Sean used the stubby pencil to cross out another box on his game sheet. That was his big street, full house and Yahtzee all gone. He would be lucky not to finish last. He sighed and handed the dice and shaker to Russ, who was taking it all very seriously.

He studied the other men for a moment: Russ and Alistair, opposite him on one of the big sofas, an awkward pair if ever he’d seen one. Russ, all angles and elbows and alpha-dog cheekbones next to Alistair – soft edges and sloping shoulders, beer belly and bushy beard. Did either of them know? Did either of them have the slightest inkling of what was going on? Russ seemed to spend half the day on his mobile phone and the other half drinking rather than paying close attention to what was happening around him. Alistair, on the other hand, appeared more observant, more tuned in most of the time.

Jake and Ethan were sprawled at each end of a sofa, Lucy cross-legged between them. Each was splitting their attention between taking their turn in the game and their respective mobile phones. Dinner was finished and the two younger children had been put to bed.

Russ rolled a full house straight off the bat.

‘Get in!’ He clenched a fist in triumph and wrote the score on his sheet.

Alistair took the dice from him and rolled three ones, a four and a six.

‘Here we go, boys. Your old dad’s going to get a Yahtzee.’

He picked up the dice and rolled them twice more, ending up with three ones, a two and a three. A bust.

Jake shook his head, exchanging a glance with his younger brother.

‘You really are crap at this, aren’t you, Dad?’

‘It’s a game of luck, my boy. Now chess, on the other hand, that’s more my thing.’

‘Isn’t chess, like, the most boring game ever invented?’

‘All skill, no luck, Jake. How a game should be. When I was your age I was—’

A high-pitched cry reached them from upstairs.

‘Daddy! Daddy!’

Sean muted the music again and looked over at Russ.

‘Yours or mine?’ he said.

Russ turned his head towards the sound, narrowing his eyes. A moment later, the cry came again.

‘Daddy!’

‘Mine, I think,’ Russ said, popping the cap off another bottle of beer and taking a long pull. ‘But she’ll stop in a minute.’

Jake and Ethan took their turns before the cry from upstairs came again.

‘Daddy!’

Sean smiled at Russ, pointing towards the stairs.

‘Definitely yours,’ he said.

Ethan gathered the dice back into the little plastic cup and handed it to Lucy, who took it from him as she scrolled one-handed on her phone.

Odette appeared at the bottom of the stairs in her Peppa Pig pyjamas, her hair a nest of straggling bedhead curls around her head. Her face was flushed pink, a deep frown creasing her forehead.