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work, he took a call from his sister. ‘Is everything okay?’ Hugh instantly checked.
    ‘Of course. Why wouldn’t it be?’ Kate answered.
    ‘It’s not even seven a.m.’
    ‘Well, I knew you’d be on your way to work and I don’t like to trouble you there.’
    ‘You can call me any time, Kate.’
    ‘Hugh, can you take your social-worker voice off? Just because I’ve had a baby it doesn’t mean that there has to be a problem.’
    Easy for you to say, Hugh thought, pulling up at traffic lights. Three years ago Hugh had taken Emily’s advice and practically frogmarched Kate to her doctor, and still, all these years on, what had happened in Kate’s dark teenage years ate at him.
    ‘So, what are you calling for?’ Hugh asked instead.
    ‘We’ve booked Billy’s christening,’ Kate said, ‘for the end of June.’ Hugh grimaced when she gave him the date. He was quite sure he was on take that weekend and he’d already swapped his roster once to accommodate an upcoming wedding that he wouldn’t miss for the world.
    He’d actually given Kate a list of his available dates when she had started to talk about making plans for the christening.
    Let it go, Hugh, he told himself as the lights changed.
    Yet he always let it go around Kate.
    ‘The thing is, I’m actually—’ Hugh attempted, but Kate cut in.
    ‘We want you to be godfather.’
    ‘Oh!’ Hugh didn’t know what to say at first and then he said the right thing. ‘I’d be delighted to.’
    So there was no getting out of it, then.
    Damn.
    Hugh loved his sister and nephews very, very much; it was just the timing of things that was a serious issue. How the hell could he ask for another Sunday off?
    ‘Will you be bringing someone?’ Kate asked.
    ‘Probably not.’
    ‘I’ll need to know for the restaurant.’
    ‘No, then.’
    ‘Hugh?’ Kate checked, because there was a terse edge to his voice.
    ‘It’s just a bit of a sore point at the moment.’
    ‘I thought you and Olivia were well over and done with.’
    ‘We are,’ Hugh said, ‘well, I am.’
    ‘Is she still calling?’
    ‘Now and then.’
    ‘So what’s the sore point?’
    ‘I’ve got to go, Kate,’ Hugh said. ‘I’ll give you a call in the week. Thanks for asking me to be godfather, it means a lot.’
    It did.
    Hugh pulled into the work car park and saw the rare sight of Emily’s car. Usually she took public transport but occasionally she brought the bomb in.
    There
was the sore point.
    He didn’t buy it that Emily didn’t like him.
    He knew that she did.
    And he liked her.
    He had from the first day they had met. Hugh liked strong women, strong, independent women, and Emily was all of that.
    Oh, not the shaved-head, unshaved-leg kind, it was her independence along with her femininity that continued to draw him in. With Emily he was himself, without qualification, without having to apologise if something he had said or done might have caused offence.
    ‘Hugh!’ He turned at the sound of Alex’s voice and waited while he caught up with him.
    ‘Hi, Alex, good weekend?’
    ‘A very good weekend,’ Alex said, as the men walked through the car park. ‘Jennifer’s mother came for a visit and has agreed to stay with us for the summer.’
    ‘That’s good news, is it?’ Hugh smiled because wasn’t your mother-in-law coming for an extended visit most husbands’ idea of hell?
    ‘It is.’ Alex nodded. ‘With all my work and studying I’ve let things slide a bit, I feel, but we’ve had a talk and with Jennifer’s mum here for a few months we can make a bit more of my days off. Jennifer needs a break.’
    Hugh glanced over. He had nothing but admiration for the man—from toddlers to teenagers, Alex dealt with it all, as well as study and research and holding down such a demanding position. Hugh wanted that consultancy position. There wasn’t a day that went by that he didn’t learn something from Alex, and not just in the operating theatre.
    ‘You have to work at