Groups of giggly women—who could still get away with the title of ‘girls’—were out ‘doing lunch’ at tables all around them. They were roughly the same age as Edie and yet they looked as if they hadn’t a care in the world. Not one of them looked as if they might be blessed with copious offspring. Not one of them looked as if they had the wherewithal to cram a screaming toddler into a Pampers nappy. Without exception, they were immaculately groomed and wildly glamorous. One or two of them cast overt admiring glances at Pip—who, thankfully, seemed oblivious to their attentions.

The waitress returned with their drinks and Archie’s ice cream, which she handed to him at arm’s length and then scuttled away with their food order.

They both watched as Archie manhandled his spoon and set about the messy business of making ice cream meet with mouth.

‘How old are your kids?’

Edie held up a hand. ‘I’d rather forget all about my brood today.’ There was no way she was going to admit that she was the mother of a rapidly aging teenwoman monster. To fill the silence, Archie decided it was a great idea to bang his big, red truck on the wooden top of the high chair and sing ‘Baa-baa, Black Sheep’ at the top of his voice, completely drowning out the mellow efforts of whichever chanteuse it was, whilst waving a sticky-icky spoon around. Edie ignored him. Pip seemed to find it harder to do so. ‘I don’t get much free time without them.’ One hanger-on didn’t really count, did it?

‘No,’ Pip said. ‘It must be impossible.’

‘Well.’ Edie tried for coy. She mustn’t appear completely unavailable. ‘Not entirely impossible.’

‘So,’ he said after a few moments of being pinned to his seat by the incessant noise of Archie’s imaginative percussion. ‘You wanted to talk about Lyssa and Jake?’

‘Oh yes,’ Edie said. ‘Jake and Lyssa.’

They looked at each other. Pip rather expectantly, she thought. He was very handsome when he was frowning.

‘Have you heard anything from Lyssa yet?’

‘No.’ He’d asked her that yesterday.

‘Aren’t you getting a bit worried by now?’

‘No,’ Edie insisted. ‘I’m sure Lyssa’s fine.’ And then she remembered why she was supposed to be there. ‘Of course, I’m a bit concerned. She was in a terrible state when she left. I hope she’s done nothing foolish.’

‘Lyssa doesn’t strike me as the foolish type.’

‘No,’ Edie agreed. ‘She’s not.’ She lowered her eyelashes. ‘But love can do very strange things to a woman.’

Archie started to lick his truck.

Pip was mesmerised. ‘So I’ve heard.’

Careless of his spoon, Archie flicked a lump of ice cream from the tip of it, which sailed in slow motion through the air towards Pip.