Tears sting her eyes, the unfairness of it all tumbling towards her like a wave. She feels her legs shake as her body is swept under the water. Her head goes under, she struggles for breath.

Ty reaches out, takes her hand and squeezes it tight. That single moment rescues her from going under and she steadies her breath.

‘I’d like to say something,’ Ty says. ‘I think it’d be good for me.’

She gives a small nod. She owes him that much. ‘Okay, but nothing too over the top.’

‘Wouldn’t dream of it,’ he teases steadily.

Penny moves on, going through the paperwork, explaining she’s bought a crematorium plot to be with her mother and sister.

He stares at her for so long that her procedural manner wavers again. ‘What is it?’

He breathes loudly out of his nose, his eyes downcast. ‘I was just wondering if I could buy a plot there—for me, you know, when …’

For when he dies?

Her throat dries at this. Of course Ty wants to be buried with her now. But he’s thirty-two. Realistically he could have another fifty years ahead of him. How do you tell someone who is deeply in love with you that they won’t feel this way forever? That he will probably fall in love again, that he might have a long marriage, a happy family … a life that goes much further than an early chapter titled ‘Penelope’. She doesn’t want him buying a plot and then having to deal with the guilt of not wanting to be buried there after years have passed and his life has moved on. ‘I don’t think that’s something you need to decide on yet.’

‘Okay.’ His voice is soft, his face pale.

‘Not many people will be there,’ she says, focused back on her funeral. She knows Lara will be there and doesn’t know whether to feel warmed by the friendship she’s made or guilty that she’s brought more grief into Lara’s life. Lara calls her every few days to check up on her and each time Penny finds herself wishing that her new friend didn’t have to be sad again so soon.

‘Penny,’ he begins, perhaps worried that she’s offended by the thought of not having a mass of people to send her off, but that isn’t the case at all. There have been three important people in her life and two of them have already gone. ‘I think you’ll be surprised.’

‘Well, people will be there for you. Lots will be there to try and support you. But I don’t have very many friends, Ty.’

He stares at her for a moment, for this he knows is true. ‘You’ve never really let anyone in.’

They both know this has been a conscious thing. ‘I let you in,’ she counters.