“It’s got everyone talking about Nicole again. You met her, didn’t you? At the first party you had?”

He turns away, starts scooping up weeds and putting them in a green garden bag. “I don’t remember her. The kids were there for the boys, none of them spoke to me.”

That’s not entirely true, though. I’m sure I remember a very drunk Nicole dragging a laughing Greg onto the dance floor at their New Year’s party. Nicole, with her arms draped around his shoulders, watched from various points round the room by me, Julia, Jack, Sean, and Bella.

November 2007

“Where are you going?”

Bella’s stuffing things into a small rucksack. She looks up and grins. “On an adventure. Want to come?”

It’s been so long since we did anything together. Ellie dying, Julia moving in, Jack, Sean, Max…so many things driving a wedge between us. I only ever go to the woods alone now.

“Where?” I ask again.

I want to go, I do, I do. But I want it to be just me and her—Tess and Bella on a big adventure, not trailing round some shopping center after her and her sniggering mates.

“It wouldn’t be an adventure if I told you. Go on, come with me. Please.”

I never could resist when she gives me puppy-dog eyes.

We walk to the bus stop and it is, for those ten minutes, just like old times. Bella walks next to me, swinging her rucksack, rattling on and on about nothing at all and I’m happy to walk next to her listening. It’s such a gorgeous day, I can’t believe it’s November, cold but bright, the ground crunchy with fallen leaves, red and orange and yellow, speckled with frost.

“So, come on—are you ever going to tell me where we’re going?” I say as I see the bus approaching in the distance.

“Okay,” she says, laughing. “We’re going to meet Jack and Sean.”

“What?”

“Sean’s going to sneak out of school and Jack’s off work—we’re going on a picnic.”

“A picnic? In November? With Jack and Sean? After everything you said about Jack after Nic died?”

She shrugs and holds up a hand to flag the bus down. “Yeah, I was upset about how Jack was over Nic. But I saw…it was a defense mechanism, the way he was. We talked and…I was wrong. They’re actually…” She turns to me and a smile grows huge on her face. “Oh, Tess, he—they are actually pretty amazing.”

Which one, I wonder as I take a step back. Which one of the brothers has put the smile back on my sister’s face?

“Come on then,” she says, stepping onto the bus.