Penny looked over her shoulder to where Francesco was sitting with Rima, talking about something that made Rima cry, ‘No! That can’t be true! I don’t believe you!’ but she was laughing, signalling that whatever he was saying, she absolutely did.

‘I don’t need to be worshipped …’ Penny started, but her sister patted her arm and said: ‘Yes Penny, you do. And you deserve to be.’

Penny might not have needed it, but she certainly did love it.

‘I liked being there tonight,’ Francesco said later, as they lay in bed, sweaty and happy.

‘I liked you being there too,’ said Penny. ‘Isn’t Rima wonderful? I can’t believe the good fortune of being raised with one sister and now having two.’

‘That’s a beautiful thing to say,’ Francesco said, kissing the top of her head. ‘And I’m excited to see the whole family in action tomorrow.’

‘Me too. Clementine, Rima, Uncle David and Eric – we all hold each other close,’ Penny said. ‘There’s a weird bond when you decide to choose to love your family. Everyone knows they should love their family, but when you make a decision to love them, I mean to like them, as people, and to keep showing up even when things are hard and uncomfortable and everyone knows exactly how to push your buttons … I feel really lucky. I mean, my sister and her wife, my uncle and his husband, me and everything I went through, all banding together to be this unit, even though we’re all over the country – well, with Clem travelling like she does, all over the world! – it’s special. And now you’re here.’

‘I am,’ Francesco said. ‘So I passed the test?’

‘The practical element,’ said Penny. ‘Tomorrow morning you have the written portion of the exam.’

‘What happens after that?’

‘You finally get to meet Uncle David, I suppose.’

‘Crikey.’

‘I know. The honour will be all yours.’

‘We should go to sleep so we’re ready for it.’

‘We should,’ said Penny.

‘But you’re so warm,’ said Francesco, ‘and so naked …’

He disappeared under the duvet to kiss Penny’s collarbone, her chest, her breasts. He kept kissing, lower and lower, and Penny closed her eyes and sighed contentedly.

‘Francesco?’ Penny said, when they finally tried to go to sleep.

‘Mmmmm?’ he said, drowsy.

‘Don’t freak out, but – do you want kids?’

She could feel Francesco open his eyes in the dark, even though she couldn’t see him.

‘Now?’ he said, immediately wider awake and cheeky with it.

‘One day. In theory. You know.’

He thought about it. ‘I do,’ he said. ‘When the time is right, and the woman is right, yeah. It’s what life is all about, isn’t it?’

‘Yeah, I think so.’ She paused, thinking of how to phrase the next part of her question. ‘What do you think about adoption?’

‘Adoption?’