‘Thank goodness they’re gone,’ she sighs. ‘I love my kids, but I wish that you could take the batteries out of them for a while. They wear me out.’

‘You don’t know how lucky you are,’ I say.

‘Don’t start that again, Lyssa,’ she warns. ‘Anyway, you’re one to call the kettle black. You seemed pretty lucky yourself a little while ago.’

I give her a puzzled look.

‘Pip,’ she says. ‘I’ve heard you talk about him, but you didn’t tell me he was so swoon-making.’

‘He’s all right,’ I say.

‘All right! Your red-blooded male alert mechanism clearly hasn’t been reset yet.’

‘You’re a married woman who doesn’t get out much. You’re impressionable.’

‘I’ll say so.’ She goes all dreamy. ‘Do you think he’s got the hots for you?’

‘No. He’s a mate,’ I insist. Give my sister an inch and she’ll take a mile—just like my mother.

‘Maybe he could be more?’ She gives me a suggestive leer.

‘No,’ I say. ‘I asked him to sleep with me and he wasn’t interested.’

‘What?’ Edie nearly spits out her wine.

‘That’s what we young, free and single women do these days,’ I toss over my shoulder. I don’t tell her that it was in jest.

‘You’re a dark horse,’ Edie mutters. ‘I’m not sure what’s come over my big sister in the last week.’

‘A mild rebellion born out of necessity,’ I say wearily.

‘I wouldn’t say no to him,’ my sister says into her glass.

‘Well, he did say that he thought you were lovely.’

Edie sits up. ‘Did he?’

I smile at her. ‘I saw him give you the once-over across the crowded room.’

‘Really?’ Edie sips her wine thoughtfully. ‘I thought I caught him looking at me a couple of times.’

‘There you go.’

‘Well, if you’re not interested,’ she says briskly, ‘I suggest that you stand aside and make way for someone who is.’

‘You’re married and I’m not interested. But you’re right. Pip’s lovely. He’s just not Jake.’

‘I hope you’re not going to sit round on your bum waiting for that scoundrel to come back.’

‘I’m going to Nepal. I don’t think that can be classed as sitting on my bum.’ Actually, I’m beginning to worry that I’ll not be doing enough of it.

I put down the tea towel and join my sister in polishing off the remaining wine. ‘Pip thinks it won’t last.’

‘He may be right,’ Edie agrees, ‘but you can’t put your life on hold for Jake indefinitely.’ My sister gets a peculiar look in her eye. ‘I hope you meet some big, hairy-arsed yak shepherd who’ll shag you senseless.’

Knowing my luck, that’s all I’ll meet.

Chapter twenty-four

Chapter twenty-four