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‘It’s just all the pushing. Like, trying to get me to go with him to Norfolk so I can get to know his children.’

‘Well, that’s lovely, isn’t it?’ Daisy said. ‘And it makes sense. He knows me.’

Pippa scoffed. ‘My bet is he just wants me there so I can make the food and clean up a bit while he spends all the time cuddling his new grandchild.’

‘Really?’ Daisy said. It was true, her mum was a great cook and her go-to form of helping people was to overload them with home-cooked food, but she couldn’t imagine that was why Nicholas would have invited her.

‘Did he say that to you?’

‘No, of course he didn’t. He says he wants me to get to know his family more, but I mean, really, it’s not like he’s made any effort to get to know you, is it? You live on the same canal. Having you and Theo over for a couple of barbeques doesn’t take any planning when you’re that close, does it?’

‘Well, it’s not like he’s made no effort,’ Daisy said, feeling the unusual urge to stick up for Nicholas. When she had first moved to Wildflower Lock, she had thought that at best, he was a miserable old man, and at worst, he was vindictive, angry and bitter. But the more she got to know him, the more her opinion had changed, and now she believed he was just very shy and guarded.

There was no denying that he had been a saviour, helping to find Yvonne’s relatives and driving her back to Wildflower Lock after their failed escapades on the Thames. And then, when her mum and Daisy had arrived at their destination, he had driven all the way to Slimbridge to take Pippa back home. He also had a soft spot for Johnny, and often Daisy had thought he felt morecomfortable talking to her dog than he did with her. But some people were like that, weren’t they?

‘So I take it you had a fight?’ Daisy asked, assuming her mother’s evening was a reflection of hers. And yet, surprisingly, her mother scoffed at this comment.

‘No, no, Nicholas doesn’t fight. He goes quiet. That was what he did, and it made my blood boil.’ Pippa reached for her wine again, only to find the glass empty. Then upon seeing the bottle in the same state, she let out a slight hiss. ‘He said I was being ridiculous, that he wanted me to be there because he loved me and didn’t want to spend too long apart. He even said he’d do all the cooking, which we both know is ridiculous because the only thing he ever cooks is stir-in sauce.’

Daisy was struggling to follow how this had resulted in her mother storming out with her bag in her hand, so rather than beating around the bush, she asked the question.

‘So what happened then?’ she said.

‘Well, I said that I needed space and came here.’

Daisy straightened her spine a little as she sat up.

‘Sorry, so he did nothing wrong, and you just marched out?’

‘Did you not hear what I just said?’ Her mother rolled her eyes, although Daisy barely paid it any attention. Was Theo right? Was her mother just going through the same old routines she did with all her boyfriends when she was getting bored? Routines she really should have grown out of.

Growing up, Daisy had never been brave enough to call her mother out on her behaviour, and yet as she sat there looking at her mum who had already drunk a bottle of her wine and devoured half her ice cream, she couldn’t shake the question that had formed in her head. Was Theo right?

She put the tub of ice cream down on the coffee table and turned to look at her.

‘Sorry, Mum,’ she said. ‘But from where I’m sitting, it really looks like you’re the one who’s in the wrong here.’

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Daisy waited for her mother to reply, yet all she did was stare at Daisy in silence with her jaw slack, as if in complete disbelief.

‘Did you not hear what I just said?’ Her mother shook her head. ‘He’s trying to make all these demands on me.’

‘He’s trying to have a grown-up relationship with you,’ Daisy replied. ‘That’s what he’s trying to do, but you don’t understand that because you’ve never actually had one. The moment things get too tough, or you have to give a little bit more than you want to, you run.’

‘Pardon?’ Pippa’s eyebrows rose, but Daisy couldn’t stop, because she was finally letting herself speak the truth she had kept in for over half her life.

‘That’s what you do, Mum. You either run, or you pick complete losers with whom there’s no hope of forming a proper relationship. But I don’t think it’s that with Nicholas. I think you’re scared, and that’s why you’re making up all these excuses. It was exactly the same last summer when he said he’d like it if you moved closer to Wildflower Lock. You bolted then, and now he’s asking for more commitment from you, and you’re bolting again.’

Silence filled the boat and for a split-second, Daisy wondered if she had made a mistake. If she should have kept her thoughts to herself. But then, it was like she had said to Theo – for so long, she had been the only person her mother could lean on and Daisy owed her this. Because maybe hearing the truth would be enough for Pippa to finally stop bolting every time she got a little scared and start taking that next step in a relationship.

Daisy waited for her mother to respond. To admit that Daisy was right. But instead, her face turned a notable shade of puce.

‘You don’t know anything about the relationships I’ve been in,’ she said eventually. ‘You don’t know a damn thing.’

The harshness of her tone caught Daisy.

‘I do, actually,’ Daisy said, refusing to back down. She was right and drunk or not, she was going to make sure her mother heard her. ‘I know quite a lot. Because I was there for most of them. Remember Eric, the postman? He was nice. He wanted us to go on holiday with his family. You bolted then.’