‘Mum,’ said Clementine, her gaze drifting back to the ceiling. ‘You’re here with us, now. We can feel it.’

‘We’ve felt it all day,’ said Penny.

‘And we love you – we’ll never stop loving you, and we know that you’re beside us every single day, and every single day we say a prayer for you and hope we’re making you proud. If we could, though, ask just one small favour from you – you know, if you don’t mind … We wondered if you could make sure Penny’s baby grows in my tummy, nice and big and strong and healthy.’

‘Any help you can lend to that would be really cool of you,’ said Penny, trying to keep the mood light.

‘Yeah,’ said Clementine, starting to cry. ‘It’d be a real baller move to keep the old bloodline going.’

‘You’d be the MVP.’

‘The VIP.’

‘Mammy Big Balls.’

‘Thanks, mum,’ Clementine said.

‘We miss you,’ Penny said.

‘I really do feel her, you know,’ said Clementine, turning to her sister again. ‘She’s here with us. I feel all protected and okay.’

‘Me too,’ said Penny. ‘I feel protected and okay because you’re here, as well. Thank you will never be big enough for all this.’

‘Hush,’ said Clementine. ‘You don’t have to keep saying it for me to know.’

Penny’s phone buzzed. She reached for it absentmindedly with her free hand, the other one clutched to her sister.

‘It’s Francesco,’ she said, sitting bolt upright. ‘Ohmygod. Should I answer it?’

From where she was lying Clementine said, ‘Of course you should answer it. Take a breath first though. You’re okay, okay?’

‘Okay.’

She slid the bar across the screen to answer it.

‘Hello?’ she asked.

‘Hi,’ Francesco said. ‘I didn’t know if you’d pick up.’

‘Of course I’d pick up,’ Penny replied.

‘Okay,’ Francesco said. She could hear him breathing down the phone like he was out of breath, somehow, like maybe he’d just run up some stairs or for a bus.

‘Did you hear about the job?’ Penny said.

‘Not yet. Maybe tomorrow,’ Francesco replied. ‘Listen. I kind of can’t believe I saw you earlier. I’m glad I did.’

‘Me too.’

‘It reminded me of how we bumped into each other at Dofi’s restaurant opening that night. How it was a second chance.’

Penny held her breath.

‘I shouldn’t have said what I did to you, Penny. When I left. It was really awful of me. I was just so …’

‘It’s okay,’ interrupted Penny. ‘I hardly behaved in a way that my mother would have been proud of.’

Another beat.

‘I’d like to see you,’ he said. ‘Do you think … that’s possible?’