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‘That’s a complicated question. Ask me how to solve the climate crisis and achieve world peace first.’

Jess smiled briefly. ‘I didn’t mean about you and him generally. I meant what to do about Ned on Christmas Day.’

Katie swallowed hard. She had very much been thinking about it.

‘Of course, it’s not up to me, but I can’t stop thinking about him all alone in the Bothy on Christmas Day.’

‘Me neither,’ said Katie.

‘Of course, it’s your decision …’ Jess said but Katie sensed that Jess was expecting only one outcome. ‘It does seem sad that he’ll be on his own.’

Jess was right. Somehow, she couldn’t imagine Ned and Arlo sharing a turkey together at the Lodge. She also certainly couldn’t imagine them both at the Island House. Which meant there was only one possible solution: Ned would have to come over and Arlo would – do whatever he needed to.

‘I think we have to invite him but we have to ask the others their opinion,’ she said, wanting to make it a collective decision.

‘Well, Wanda won’t mind,’ Jess said.

‘Maybe not, although she might feel awkward that I feel obliged to ask him.’

Jess cocked her head on one side. ‘Do you really feel that obliged?’

‘Not obliged, though obviously I’d never planned for him to share our Christmas. The truth is I don’t know how to feel,’ Katie said, swallowing a lump in her throat. ‘I’d never want to hurt him.’ She caught a slight twitch of the mouth from Jess. ‘Any more than I already have. At the same time, I don’t want him – or anyone – assuming everything can go back to the way it was.’

‘It doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks. Only you can make that decision,’ Jess said quietly.

‘Thanks.’ Katie nodded and sighed. ‘There’s no getting away from the fact that Wanda and my mum and dad would love it if the clock could be turned back to before the accident.’

‘Do you?’ Jess asked. ‘Want to turn back the clock?’

‘I wish the people who were lost could be OK,’ Katie said. ‘But I spent too long asking myself questions like that and failing to find an answer. I learned to focus on the here and now. That includes Ned staying for Christmas Day, but before I ask him, I really ought to run it by Athene too.’

Predictably, Wanda tried and failed to hide how pleased she was and Athene said it was ‘totally Katie’s choice’ so after dinner, Katie video-called him from her bedroom.

She’d rehearsed how to ask him a dozen times but everything with a preamble sounded like she felt sorry for him. Even though that was true, she didn’t want him to be hurt by knowing that.

He answered just as she was about to give up, slightly out of breath.

‘Katie. Sorry, you caught me at a scruffy moment. Just jumped out of the shower.’

Scruffy wasn’t the word Katie would have used. He was sitting on the bed, a towel around his waist – she assumed, because he was bare-chested – with his dark hair slicked back from his head. Droplets of water nestled in the hair on his chest and a familiar spark of attraction threatened to flare into life. It wasn’t surprising those fans had been all over him at the market. He was still movie-star gorgeous. They’d probably think Katie was mad not to throw herself into his arms and his bed.

The brief spark of admiration was extinguished by the thought of her reaction to Arlo in the market and reminded her how complicated things were.

She refocused on the purpose of her call. ‘Sorry to land on you without warning but I was wondering if you wanted to come over to the Island House for Christmas Day?’

Ned’s lips parted and he smiled. ‘You feel sorry for me, don’t you?’

‘No!’ Katie exclaimed, feeling her cheeks warm up. ‘It’s not that. It’s just I – all of us – think it feels … wrong for you to spend the day on your own when you’re so close.’

‘So it was a committee decision to invite me?’ He gave a wry grin.

‘No, actually, I’ve been thinking about it a lot. It was my decision but I did run it by the others. Not that I needed their approval.’

‘Did the proposal receive unanimous endorsement?’ he asked with a wicked gleam in his eye. ‘I bet Jess was “the more the merrier”, Wanda wants everyone to be together and Athene said it was your decision, darling, if you’re absolutely sure.’

He smiled again, having imitated all three of the women’s voices to a tee.

Katie wasn’t laughing. Bloody Ned. He was annoyingly accurate, of course, and she’d forgotten that he had been an actor and still was a writer and horribly good at studying human nature. Knowing him, he could probably read every thought she was having about him.