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“Those are the ones I use too.”

Dylan picked up a packet and threw it in the trolley. He eyed me speculatively. “While we’re on difficult subjects, can I discuss something else with you?”

“Of course,” I mumbled. Anything but tampons and periods please.

“Please don’t be angry, but I opened a bank account for you yesterday, and each month, a small amount of money will be deposited into it for you to buy clothes, books, music… tampons, whatever you need.” He paused, trying to gauge my reaction. We’d reached the checkout, and he was unloading the shopping onto the belt.

I passed him items from the trolley. “Is it your money that’s going into the account or my money?” I asked.

“Initially mine, and then when we have yours sorted, yours. But that may take some time.”

“How much money?”

“Let’s discuss that at home,” he said.

The cashier, a young woman who only had eyes for Doctor Dyl, began scanning the shopping, and Dylan and I packed it in the bags Dylan had brought.

“That will be a hundred and thirty pounds,” the young woman said. “Do you have a Nectar card?”

How much?

“No. Thanks,” Dylan muttered and slid his credit card into the payment machine then tapped in his PIN. She gave him a beaming smile when she handed him back his receipt. She was rewarded with a brief, polite nod as I placed the last bags in the trolley.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a small blond boy run past me toward the doors…

Billy.

My heart lurched into my mouth, and I spun around to follow his progress.

“Josh!” A curvy, dark-haired woman yelled after the small boy and frantically pushed her fully loaded trolley in his direction to try to catch him.

Not Billy.

It was as if my heart had been jump-started like a dead battery. It was pounding and adrenaline was circling my body.

“Emily?”

“I thought that was Billy,” I whispered.

Dylan’s head whipped around in time to see the young child stopped by the security guard at the store entrance.

“I get that all the time,” Dylan murmured. “I’ll notice someone in the crowd, and it might be the way their hair curls at the nape of their neck, or the way they’re standing, or the way they tilt their head, and I think it’s your mother.”

“Yes. I get that too!”

He gave me a sad smile.

“I never think that you lost your sister,” I added.

“She was more like a friend really. A good friend. A very good friend.” He pushed the trolley toward the doors. “It was great getting to know her again after Billy was born. When you were young, I was at boarding school, so I didn’t see much of you or her then.” He stopped and turned toward me. “And I regret that. But it wasn’t in my power. Your mother was a wonderful woman, I loved her, and I miss her. I didn’t see her often, but we would talk at least once a week on the phone. She was my touchstone.” He gently stroked my face with his index finger. “You remind me of her.”

Oh! Doctor Dyl opening up!

Tears burned at the back of my eyes, and I didn’t know if it was the mention of my mother or his display of affection that choked me.

Dylan gave me a sad, bittersweet smile. “Come on, let’s go home.”

Chapter XII Friends