‘I don’t think that’s very fair, Hope.’ I pointed out as gently as I could. ‘Like I told your mum, his hand has been forced. He’s had no choice but to come back because he’s needed at the farm.’

‘Oh, I know,’ she said, stirring her tea with a paper straw. ‘It’s just all such a mess again and I can’t stand it.’

‘It is,’ I agreed, ‘and that’s why we need to do something about it. Avoiding the situation and avoiding Joe, like you suggested before, just isn’t working is it?’

‘No,’ she admitted.

‘If anything,’ I quickly added, sensing I had got her onside, ‘this week feels even worse than the last.’

‘I can’t deny that,’ she conceded, taking a sip through her straw. ‘So, what do you think we should do?’

I didn’t try and ease into it because there was no point.

‘Get them together.’

Poor Hope spluttered loudly and started to choke.

‘Are you mad?’ she coughed, sounding shocked as well as short of breath.

‘Probably,’ I said, patting her on the back, and giving Sophie, who had rushed to the café door, a thumbs up to indicate the situation was under control, ‘but they can’t carry on just circling around each other like this, can they? I think we need to set a situation up which will give them the opportunity to clear the air once and for all.’

It would be risky, a make-or-break face-to-face meeting, but I couldn’t think of any other way out of the deadlock.

‘And how exactly are we supposed to do that?’ Hope demanded, her tone suggesting that I had completely lost the plot.

‘Board game club,’ I said simply. ‘The next session is tomorrow night.’

‘Board game club,’ she echoed doubtfully.

‘Yes,’ I said, ‘I thought the four of us could play Monopoly or something. The boys could talk without having to look at each other, and . . .’

‘You seriously think,’ Hope cut in, sounding incredulous, ‘that pitching the pair against each other in a competitive gaming environment will be the way to resolve a broken friendship which has been torn asunder for the best part of fifteen years?’

‘Did you really just say torn asunder?’

‘Did you really just make such a crazy suggestion?’ she shot back. ‘Do you seriously think this is the solution?’

‘It might be,’ I swallowed.

Now she’d spelt it out, the idea did sound a little off the wall.

‘And it might not,’ she quickly countered.

‘But it can’t make things any worse, can it?’ I insisted, sticking with the plan. ‘And we do have to do something, because I don’t know about you, but I’d quite like to have the Sam who was here when I first arrived back. I miss him.’

Hope looked at me over the rim of her glass and I felt my face colour.