An Italian recipe book lay open on the worktop, but there were no pasta sheets or tomatoes next to it. “Aren’t we having lasagna?” she said.

“Beans on toast is quicker. Mack’s playing football with his mates, so it’s just us three eating.”

“Oh.” Liv tried to mask her disappointment. Jake’s girlfriend mustn’t be coming anymore. Her shoulders drooped as her vision of a fun, chatty evening evaporated. “Um, three?”

Her husband mouthed, They broke up, before nodding toward Johnny.

Before Liv had a chance to ask Johnny if he was okay, Jake plonked down three plates. “Tea’s ready,” he said, patting his son on the back. “Plenty more fish in the sea, mate. Plus, Man United are on TV tomorrow. Nothing beats that.”

Ignoring his dad, Johnny wolfed down his food so fast Liv doubted he tasted it. She stopped herself from comforting her son. The boys used to love her bear hugs when they were young, laughing and pressing their cheeks against hers. Now they winced and shrank away if she tried to show them any affection. Cuddles were in short supply from Jake, too. Most of the romance Liv enjoyed these days came courtesy of Georgia Rory’s dashing heroes.

Johnny clattered down his knife and fork. “I’m going upstairs,” he said dolefully and pushed his chair under the table. He paused. “Um, I might need a new laptop. It keeps crashing and I can’t revise properly.”

Jake’s and Liv’s eyes met briefly. Up until a few months ago, Johnny had a Saturday job at a sports shop, but it had gone out of business. He hadn’t been able to find another job to fit around school, and Paperpress couldn’t afford an extra pair of hands.

Jake cut his toast slowly. “Okay, mate. We’ll see what we can do.”

After Johnny left the room, Jake and Liv finished their food in silence.

“Don’t worry about money,” he said as they washed the pots together. “I’ll sort it out.”

It was something he’d been promising for some time. Liv hadn’t told him the washing machine was on the blink, and there was a hole in their bedroom carpet.

She rubbed his back. “I know you will.”

Financial issues at Paperpress meant Jake leaped out of bed in the morning to check his emails and worked at the kitchen table late at night. Now that his parents were retiring, Jake was desperate to keep the business in his family. However, it meant he and his sister, Katrina, had to urgently turn the company’s fortunes around. Most of Jake and Liv’s modest savings had been sucked into the business, leaving them with zero funds for emergencies and difficulty meeting their household bills.