Anna’s parents had come to stay as soon as they could after Spencer had died. They’d even offered to move back to England permanently, but Anna had refused, telling them they couldn’t put their lives on hold indefinitely for her. However, once they’d actually left, she’d realized how much it had helped having someone else in the house. She knew one or both of them would have dropped everything again if she’d told them she was feeling lonely, but that wouldn’t have been fair on them. So having this new, closer connection with Gayle had meant everything.

Once the photo albums were put away, a conversation began about how they’d all spent New Year’s Eve, but nobody lingered on their tales, because it was glaringly obvious that someone was missing from all of them. To make up for that, Scott relayed a story about the millennium New Year when they’d had a big reunion with Gayle’s side of the family. Anna had heard the anecdote countless times before, but it still made her smile. Fifteen-year-old Spencer had crept out of a long and boring dinner and lit £500-worth of fireworks meant for midnight while the rest of the family were still enjoying their desserts. He was lucky he hadn’t blown himself to kingdom come.

Anna glanced across the room and saw Gayle smiling widely, but her eyes were glittering, and she kept looking down at her lap as the others laughed and delved into the memory in greater detail. She suspected her mother-in-law was thinking exactly the same thing as her: that it seemed so unfair. Everyone had always joked that Spencer’s reckless side would be his undoing, so it seemed wrong that he’d been minding his own business, sensibly walking across the road, when the end had come. It made his death even harder to bear.

When there was a gap in the conversation, Anna said, ‘What about that night when Spencer stayed in and missed going up to London with everyone because Lewis was sick? He wasn’t always impossible.’

‘God, I loved that dog,’ Richard chipped in, smiling. ‘Only one in this household who took me seriously!’

Gayle turned to face Anna. ‘Did Spencer tell you about that?’

‘No.’

‘But you weren’t on the scene then, were you?’

Anna took a moment before she answered. She didn’t want to contradict her mother-in-law, but she wasn’t going to lie. ‘We’d only just got together. It was all very new.’

Gayle frowned. ‘I don’t think you were.’ And she went on to supplant Anna’s story with one of her own.

Anna stayed quiet. She knew she was right, because that had been her and Spencer’s first New Year’s Eve together. They’d spent it here in this house, cuddled up on the sofa with the poorly dog. Even if her mother-in-law didn’t remember, why had she pressed the point, and – to be honest – been a little snippy? Was this punishment for holding up lunch?

However, if Gayle was annoyed, she showed none of it as she recounted an incident from when Spencer had still been in primary school. In fact, her usually prickly demeanour melted away and she laughed and gesticulated as she told how Spencer had hidden behind the sofa so he could stay up to watch the new year in with the family. They’d found him asleep there in the morning, after a great deal of panic about his empty bed. This memory was safe territory for Gayle. No danger of anyone not born a Barry accidentally trespassing in it.