He took the pot off the heat and walked over to her. ‘I think George might need something.’

‘Yes.’ She closed her eyes for a moment.

‘I’m just warming the soup.’

She noted that he’d laid the table for the four of them. ‘After that shall we take a walk?’ He placed a hand on her arm.

She stared at it as if she’d never seen it before. She swallowed. ‘Not sure.’ There was so much he didn’t know. ‘Shall I get Gramps?’

He nodded, and she walked away.

In the snug Gramps sat with a glass of whisky in his hand.

‘Some soup?’

He shook his head. ‘Haven’t the appetite.’

She nodded. ‘I’ll let you off this time.’ She held his hand and it was cold despite the warmth of the evening. She pulled the throw off the sofa and covered his legs.

‘I’ll be back shortly.’

‘No rush,’ he took a sip of his drink, ‘I’m not going anywhere.’ She kissed him and went back to the kitchen, catching the scent of the roses in the vase on the hallway table.

Alex was about to pour the soup.

‘Just the two of us.’

‘Oh.’

The toast popped up and she grabbed it. It smelled good. It was something normal when nothing else felt the way it should. She put it in the toast rack and sat opposite Alex. Steam rose from the bowl and blurred his features.

‘There was a picture of you in uniform at your grandmother’s.’

He raised an eyebrow. ‘I think that was the last thing I expected you to say.’

She smiled. ‘Pleased I can still surprise you.’

He grinned. ‘After uni, I joined the Navy and now I’m an IT geek.’

‘But you’d never mentioned the Navy when we were together.’ She raised an eyebrow.

‘Ah, no it had never crossed my mind.’

She frowned.

‘But I realized that you were right when you said I wasn’t man enough or educated enough. I was going nowhere, and the Navy solved that.’ He laughed. ‘From a boy who’d only been to London twice, I suddenly saw the world.’

She pushed her hair back, regretting her words yet again. ‘Did you enjoy it?’

‘Yes, but Cornwall kept a hold of my heart.’ He looked up at her and gave her one of those sexy half smiles of his.

‘Living in Cornwall was always part of your plan.’ She blew on her soup. She shouldn’t have said that because she too had been part of his plan, their plan. She dared to look up and her breath caught when she saw the emotion in his eyes. He still cared for her. She swallowed. This wasn’t good. She would just hurt him again and that was the last thing she wanted to do.

‘So that’s me, what about you? George mentioned a big show coming up.’