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She shifted in her seat so she was sitting more upright. When her eyes met Giles’s, she couldn’t help but smile.

‘So, Giles Caverty, the hero of the story, again,’ she said. ‘You know this is almost becoming a theme.’

‘I know, and it’s such a shame. The villain always gets the better costume.’

Holly laughed out loud, but the sound was cut short when she noticed how intently Giles was staring at Hope. He had been there the first day she had born, ready to start a life with her. With both of them. And when she turned him down, on his boat in France, it hadn’t just been the loss of Holly that had hurt him, but the loss of Hope too. The baby he had hoped to be some kind of father to. She never really realised that until that moment.

‘Do you want to hold her?’

He opened his mouth, as if he was about to object, but instead he nodded ever so slightly.

‘If you’re sure she won’t mind?’

‘She won’t mind. Come here, Hope.’ Holly shuffled her daughter off her chest and onto her right arm, before she shifted around in the seat. ‘I want you to meet your Uncle Giles.’

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By the time they got home, Evan was drunk. It was, Holly realised, the first time she had seen him in such a state, though somehow it only made him more endearing. Unfortunately, it meant that she had had to push Hope back in the pushchair, single-handedly. Literally.

‘You know I love you? I love everything about you.’ His words slurred, and he swayed slightly while he walked.

‘I know. You’ve told me quite a few times this evening,’ Holly joked.

‘But that’s because I mean it!’

She had left Ben and Giles talking about the old times, when they had still been friends, and hopefully repairing one or two bridges.

‘It’s ridiculous, because I don’t even know you that well. But I know that when I know you more, I’m just going to love you more.’

It was hard not to smile.

‘You need an early night,’ Holly said as she opened the door to the cottage. ‘Somehow I don’t think you’ll be going for your 5a.m. run tomorrow.’

‘I will definitely be going for my run,’ Evan insisted, as he knocked himself on the doorjamb not once, but twice. ‘This is no good. We need a bigger house,’ he moaned.

Holly laughed. ‘I think doors are the same size in all houses.’

‘No, that’s not what I mean. I mean, you and me, we need a bigger house. What if we have more children? They can’t all sleep in a room with Hope, can they?’

Holly’s heart leapt, but she quashed the feeling almost as quickly as it had formed. Evan was drunk. People always said things they didn’t mean when they were drunk. In the morning, most likely he’d have forgotten he’d even mentioned it.

‘Right,’ she said, when she reached the kitchen. ‘I need something to eat. If I give you my phone, you can find the local Chinese takeaway. Order us a few dishes. I’ll put Hope to bed.’

Holly opened the phone app and handed it to Evan. To her surprise, he began scrolling through the menu. Still, Holly seriously doubted he’d have ordered anything by the time she’d got Hope into bed.

Upstairs, she went to the bathroom and ran the bath, checking there were no cuddly bunnies on the floor as she placed Hope down beside her. After checking the temperature, and adding the baby-friendly bubble bath, she took her daughter into the bedroom and lay her down on the bed to undress her.

‘Well, that was a lot of excitement today, wasn’t it?’ she said, unbuttoning the short-sleeved onesie. It was far harder to do with one arm out of action, but better that she tried on her own than have a drunken Evan helping her. ‘Your Aunty Jamie and Uncle Fin are getting married, your daddy and Uncle Giles are friends again, and Mummy and Evan… Well… What do we think about Evan?’

Hope remained surprisingly still for Holly as she reached the last button, but rather than undoing it, Holly paused and looked her daughter in the eye.

‘You do like him, don’t you? He loves you. He really does, and he hasn’t even spent that much time with you yet. But I think he’s a good one, Hopey. I think we could have found ourselves a really good man here, who will take care of your mummy and make her happy. That’ll be okay, won’t it?’ She paused. She may not have had anything to drink, but she was still feeling decidedly blurry-eyed and soppy. ‘How do you think we ended up with so many good people in our lives, Hope? I know you don’t know this yet, but you are such a lucky girl, because we are surrounded by love. We really are.’

As if responding, Hope reached up to her, and Holly, thinking her daughter was going to offer one of the strange opened-mouth kisses on the nose she had been giving recently, bent down.

Hope’s moves were so swift, Holly barely saw it happen. One second Hope was looking at Holly, the next she had rolled over and grabbed a handful of paper from Holly’s pocket.

‘Hey, cheeky!’ she said, scooping Hope up with one arm and laughing. ‘Were you trying to pinch that? Well, you can’t have it. That’s important. That’s for Mummy.’