It was soft and hard. Slow and fast. All at the same time. Fervent and furtive; the threat of Nathan walking in on them at any given moment, only heightening the emotion of it all. She concentrated on the taste of his lips. The scent of his shampoo. The smell of the coffee they’d been drinking filling the kitchen. It felt so good to be kissed like that again; with passion; with feeling. By someone who had to kiss you, because they just couldn’t not. She hadn’t been kissed like that in a long time.

Nathan’s advances were always unwanted by then; they were always either forced on her, or his clumsy attempt at easing his conscience every so often. It was the closest he ever came to an apology. He still told her he loved her all the time. He claimed that he needed her, and she responded with similar prose. But they were like two characters in a play that had reached the end of its run. They both knew their lines well, but there was no real conviction behind them anymore.

When Ben’s hands moved lower and he started to unbutton her blouse, she didn’t stop him. She knew it was wrong. She was a married woman, after all. But Nathan hadn’t kept a single one of their marriage vows – so why should she?

Chapter Thirty-Nine

Present Day

It was late when Nathan knocked at Grace’s door. He waited patiently for her to answer and when she did, she looked surprised to see him. She was in her pyjamas, and he smiled when he realized he’d probably got her out of bed.

‘Jake’s not here, Nathan. He’s at uni.’

He didn’t move from the step. ‘It’s okay. It’s you I want, Grace.’

She looked exasperated. ‘Go home, Nathan. I’m tired and we have nothing to say to each other that can’t wait until tomorrow.’

‘Oh, I think you’ll want to hear what I have to say,’ he smiled. ‘It’s about Jake.’

Reluctantly she let him in and they went into the kitchen.

‘What is it?’ she asked, frowning at him, arms folded across her chest.