‘Poor doggo.’ Darren whistled and the dog immediately turned and bounded back towards them.

‘Don’t do that. Now it’ll think you’ve got something for it.’

‘Where’s its owner anyway? You see anyone around?’

Pete didn’t reply, he was too busy shifting the pram as the dog started sniffing at it. ‘If that mutt gives fleas to my girls . . .’

‘You’re all right, aren’t you, mate?’ said Darren, clicking his fingers to get the dog’s attention away from the pram and then scratching him around the ears. ‘You’re a good boy, aren’t you? Who’s a good boy?’

‘I am,’ said Pete. ‘I’m a good boy.’

‘Fuck off.’

Pete laughed then nudged him as he continued to scratch the dog. ‘Oy. Do not get attached to that thing. Trust me. You don’t have time to look after a dog right now.’

‘Says the guy with four kids to the single guy with none.’

‘You know what I’m talking about.’

The tone in Pete’s voice made Darren look up. He saw a mix of concern, sympathy, and maybe even a little panic in his brother’s face. Pete was the only one who knew how bad things were with his current manuscript. Not because he’d confessed the truth to him, but because Pete had always been able to see through his bullshit.

‘Any progress?’ he asked.

Darren looked back down at the dog and kept scratching him, postponing his answer. Eventually he shook his head.

‘What’s going on? Tell me you haven’t been out surfing instead of writing. You’re not even that good at catching waves.’

‘I’m not that bad. And no, I haven’t been surfing. I’ve been sat in front of my computer every single bloody day.’

‘Okay, so what’s the problem? You wrote the first one so fast it was like a blur. I remember reading your original draft and you could tell you’d just bashed it out from the sheer number of spelling mistakes.’

‘Jeez, thanks.’

‘No, but that’s not the point. It was good. The story was good. That’s what you need to do this time. You need to get out of your head and just smash it. Stop over-thinking it and trying to get it perfect. Just write.’

‘That’s not how you do it.’

‘Yeah, but that’s because you and I work in different ways. You work best when you switch off. Tell me you’re not still letting that one shitty review affect you.’

Darren looked up and around the park again as a breeze rustled the trees and cooled his skin. ‘Seriously, do you think this dog is lost?’

‘I don’t know, maybe.’