Lyn didn’t look at her. “Yes. Very.”

Gemma’s mouth dropped. For some reason this seemed incredibly shocking. Lyn looked at her sidelong with a glint of pride, and the two of them began to rock with wicked laughter.

“Stop it,” said Lyn helplessly. “It’s not funny.”

Gemma grabbed a napkin to wipe her eyes. “No, it’s terrible. You’re terrible. I didn’t know you were so terrible.”

“Cat! My Cat!”

Pushing the little boy unceremoniously to one side, Maddie went running through the coffee shop toward Cat. Gemma smoothed both her hands down her cheeks as if to wipe away the laughter, and Lyn sat up very straight.

“One word and you’re a dead woman,” she said as she held up her hand to wave at Cat.

“Get a grip.”

Cat walked toward them with Maddie clinging to her hip. The woman with the little boy had stood up and was gathering together her shopping bags. When she saw Cat, she did a little start and straightened.

“Hello!” she said. “You’re Lyn Kettle, aren’t you? The Brekkie Bus business! What a coincidence, I was only just reading about you in She this morning.”

Cat shifted Maddie to the other hip.

“I’m her sister. The unsuccessful version. But Lyn’s right there.” She pointed at Lyn and the woman did a double-take as Lyn gave her an embarrassed little wave.

“That’s right! You’re triplets! Oh, you can really tell!”

The woman was swinging her head back and forth observing the three of them with satisfaction.

“And you’re just the same as the other two, except your hair is red!” she said to Gemma.

“That’s right!” Gemma praised her.

“Good Lord, we’d never noticed!” Cat said.

The woman’s smile became a little fixed. “Well, it was a pleasure to meet you all!” She held out a hand to Lyn. “I really admire what you’ve achieved.”

“Thank you.” Lyn shook her hand graciously.

“Bye now,” said Cat, and she buried her face in Maddie’s stomach and growled, so that she gurgled with delight.

“What are you doing here?” Cat asked Gemma as she pulled out a chair and sat down with Maddie on her lap.

“She’s refusing to be typecast,” said Lyn. “Do you both want a coffee? I’m going to order one at the counter.”

“How are you?” asked Gemma, as Lyn went for their coffees. The dark shadows under Cat’s eyes reproached them for their laughter.

“Fine,” answered Cat. “Never better. I stopped by at Nana Kettle’s on the way here. She says you’re going to do water aerobics with her. You’re a glutton for punishment.”

“I think it will be fun. Want to come?”

“Yeah, right. You made a shocking mess of her nails last week.”

“Thanks,” said Gemma. A sudden thought occurred to her.

“You know something weird Nana said?”

“Everything she says is weird.”

“She said Pop didn’t like Marcus.”

An expression of nervous caution immediately crossed Cat’s face. Cat and Lyn both became peculiarly polite whenever Marcus’s name came up.

“Did you like Marcus?” asked Gemma. “You can say if you didn’t. He’s dead, you know.”

“I know he’s dead. Of course I liked him.”

“Did you think we had a good relationship?”

Cat shifted around in her seat, looking for Lyn. “Um. I really don’t know. I mean, yes. You did. You were getting married.”

Maddie banged her hands on the table and Cat handed her the salt and pepper shakers. Pleasantly surprised, Maddie immediately turned them both upside down.

“I do remember something,” said Cat suddenly. “I remember when you came back from skiing in Canada. The holiday you got engaged. Marcus said something about you being timid on the slopes. I said, What the hell are you talking about, timid? I’ve seen Gemma ski double black diamonds at a million miles an hour. You looked really strange, I thought maybe you’d had a big fight.”

Gemma opened her mouth and waited for something to come out.

Cat looked at her crossly. “See! Now I’ve upset you.”

“I’m sorry.”

Abruptly Cat changed the subject.

“So did you know about Dan and Lyn at the time?”

“No,” Gemma said definitely.

“Well, thank God they never had sex. That would have been too revolting.”

There was no time for Gemma to prepare her face. Cat looked at her. “But Dan said—”

Lyn came back to the table with two coffees. She removed the salt and pepper shakers from Maddie and firmly placed her in the stroller, distracting her with a spoonful of cappuccino froth.

“What?” she said, as she sat down and saw Cat’s face. “What now?”

Immediately, she looked with furious accusation at Gemma.

“What did you say?”

Gemma woke to the smell and sound of the sea. Through the open doorway of the bedroom she could see straight down a short, beige carpeted hallway to a small balcony with a table and two chairs. The screen door was wide open, and without lifting her head from the pillow she could see a sliver of ocean sparkling in the morning sun.

She kept still, enjoying the sensation of Charlie’s back warm against hers. She wondered if he was pretending to be asleep.