“A third outcome is that the meeting rips open a part of my life I left in the past for good reason.”

“How can it?” Martha’s tone was gentle. “You’re not going to regret your decision, Kathleen. You wouldn’t want to turn the clock back, even if you could. You know that. Because of what happened, you had an amazing career.”

“You know how much I dislike the word amazing. It conveys nothing.”

“It conveys amazingness,” Martha continued unrepentant, “and your career was amazing.”

“It’s true,” Josh said. “It was.”

Martha nodded. “If you’d married Adam he would have driven you crazy.”

Kathleen wrinkled her nose. “Crazy is another word I dislike. Could we aim for more descriptive language? Have I taught you nothing over the past few weeks?”

“You’ve taught me persistence.” Martha leaned forward. “If you’d stayed together, you would have wanted to kill Adam. Think about those articles we read. I’m sure he was very eminent, but he probably had an overinflated ego. Maybe he wouldn’t have liked you being a big star. Maybe you wouldn’t have been able to travel the world. Maybe The Summer Seekers never would have happened.”

“I’m not sure there is evidence to support that.” Kathleen brushed nonexistent fluff from her skirt. “You could be right. I wouldn’t have described him as supportive when I expressed certain ambitions.”

“But Brian was. Wait a minute—” Martha grabbed her phone and fiddled for a moment before thrusting it in Kathleen’s face. “There’s Brian when you received that big award in London. Presenter of the Year or whatever it was called.”

Kathleen felt her eyes mist. Oh Brian. “I have no idea why you are showing me this.”

“Look at his face! What do you see? Pride. Joy. And so much love. I’d give anything for a man to look at me that way just once.”

“Perhaps if you wore something other than jeans—”

“We’re talking about you, Kathleen. And Brian, who you loved as much as he loved you. He was not second best. He wasn’t your consolation prize. Wasn’t that what you said to me when we pulled up at Devil’s Elbow? A good relationship doesn’t need a miracle. All it needs is the right person at the right time. Which is a whole lot harder than it sounds, actually, but that’s not relevant right now.”

“I used the word require, not need.”

“Same thing.”

“Actually it’s—”

“Kathleen!”

“Give me a moment.” Kathleen closed her eyes, and thought of Brian. His patience. His ability to always make her laugh. The way they’d argued about the best way to mark a place in the book. Their love of the sea. Their home. Their daughter.

He had, without doubt, been the best thing that had happened to her in her life. Better even than The Summer Seekers.