And then I quickly tried to lighten the mood by changing the subject. I told her about Dave Prentiss becoming a father. I knew she’d be interested because she’d met him not so long ago. I’d agreed to go along to the school to give a talk about careers in the police force, but had to pull out at the last minute. Dave had done me a favour by stepping in.

‘They’ve named him Josh,’ I said. ‘And he’s so cute.’

It did the trick. My Mum smiled and said, ‘What a coincidence. My neighbour became a grandmother yesterday as well.’

Babies were her favourite subject and she stuck with it as Aidan served up the potatoes. We both waited for the inevitable question and it wasn’t long in coming.

‘So have you two given any more thought to getting married and starting a family?’

It was always so tempting to tell her the truth, but now wasn’t the time to start building her hopes up, especially if, God forbid, I wasn’t able to have children.

‘I keep telling you, Mum,’ I said. ‘You’ll be the first to know when we do. I promise. We just want to wait for a while and concentrate on our careers. There’s no hurry, after all.’

She kept her eyes on me and pointed her fork at Aidan.

‘Well, let me tell you, young lady,’ she said. ‘You’ve struck gold with this one, and if I was in your shoes I’d tie him down with a wedding ring and children so he can’t get away.’

Aidan couldn’t help but laugh as he reached across the table and placed a hand over my mother’s.

‘There’s no way I would ever leave your daughter,’ he said. ‘She’s the best darn thing that’s ever happened to me.’

Aidan had a knack for saying things that stirred my emotions and made me want to make love to him. And if my mother hadn’t been with us I would have dragged him upstairs to the bedroom and done just that.

Instead it was going to have to wait until after he had taken her home.

But as always she was keen to be off as soon as she’d finished dinner.

‘Are you sure you don’t want a coffee?’ I asked her.

She shook her head. ‘It’s almost seven and you know I like to be in bed by eight during the week. But thank you for a lovely evening.’

‘It’s been our pleasure,’ Aidan said, as he pushed back his chair and stood up.

At that moment his mobile pinged with an incoming text message. It was lying next to me on the table so I picked it up and handed it to him.

While he checked it I started clearing the dishes but then stopped suddenly when I heard him gasp.