‘Dad-ee!’ She stuck out her bottom lip in an exaggerated pout. ‘Why didn’t you come when I shouted?’

‘Couldn’t hear you, darling.’

‘I shouted and shouted and you didn’t come! I can’t get to sleep.’

‘Have you tried lying very quietly and thinking about nice things?’

She folded her arms. ‘I want a Daddy story.’

‘You had a Daddy story already, poppet. In fact, you had two stories.’

‘Want another one.’

‘No.’

‘Want a Mummy story, then.’

‘Mummy’s out at dinner.’

‘Then you have to do it. And you have to wait with me while I fall asleep in case the baddies try to get me.’

‘The baddies aren’t going to get you, Odette.’

She stamped her little foot on the white-tiled floor. ‘Want a story! And you have to wait with me!’

Russ stood up with a sigh, grabbing his beer from the table and scooping up his daughter with his other arm. He headed back up the stairs for the second time that evening. Sean watched him go, waiting for a moment before following him up the wide marble staircase. Daniel’s room was just across the corridor from Odette and he would have heard the little girl shouting.

He opened Daniel’s door as quietly as he could, tiptoeing into the room and waiting for his eyes to adjust. He bent close to his son, hearing his rhythmic breathing. He was asleep. Good boy. He retreated, pulling the door closed, hearing the low rumble of Russ’s voice as he read another story to his daughter.

Back in the lounge, Jake was not happy about the break in play. ‘Are we carrying on, or what?’

‘We should probably wait for Russ to come back,’ Sean said, ‘since he’s in the lead.’

‘How long’s he going to be, then?’

‘Not long.’

Jake went back to looking at his phone.

Sean looked at the three teenagers on the sofa across from him. His daughter was only a year older than Jake, and two years older than Ethan, but there was a world of difference between them. His daughter looked like a young woman – with a full face of make-up, he knew she could pass for eighteen at least – while Jake had the size of a man but the face of a boy, as if he’d grown too fast for his features to keep up. No, that wasn’t quite right: not a boy, exactly, but a curious teenage hybrid that was neither one nor the other.

Jake stood up and stretched, yawning hugely. ‘So bored. Who’s up for some pool downstairs?’

Ethan unfolded himself from the sofa and stood too. ‘I’ll give you a thrashing if you want, bro.’

To Sean’s surprise, Lucy stood up, too.

‘I’ll play the winner.’

‘That,’ Ethan said with a lopsided grin, ‘will be me.’