As I cleared my view of children, I was finally able to see Clive, who was now sitting so close to the sofa as to be almost upon it without actually being so. His bum hadn’t quite touched the floor in his excitement and his tail was whipping from side to side like some mad duster on overdrive. With one hand wrapped around Ruby, I leant forward and gave the dog a cuddle and a kiss on the top of his silky head.

His day of return to the shelter had been put off, first by one day, then by another, then by a week, and then permanently. I think I’d known from the moment he gave me his first goofy grin that I was already in trouble and then that night of the storm sealed both his and my fate. I loved his company and, even when he was asleep, I never felt alone. I wasn’t quite sure how well he’d cope once Jack left, as the moment he came in the door, Clive went absolutely mad, encouraged, I had to add, by Jack. Hopefully he’d be all right. Hopefully we’d both be all right.

‘You guys ready for some dinner?’ Felix said, having now had a poke around in Poppy’s shopping, which she couldn’t wait to show him.

‘Absolutely famished.’

‘Me too,’ Poppy added. ‘Being a style consultant can be very hard work. What’s for dinner?’

‘Chilli con carne with rice, guacamole, and sour cream. There are nachos as well, although the kids may have been at them already, and I think Clive hoovered up a few from the floor.’

This was another bonus that I discovered to having a dog. You had an inbuilt vacuum in the event that you ever spilled food. This was all well and good for the odd nacho crumb, but I had discovered it was less of a bonus when the sausages I had just cooked for my sausage sandwich rolled off the plate straight onto the floor and were swallowed in one gulp by Clive.

‘Sounds great,’ I said through a yawn.

‘It won’t take too long to heat up, but do you want to go and have a lie down before we dish up?’ Jack asked. ‘You look tired.’

‘No, I’m fine,’ I replied through another large yawn.

I could feel Jack’s eyes on me for a moment before he gave my leg a quick pat and pushed himself up off the sofa, scooping my niece up on the way past as he made his way into the kitchen end of the room.

‘Uncle Jack, can you be a horsey now?’

‘Ruby, Daddy said Uncle Jack spent about an hour this afternoon charging around with you on his back. Don’t you think you ought to give the horsey a rest now?’

From the look on her little face, Ruby definitely didn’t think the horse needed a rest. She wound her fingers together turning from side to side on the spot and nodded anyway. ‘OK.’