‘Hate it might be a little harsh,’ she admitted. ‘At first, he used to join in as much as everyone else, but the last couple of years he’s tried to get away. He said it was because I was always volunteering at Bluebell Park on Christmas Eve and he wanted time just the two of us. I understood but I just love being with my family at this time of year. It may sound silly coming from a thirty-five-year-old woman but as I get older, I realise I don’t know how much longer I’ll have them around for. Not fit and able like this, and I want to make the most of it.’

‘And he couldn’t understand that?’

‘Not always. He didn’t see his folks till New Year and even then, he wasn’t that bothered about it. I’ve been thinking about it a lot lately, and I’ve realised that there were quite a few times when we were growing apart and changing in different ways that I never picked up on. Do you know what I mean?’

‘That’s generally how it goes,’ he said with a smile. ‘You don’t realise what’s happening until it’s done.’

‘Last year he made me feel so guilty about spending Christmas Day with my family we left at five o’clock.’

‘That must have been before the cheese and wine,’ Nick replied with a wicked grin.

‘It was. Can you imagine? Who leaves before cheese and wine? And you know what my mum’s like – the cheese board was more like a cheese shelf. I’m sure she’d bought everything the deli sold.’

Nick laughed and she savoured the sound of the throaty rumble that started somewhere deep inside him.

There’d been other things too that she’d slowly been piecing together. She loved doing her charity work, which Evan would sometimes moan about. Apparently, it was unfair that he didn’t get to see her all day on a Saturday unless he was off to play golf with his mates, then he didn’t mind. They’d begun to disagree about what to watch. She loved re-watching old programmes that had made her laugh while he only ever wanted to watch new things, particularly shows that were doing the rounds as the best thing since sliced bread. Bella wasn’t always interested in what was good if it was about something that would make her sad. She just wanted to be entertained, made to laugh. Evan hadn’t laughed much in the last few months. Perhaps it was even longer than that.

‘Are you okay? You’ve gone very quiet,’ Nick said, topping up her glass.

‘I’m fine,’ she replied and then admitted what she’d been thinking about.

‘I did that too. After Paige left, I suddenly found a million and one things that weren’t right with our relationship. I wrote them all down once.’

‘You did?’