‘I hope so. Sometimes. Dad and I are good,’ she added quickly, aware Dylan had tensed, and it suddenly crossing her mind that Lucas’s night-time visit to his old bedroom might not have gone unnoticed. ‘We had a big talk last night. Cleared a lot of air. About your grandfather, among other things. It’s great that he decided to stay on – not easy for either of them. Brave, actually. You should both be proud of him. And, Dylan, you can be proud of yourself too – if we temporarily set aside the unforgivable fact of you running out on us for four months, dragging your sister into the deceit, spinning lies…’

‘Yeah, yeah.’ Dylan groaned. ‘Get to the proud bit.’

Esther reached out and ruffled his hair, laughing at the evident irritation it caused. The first part of the journey had seen some serious talking about what had happened, both children offering apologies, and Dylan fiercely defending his reasons as well as his grandfather. He had even answered a question or two about Mei Lin, saying he didn’t miss her, with enough vehemence for Esther to suspect that he did.

‘The proud bit is because I suppose you have ended up being a bit of… a… bridge… a way for your father and John to…’

‘A bridge,’ Dylan squawked. ‘I’m a bridge, Boo. Are you jealous?’

Lily pulled a face. ‘You are an annoying bridge, that’s for sure…’ She broke off as her phone pinged, and then announced, an edge of cautious reluctance in her voice, that Lucas and Heidi had settled on Midsummer’s Day for their wedding and wanted her to be a bridesmaid. ‘They were on a break, but I guess that’s over.’

‘Bridesmaid beats bridge,’ said Dylan philosophically, scrunching up an empty crisp packet and lobbing it at the back seat.