smiled wryly. ‘No. Not directly. Not like that.’
Annie nodded slowly. ‘Families are tricky things. Juggling all the obligations. The guilt.’
‘Tell me about it.’ He looked down at her again as they strolled slowly along the pavement. ‘So where does your mother live?’
‘With me. Or, rather, we live with her. I’ve got two daughters. Twins. Chloe and Grace. They’re nearly three. She took early retirement and moved down to London to help me when I went back to work, and we lived in my rented flat, but then my grandmother needed more support so we moved back up here to Mum’s bungalow when a job came up last summer. I’ve been here nearly a year and it’s been brilliant, but we couldn’t afford a big enough house for all of us so we’re living in Mum’s for now until I’ve cleared my debts from my maternity leave. It’s a bit crowded, though, and sometimes I just long for my own space.’
He nodded. ‘I can understand that. Even if it’s just for a short while every day, it’s important, and I imagine that’s even more true with twins. That’s pretty hard-core parenting, I should imagine, especially in the early days.’ He hesitated for a minute, then went on, ‘And their father?’
‘Not part of our lives,’ she said firmly, and he heard the door slam firmly closed.
That was fine. He had enough no-go areas in his own life to understand she had hers, but it didn’t stop him despising a man who could abandon his own children. Some people didn’t know how lucky they were.
She’d come to a halt, pausing in front of a small detached bungalow in a leafy avenue just around the corner from his rented house.
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