‘Glad you like it.’

‘How many have we had?’

‘Seven. This is the eighth.’

‘In a year and a half?’

He spun her around. ‘Pretty rubbish, eh?’

It was. But so much had happened. So much in her life had been ripped away or turned upside down.

‘We should have more,’ said Tim.

‘I agree.’

‘While we can,’ he said meaningfully.

‘What do you mean?’

He smiled. ‘I’ve got something to ask you.’

Her heart froze in terror – or was it excitement? Excitement! The way he was looking at her, the way that always made her heart melt.

‘Is it a big thing or a small thing?’ she asked.

‘Very definitely a big thing.’

‘For us? Me and you?’ she asked pointedly.

He nodded, and her heart leapt again. This was one of those life-changing moments, she could tell. How did she feel about getting married? It wasn’t something that had ever occurred to her, her life being set on its untraditional path since that fateful night back when she was a schoolgirl. Now she was on the verge of being proposed to, she felt herself swelling with a new kind of joy.

‘I’ve been thinking . . . for a while now,’ said Tim, ‘about you and me. I love you—’

Kate melted. ‘Aw . . .’

He smiled. ‘Stop interrupting. I do. And I’d like to think we were permanent. You’re certainly the person I want to spend the rest of my life with.’

Kate prepared herself. She smiled and gave him the space to say the momentous thing.

‘And I’d like to make a future with you.’ He took a breath. ‘One that maybe isn’t limited to just us?’

She frowned, confused. Was he suggesting that they see other people?

‘I’ve been thinking . . . maybe we could talk about starting a family?’

She stopped still. Gobsmacked. ‘A baby?’

‘Yes.’ He took in her reaction. Smiled tentatively. ‘Is that so bad?’

‘No . . . I mean . . . it just took me by surprise, that’s all.’

‘Why?’

Now he said it like that, calmly, rationally, she didn’t really know. ‘Well, you’re the same age as me . . . more or less.’

‘I’m thirty-six. About time I started a family.’

Kate squeezed her eyes shut for a moment, tried to make her brain catch up, to get past the shock. She felt as if she’d been caught napping. Why wouldn’t Tim want children? She’d always thought she’d had hers and had been too wrapped up in everything to even think about his situation.

‘It’s been difficult, knowing when to bring it up,’ said Tim. ‘When we were first going out, it’s not the sort of thing you do. “Fancy going to the cinema, and by the way, do you want kids with your popcorn?” And then, after Becky, you and me got waylaid a bit.’ He held a hand up. ‘Completely understandable. But my feelings haven’t changed, and it would be wrong to go on keeping this to myself. I thought you’d rumbled me actually, the other day. When you came back from your first night at college.’ She was staring at him blankly. ‘I was checking my finances. In case you were worried. I can cover us both if you wanted to take a bit of time off.’