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Frankie clutched the bottle to her chest.

Jay reached over and with his hand resting momentarily on Frankie’s waist, kissed her on the cheek. ‘It’s good to see you.’

The combination of the closeness of his body, the warmth of his touch through the fabric of her dress and the way his lips lingered against her cheek were intoxicating and did nothing to quell Frankie’s butterflies.

‘Jay, my man! I heard you were back!’ a voice carried over the noise of the party.

Frankie and Jay practically leapt apart as Will, one of the guys from Rocco’s year came over to greet Jay with a kind of elaborate bro handshake, shoulder bash and hug combo Frankie remembered the guys from high school doing years ago in a bid to look American street. It hadn’t grown cooler with the passing of time.

Jay and Will looked delighted to see each other.

Frankie was fond of Will, had even gone out with him a couple of times when she was in her early twenties only for them both to quickly realise there was no chemistry between them. Desperate to see her son settle and to become a grandmother, it was Will’s mother who had signed her son up to the Canine Cupids Christmas Club along with his cute little rescue dog of indeterminate mixed breeds, called Junior.

‘Will, how are you?’

‘I’m not bad, man. I’m no world-famous rock God, but it’s all good.’

‘You were doing engineering, weren’t you?’

‘Civil engineering, yeah.’ Will nodded.

Leaving them to catch up, Frankie went to put the champagne in the fridge, her cheek still tingling with promise from where Jay’s lips had touched it moments earlier.

CHAPTER 35

ROCCO

Rocco tried to extricate himself from the obvious come-on from Catriona but to no avail as she’d managed to corner him in a one-woman pincer movement and he was now jammed between the Christmas tree and the door to Frankie’s boot room. He’d have been both flattered and impressed by her technique if he hadn’t been desperate to leave. Even worse, he’d seen Alison come in and be immediately engulfed in a group with one other woman and five men. Rocco didn’t like that ratio.

Rocco downed the rest of his red wine, which was a waste as it was a beautiful Amarone, meant to be savoured. But desperate times called for desperate measures.

‘Excuse me, I’m just going to get a top-up,’ Rocco said with a wave of his empty glass, attempting to squeeze past Catriona, who’d practically Velcroed herself to the front of his shirt.

‘I don’t mind sharing,’ Catriona said and poured half her wine into his glass. Rocco was horrified; it was a nasty, overly acidic, cheap white wine she’d brought herself. And it wasn’t even chilled.

He glanced up to see Alison laughing with one of the men. They’d broken away from the larger group and looked like they were pairing off.

Over on the other side of the barn, Rocco saw Frankie leave her bedroom. He tried to catch her eye to send a subtle SOS, but she was focused on the door. Following her gaze, Rocco’s heart sank even lower when he saw Jay and two of his bandmates. This was not the evening he’d planned. Tuning out Catriona’s chatter, Rocco saw the look Frankie and Jay exchanged. From his vantage point, it was as if they were in a little bubble of their own, an intimate party of two, despite being in the midst of a throng of other people.

Frankie and Jay moved closer. Jesus! He could practically sense the chemistry crackling between them. Jay kissed her. It was just a brief touch of his lips against her cheek but it was so intimate and with such intent, Rocco felt quite voyeuristic. And so very guilty.

Then Will galumphed over and greeted Jay with the buddy-bro greeting, the one that Rocco and Jay used to do when they met up.

Rocco wanted to cry. This was why he didn’t like parties anymore. The reality never matched up with the expectation. Sometimes he’d leave a party with a woman which made him feel better for a while but in reality just prolonged the moment he felt flat again. Looking down at Catriona and her very bright glossy lipstick, he knew he didn’t want to be that man anymore.

In the space of two minutes Rocco had lost the woman he’d never had, been reminded of the best friend he’d lost, and watched his sister who would be forever lost to him when she found out the truth.

CHAPTER 36

ROCCO, THEN

‘That sounded important,’ Rocco said as Jay hung up.

They were sitting inside the small bandstand in the village green on Hogmanay when Jay’s phone had started to ring and he’d walked over to the other side to take the call.

Jay slipped his phone into the back pocket of his jeans but didn’t reply to Rocco for a moment as he stood staring into space.

‘Jay, you all right?’ Rocco asked.