There was nothing said as they ate, the meal so different from meals they’d shared in the past where each mouthful was interrupted by words.

Flynn finished his, scraping the plate. ‘Maybe I could stay for a while.’

‘That would be good.’ She felt the tension relax a little. It wasn’t going to be easy with this man she loved being so near, being so untouchable. It would take time for both to redefine their relationship.

And maybe, she’d reconsider telling him about the baby.

48

As the last refrain of the Dean Martin song faded away, Jodie dragged herself back to the present. If she hadn’t stopped for coffee that day, she might never have met Flynn, and she wouldn’t have this adorable child to love.

She also wouldn’t have been forced into doing something so abhorrent that to this day she trembled when she thought of it. But she’d had no choice: she’d been a mother protecting her children. Victor would never have let them go, would have ruined them, haunted them.

She’d never stopped loving Flynn, she probably never would. But it was getting easier.

‘Here you go,’ he said, putting a brimming cappuccino on the table in front of her.

He sat and looked towards the door, lifting his hand in a wave. ‘Here’s Rosie already, I thought she’d be ages yet.’

The dark-haired woman returned the wave, pointed towards the counter and with a small boy’s hand still clasped in hers she joined the queue and lifted the boy to see the array of pastries behind the glass.

‘Ben wanted a bite of each,’ Rosie said with a laugh when she joined them minutes later.

‘Just a small bite,’ the boy said, as if that was quite reasonable. He scrambled up onto the chair and smiled all around.

The conversation flowed for a while and then, as was often the way, Flynn and Rosie got into a discussion about something domestic. Jodie never minded: she liked Rosie, and if Flynn had to marry someone, she was glad it was her.

Jodie reached across and cut Ben’s pastry into smaller pieces. ‘There you go, sweetheart.’

‘What do you say?’ Rosie said to him.

‘Thank you, Ganny,’ Ben piped up.

Jodie smiled at the child… her darling, beloved child, her second chance.

It hadn’t worked out in Gravesend… she and Flynn living together… there were too many memories of happier times. Too many nights when she yearned for him. She knew he saw it… knew, too, that it repelled him. It made her more reluctant to tell him about the baby.

It wasn’t until he said he was leaving, only two weeks later, that desperation made her blurt it out. ‘I’m pregnant.’

‘No!’ He’d looked at her appalled, eyes sliding over her in absolute horror. ‘You have to get rid of it.’