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the fathomless crevice of treacherous silence Abbie was keeping firmly wedged between them.
    As if on cue, Henry swung around and gripping his mother’s arms pleaded, “Can Adam and Pete come in? Please Mum, please, can Adam and Pete stay? They can help me make the cakes.”
    Abbie looked flustered.
    Blind Freddy could see she didn’t feel well enough to have guests, least of all some guy from her past who was about as welcome in her home as a hole in a lifeboat.
    There was just one unexpected problem for Adam about leaving.
    The idea of venturing into Abbie’s home and staying a short while was appealing to him more and more with every passing second.
    It had something to do with the warm homeliness that was beckoning from within. And although an icy reception loomed from the hostess, he didn’t relish the thought of taking Pete back to that cold, cavernous house of theirs, particularly given his son’s shocker of a morning.
    But the strongest imperative for staying was his driving curiosity about the friendship—possibly Pete’s first ever—that seemed to be unfolding between their sons before Adam’s eyes. And who knew? If Pete could chill out and have fun with Henry that afternoon, it might make a world of difference to how his son felt about going to school the following Monday.
    â€œHow about I come in and help the boys make these cakes?” Adam proposed before he could fully think through the sense or otherwise of what he was doing. “It will give you a chance to lie down, Abbie.”
    â€œYeah, Dad! That would be great!” Pete agreed enthusiastically, tugging at the sleeve of his father’s suit jacket in enthusiastic encouragement.
    Adam dropped his eyes to take in Pete’s excited face. Again he was staggered to see a level of happiness in his little boy’s expression that seemed to have been missing forever.
    â€œBut I didn’t end up buying the cake mix,” Abbie announced, shooting Adam a look of victorious satisfaction that she’d be able to fast-track him out of her afternoon after all.
    â€œIt’s okay, Mum. The nice man at the shop gave it to me for free,” Henry announced gleefully, swinging the shopping bag around his head in physical confirmation.
    â€œOh … that was kind of him.” Abbie’s tone was laced with bitter disappointment. “But I’m sure Adam and Pete have somewhere else to be,” she rallied with vigour, raising her eyebrows at Adam and gaping in furious appeal for some backup to an exit strategy out of the boys’ plans for them both.
    â€œActually, you need to lie down and we don’t have to be anywhere, do we, Pete?” Adam declared, deliberately avoiding Abbie’s horrified look.
    â€œWho needs to lie down?”
    A sprightly elderly woman with sharp green eyes and white hair piled and pinned on top of her head had just appeared at Abbie and Henry’s side in the doorway. She looked curiously at the man and the little boy standing on her front path.
    â€œMum needs to lie down, Aunty Maeve!” Henry declared. “She fainted in the shop and knocked over a mountain of baked beans.”
    â€œDarling!” Maeve responded in horror, wrapping her arm around her niece’s narrow shoulders. “Are you all right? Come in and lie down. Did this nice man bring you home?”
    â€œYes, but I’m absolutely fine, Maeve,” Abbie protested, turning to Adam with a warning look. “Tell her, Adam—please. I don’t need to lie down.”
    Adam didn’t answer right away, his head momentarily addled by Abbie’s gorgeous Kewpie doll eyes with their long, dark lashes—not to mention the dimples that had appeared out of nowhere as she set her mouth in that mulish way she sometimes did.
    â€œPleasure to meet you, Ms McCarthy,” Adam began eventually, defiantly turning his gaze away from Abbie’s. He shot a grin in