‘What changed?’

‘I have,’ she said simply, realizing that this was the truth. She no longer felt like a zombie stumbling through life in a haze.

‘I want you to know I’m not just after a fling. I’m looking for something more serious.’

Anna sighed. ‘You might have already guessed this, but you’re the first person I’ve dated since Spencer passed away. It all feels a bit new and bit strange…’

She looked up and he didn’t seem fazed or perplexed, just accepting. It gave her the courage to carry on. She needed to be honest with him from the start, give him a chance to back out if they weren’t on the same page. ‘I’m not sure I can promise you forever, Jeremy, especially not on a first date. I’m not even sure I believe in forever anymore. I mean, the ‘till death do us part’ bit still looms over that concept like a large black thundercloud.’

‘I’m not asking for that,’ he said, his eyes crinkling as he gave her a gentle smile. ‘Just that you’re willing to see where this goes. And I know this isn’t easy for you, that we might have to take things step by step.’

Anna understood what he was asking for. A green light. Not to the end of a road that stretched out forever, but he was looking for a sign. Something. She reckoned she was ready for something. ‘Yes,’ she said. ‘I’d like to see where this goes too.’

IT FELT STRANGE walking down the road with a man, a man who wasn’t Spencer. Strange, but not awful.

Anna had deliberately left her car at home, partly because she’d wanted the fresh air on the twenty-minute walk to La Cucina to clear her head before the date, and partly because she suspected a couple of glasses of wine might bolster her courage. She’d been intending to call a cab at the end of the evening, but Jeremy had suggested walking her back and they’d been having such a good time she hadn’t been ready to end the evening yet. However, as she got closer to home, she started to wonder if this had been a mistake.

What is he expecting? she thought as they turned into her road.

She wasn’t ready to ask him inside her house. Not even a little bit. Not even for ‘coffee’ that actually meant ‘coffee’. It would be too weird. This was the house she and Spencer had planned to build a life in, and she couldn’t imagine another masculine presence inside it. Baby steps, she told herself. Baby steps.

And those baby steps eventually brought her right outside her house. Anna opened the gate and glanced at Jeremy as he released her hand and let her walk up the path in front of him. She couldn’t read his expression, couldn’t get any hint of what he thought the next five minutes – or longer – might hold. It unnerved her and her heart began to thud. When she got to the front door, she stopped and turned. Her voice came out thin, her tone patchy. ‘It was a lovely evening.’