‘I’ll bring it over, darling.’

She went to sit down with the others, ready to get down to the important business of school event planning.

Children deposited safely at school. Back home now xx

Angie read the message from Jack as she dashed out of her office towards the court. She quickly typed out Thanks in response and pocketed her phone. Looking at her watch she cursed and picked up the pace. There’d be no time to get a coffee on the way this morning.

She’d been up late last night preparing for today’s court hearing and she was tired and ratty. Most of the time she didn’t mind the demands of her job, in fact she thrived on it, but occasionally it all felt a bit too much and today was one of those days. Freddy had wet the bed and she’d been up at 4am changing the sheets and then Indie had given her a hard time at breakfast about not being there to take her to school, despite the fact that she’d already declared she would be walking on her own.

‘You’re always working, Mum,’ her eldest daughter had said, scowling at her over her half-eaten toast. ‘You’re never there when I need you.’

She’d heard it all before and she normally brushed it aside fairly easily, confident in the knowledge that she was a good mother. But for some reason it had stuck this time and a sort of melancholy had settled over her all morning. She thought back to the conversation she’d had with Jack on holiday, when he had suggested reducing his hours so that he could be around more for the children, and the relief she’d felt that he’d offered to be the one to do it.

She was the breadwinner so it made sense that Jack took on the role. But, still, he enjoyed his job and the social aspect of working as part of a team and she had been surprised that he was so eager to do it. It was another example of Jack 2.0, the new man, the changed man.

When Angie had discovered she was pregnant with Benji, Jack had been thrilled. She was too, although a little shell-shocked by how fast it had happened. In the days and weeks that had followed their baby talk on Clapham Common, Jack had been true to his word. He’d stopped disappearing on late nights out, texted her when he was leaving the office and often came home with flowers or a lovely bottle of wine for them to share. She began to relax for the first time in months and enjoy married life again. It was over, she thought, she had her husband back.

So when Jack had brought up babies again a few weeks later, she had tried to be open-minded about it. But she still wasn’t sure that the timing was right.

‘Why don’t you just come off the pill?’ Jack suggested. ‘And we’ll see what happens. That way we’re not actively trying for a baby. It won’t be all ovulation sticks and period cycles. We’ll just live our life as normal and see what happens.’