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I wondered what other people would see, perhaps colleagues from my former life, had I strolled in through those workplace doors with this man’s hand in mine. The thought was ridiculous but made me smile. Because I would have proudly done just that. Wrapped him up in a hug and placed a kiss on his forehead. Shown him off, my chest puffed out in pride.

Mine. He was mine.

“What you laughing about?” he murmured, stretching an arm over his head. My fingers again found his scars. They were mine too. Because without them, who would he have become? Someone else who hadn’t found his way to me. Right here.

“Just thinking about how I would love to show you off. Take you out for dinner sometime. Just be…a normal couple.”

“Can’t quite afford that. Not yet.”

“We can afford to go down to the pub, which is what I had in mind. A Sunday roastperhaps? Tomorrow?”

“It’s Sunday tomorrow?” He sounded genuinely surprised. I didn’t blame him. I lost track of the days too when my life no longer had structure.

“I think so.” I smiled and pressed my lips against his shoulder, shuffling further up the bed until we were face-to-face, his nose pressed against mine. Morning breath. I didn’t mind. I kissed it off him.

“What was that?” He sat up suddenly, and my heart jolted out of my chest. A loud crash upstairs. Bloody cats. Then footsteps running across the kitchen floor above as my blood froze. Dylan stared in horror at the door at the top of the stairs.

Perhaps I was just imagining things, but my heart actually stopped as the door was flung open and two overexcited small children burst down the stairs screaming at the top of their voices.

“Granddad! Granddad! Surprise!”

Followed by Reuben, whose smile was wiped off his face in an instant.

“Oh!” he said, stopping dead halfway down.

My son, wearing a ridiculously long coat and a stylish new haircut, looking so incredibly handsome that for amoment I wanted to get up and run up and hug him. Swing him around and kiss his hair and…

I was naked. And had two children crawling all over me as I tried to protect my modesty. And Dylan’s.

Dylan who just sat there.

“Granddad, Daddy said we could surprise you, and I brought you my drawings and…” Jasmine stopped mid-sentence and stared at me the same way Jay was doing. And then at Dylan.

“Stranger danger,” Jasmine proclaimed loudly. “Granddad, there’s a stranger in your bed. You should shout for help.”

“We learnt about it at tutoring, Granddad. In America. You shout for help because strangers are bad,” Jay chimed in, pointing at Dylan with his little finger while I tried to figure out how I could get up and find some pants without baring either of us to my grandchildren.

Dylan said nothing.

“Dylan is not a stranger. He’s my friend,” I said, only now realising Reuben had turned around and walked back upstairs, slamming the door behind him.

“I assume that was your son,” Dylan said quietly, still frozen in place.

“Stranger danger,” Jasmine repeated, nodding her head to emphasise her point.

“No, Jasmine. Yes. Yes, of course, you are absolutely right. You don’t know Dylan, so yes, stranger danger.”

Fuck.I never really used crude words, not even in my head, but now I did. Loudly.

“I should leave,” Dylan suggested, still not attempting to move. Well, I didn’t blame him because he was stark naked under that corner of the duvet, and my two grandchildren were sitting on the bed, pointing. Jay was bouncing on my ankle.

“I want to show you what I brought, and Dadda is making waffles. We didn’t have a waffle maker in America, so we couldn’t make waffles. Waffles are essential,” Jasmine continued as Jay nodded enthusiastically.

“We brought maple syrup. It’s from Canada.”

“Oh, lovely.”

“Do you like maple syrup? Which do you prefer? Pancake syrup or maple syrup? Dadda says pancake syrup isbad because it has corn stuff in it. Corn stuff is bad, but corn on the cob isn’t. I don’t understand why. It’s corn.”