He skidded to a halt at the side of the house, narrowly missing the back of her freezer van.

They got out and he ran round the back before she could stop him. It’d be too dark round there to see the key hole, whereas at least she had the moon to help her get in the front door. She quickly let herself in and ran past Bernard who was snoring loudly on the sofa. She pushed through the connecting door and raced up the stairs. She wasn’t scared for Daisy’s safety, she just wanted to get to her as soon as possible.

‘Daisy, it’s me, open the door.’

There was a second’s hesitation and then she heard the drawers being dragged back away from the door. The door was flung open and in the limited light from the moon she saw a glint of blonde hair before Daisy’s body slammed into hers hard. Daisy wrapped her arms round her and Penny held her tight.

‘You’re OK, we’re here now.’

‘I’m so sorry, I’m such a tit. I should have grown out of being scared of the dark a long time ago.’

Penny heard a thunder of feet as Henry came rushing up the stairs.

‘Hey, it’s not silly to be scared of the dark. Trust me, if I was here in the house alone and the lights went out, I’d be shitting myself too. Don’t tell your dad I swore.’

Daisy giggled against her.

‘Too late, I already heard,’ Henry said, wrapping them both in a huge bear hug and squashing Daisy between them.

Oh god. It was beyond silly to attach anything to that hug but Penny couldn’t help smiling to herself. This was what it would feel like to be part of their family and it felt wonderful. It wasn’t so much having children that she had always missed, it was this feeling of togetherness and belonging that she had never had before. She released one of her arms and wrapped it round Henry and he shifted her and Daisy tighter against him.

‘I can’t breathe,’ Daisy protested from somewhere between them and after a few moments Henry reluctantly let them go.

Henry held Daisy at arm’s length as if checking her for injuries and Penny found herself smiling at how completely over-protective he was.

‘Why don’t we all go into my lounge and we can light a fire and some candles? I have some marshmallows we could toast too.’

Henry nodded and led the way down the stairs, holding Daisy’s hand. Daisy reached back and held Penny’s hand and they walked down the stairs in a chain and back into her lounge.

‘Henry, why don’t you build a fire and I’ll grab some candles?’ Penny suggested once she had turfed Bernard off the sofa and situated Daisy there.

Henry set about throwing in logs and twigs and Penny returned to the kitchen to grab some matches and candles. She lit all of the ones she had, attaching some of the taper candles to little dishes, and then positioned a few around the kitchen and brought the rest into the front room.

The fire was burning quite well by this point and coupled with the candles it sent a warm, golden glow around the room.

Henry sat down on the sofa and pulled Daisy into his arms, just as he had done with Penny the first night they had kissed. Penny sat down behind Daisy, leaning into her and stroking her back.

‘All that bloody talk of axe murderers scared the crap out of me,’ Henry muttered, kissing Daisy’s head and linking hands with Penny. He stared at her, his eyes filled with emotions Penny couldn’t comprehend.

‘It made me laugh,’ Daisy said, pressed against his chest, completely unaware of the staring competition going on over her head.

‘That was the general idea,’ Penny said, defensively, unsure if Henry was angry with her, although the way he was caressing her hand said otherwise.

Henry smiled slightly at her then returned his attention to his daughter, though he kept his hand entwined with Penny’s.

Henry woke up later with a crick in his neck and his two favourite girls in his arms. Penny had got up earlier to cook them all some food which they’d eaten in front of the fire and then they’d resumed their positions on the sofa in one big group hug. He knew that Daisy and Penny were mostly trying to reassure him rather than Daisy needing that reassurance. She had been laughing and joking with Penny over dinner whereas his heart refused to calm down.

It was ridiculous to react that way over a power cut, but knowing how scared Daisy had been had scared the crap out of him too. He’d always reacted badly whenever Daisy got hurt. He remembered when she had fallen off her bike as a kid and badly scraped her knee and he’d rushed her off to hospital. He’d nearly punched the dentist once when Henry had mistakenly taken Daisy’s scream of terror for one of pain and the dentist had barely even touched her. When it came to Daisy he knew he was completely over-protective and irrational and there was nothing he could do about it.

He looked down at Penny, her face tucked under Daisy’s armpit, her arm wrapped tightly round Daisy’s back. Their evening hadn’t gone anywhere near as planned but somehow this was miles better. Penny had accepted Daisy into their relationship as if it was the easiest thing in the world to suddenly have a teenage girl to factor into the equation. It would normally take weeks or sometimes months before he introduced his previous girlfriends to Daisy and there had always been an awkwardness between them. Even the ones who had faked liking Daisy to get on his good side had never had the ease that Penny and Daisy had with each other. Daisy adored Penny and the feeling was quite obviously completely mutual.

He ran his fingers through Penny’s hair, feeling the softness of it. She opened her eyes blearily to look at him and he just wanted to lean forward and kiss her, which he would have done if he hadn’t had the dead weight of his daughter lying on his chest.

‘I’m going to take Daisy to bed,’ Henry whispered.

Penny nodded and scooted back off of Daisy.

With some difficulty, he managed to extricate himself from Daisy, stood up and then he scooped her up. Penny smiled up at him sleepily and he smiled back before he walked out and carried Daisy up the stairs. A minute later he came back for Penny, who was fast asleep again, still on the sofa. He scooped her up too.

‘What are you doing?’ she mumbled.

‘Taking you to bed.’

‘Oh.’ She snuggled into his neck as he walked up the stairs. ‘I’m not really awake enough for that.’

He felt her breathing immediately becoming heavy again.

‘I can’t stay, not tonight. I don’t want Daisy waking up and finding me gone.’

‘K,’ Penny whispered.

He laid her down on her bed and she snuggled into her pillow, her eyes closed as she drifted off.

‘I fell in love with you a little bit tonight. Although maybe I should say I fell in love with you a little more. The way you handled Daisy was brilliant, even I wouldn’t have handled it like that. Well I didn’t, you saw what a mess I was over something as ridiculous as a power cut. But you… you just kept talking to her, making her laugh, made her see sense. You were wonderful. I love how you are with her, but not just with her, I just love how you are. I’m not really making a lot of sense, am I?’

There was no answer from Penny at all and, judging by her heavy breathing, she was somewhere else entirely, certainly not in the room with him.

He bent over and kissed her on the head and left her to sleep.

Chapter Twenty-one

Penny stared at the silvery dress in wonder. In the lights of the shop changing room it sparkled as if the whole thing was made from tiny twinkly fairy lights. It gathered under the breast in a cluster of large black gemstones and then flared out to the floor, covering all her lumps and bumps. It was simple, elegant, utterly stunning and cost more than she would pay for groceries in a month.