That wasn’t the first time he’d owned up to being wrong about something since he’d arrived and I looked at him with fresh eyes. He appeared different, standing next to Sophie. There was no tension in his shoulders and his brows weren’t pulled tight in a frown. It was refreshing to see him looking so relaxed.

‘It was your resignation that was the clincher, Tess,’ Sophie then joined in.

Clearly, she had been aware of the transformative awakening Dad had been going through during the previous few weeks.

‘You had decided to leave for good,’ Dad said to me. ‘And that was so brave and I recognized that I needed to be brave too. Work had been my refuge when your mother was alive but now . . .’

‘She’s gone,’ I said for him.

‘Yes,’ Dad nodded, ‘now she’s gone and I don’t need it anymore. Now, I have the chance of a whole new life. I can finally get to know my other beautiful daughter and spend time with her equally beautiful mother.’

He turned to Sophie and kissed her softly on the lips.

‘Does this mean that you two are together?’ Hope asked, wide-eyed.

Sophie looked at her and nodded and I could tell she was close to tears.

‘Yes, my love,’ Dad said to Hope as he kissed Sophie again. ‘We are and I’m going to be spending a lot more time here in Wynmouth.’

‘That’s wonderful,’ said Hope breathlessly.

She sounded absolutely thrilled and I wanted to match her excitement, but . . .

‘But it’s way too far to commute,’ I pointed out, ‘even if you only make the journey three days a week it will be too much.’

If he thought shuttling backwards and forwards was going to be an option then it wouldn’t be long before he was running himself even further into the ground and I was certain that was the last thing any of us wanted to happen. It sounded to me as though he had made great strides mentally when it came to thinking through his work-life balance, but that wasn’t going to transfer into reality if he spent all his time in the car.

‘I’m not,’ he shrugged.

‘Not what?’

‘Going to commute,’ he said, ‘that’s what I had written in your letter, Tess, but then I asked you not to open it because I decided it would be better to tell you in person.’

‘Tell me what exactly?’ I asked, my voice catching in my throat.

Dad grinned and I couldn’t recall a time I’d ever seen him look so happy.

‘This isn’t quite where or how I had planned to tell you,’ he said, looking about him.

‘Just tell me,’ I urged.