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Then there was the fact that in the last three weeks Ava had barely looked at her, let alone touched her or kissed her or anything else.

Not that she wanted that.

No, strike that. She very much wanted that. But she understood that Ava was trying to create a distance, trying to make things easier in the long run. She should be grateful that Ava was strong enough to do that, because there were at least fifty times when Hope would happily have thrown herself into Ava’s arms.

It turned out that planning someone else’s life for them was more difficult than she’d thought. She’d had the idea that perhaps she could find other possibilities, other reasons for Ava to stay. In the end, all she’d done was confuse herself and chase down empty leads.

“Come back at around half four,” the friendly vet receptionist said. “He’ll be done by then and you can take him home. We’ll ring if there’s any change, but you shouldn’t worry, we do this all the time and it’s a perfectly safe operation.”

“Thanks,” said Hope, who hadn’t considered that the operation would be anything but safe until the receptionist mentioned it.

“No problem,” grinned the receptionist cheerfully.

Hope pushed out of the glass doors and out into the cold autumn air. Autumn. Practically winter really. It was cold enough to snow now and the air had a crisp, clean scent to it that made Hope think of Christmas and home.

Whitebridge had always been home, something she was starting to consider as she walked toward the car.

The little town had been her whole life and she’d been perfectly content to stay there, perfectly content to have her little place in the patchwork of Whitebridge, to bring up her family here, to live out her days here.

But if she couldn’t find reasons for Ava to stay, maybe she needed to find reasons for herself to leave.

“Hope!”

She sighed. Okay, yes, she did love living in town. But it was impossible to get any privacy, impossible to have a moment to herself. Knowing everyone meant everyone knew her, and, to be truthful, she wasn’t entirely sure how much gossip there’d been about her and Ava.

“Hope!”

She turned around just as she reached the car, trying to figure out who was calling her, only to see Noah’s familiar figure jogging down the street toward her. She groaned. She really wasn’t in the mood for an argument today and that’s what any discussion with her ex-husband was bound to lead to.

“Hope,” he said, as he got closer. He was slightly out of breath, his cheeks pink with running and the cold.

“Noah.”

“Got a minute?”

“Not really,” said Hope. “I just dropped the cat off at the vet and I really need to get home.”

“Oh no,” he said, eyes widening. “There’s nothing wrong with Rosie, is there?”

“All is well with Rosie, more than well, which is sort of the problem. Robbie’s the one in, he’s getting fixed.”

“Robbie? You got another cat?”

“Another cat got us,” Hope said. She tucked her hands into her armpits to keep them warm. “What do you want?”

“Five minutes,” said Noah.

“It was a minute before.”

His chocolate brown eyes pleaded with her. “Come on, please Hope. I just want to talk. No arguments, I swear. I just saw you here and took my chance. There’s always someone else around when I want to talk to you. Your mum, Amelia, Alice. I really do want to speak with you. Just you.”

Hope sighed. “Fine,” she said. “But get in the car, it’s freezing and catching a cold is the last thing I need.”

Noah smiled gratefully and opened the passenger side door as Hope went around to the driver’s side.

“So?” said Hope, once the doors were closed and she was starting to warm up.

Noah sat back in his seat. “It’s about Alice.”