Theo crept out into the garden straight after breakfast, went round to the kitchen window and waved through the glass at Anna, who was peering at the rather unpromising-looking lemon tree she insisted on keeping on the windowsill.

Anna glanced up and shot him a puzzled look. She wiped her hands and came out onto the doorstep.

‘What’s that?’ she asked, pulling her cardigan around her form and nodding in the direction of the shed.

‘What does it look like? It’s a bicycle!’ he beamed, excited.

‘Well, I can see that, but what’s it doing in our garden?’ She took a tentative step closer.

‘I can’t have a wife of mine unable to ride a bike!’ He pulled the bike around and stood with the back wheel between his shins. ‘And now that we have officially been Mr and Mrs Montgomery for, ooh, four months, one week and three days, the time has come to rectify this glaring defect. So come on! Hop on!’

‘No-wer!’ She shook her head, laughing.

‘Come on, Anna! I am going to teach you how to ride this bike. It’ll be fun.’

‘No, you are not.’ She bit the inside of her cheek. ‘And it won’t be fun. It’ll be rubbish.’

‘I thought it was sad that no one had ever taught you how, and it bothered me that you never thought you would have a bike. I intend to put both of those things right.’ He reached forward and patted the leather saddle. ‘And before you know it, we’ll be biking all over the place with a flask of tea in your basket and a picnic.’ He thought of Mr Porter and the delicious sandwiches packed into his knapsack.

‘That is really, really sweet of you, and I love the idea of it, but I think you might be confusing me with someone out of an Enid Blyton novel. I can’t do it. I will fall off. I’m useless at stuff like that.’

‘How do you know if you have never tried?’

‘Because, Theo, I twist my ankle if I wear heels, I trip up kerbs and I can’t navigate a turnaround door!’

He looked at her quizzically. ‘A revolving door?’

‘Yes! See, I don’t even know what they’re called!’

‘Come on, Anna, I won’t let you go, I promise.’ He beckoned to her gently and held her gaze as she walked from the step, down the path and towards the bike. He liked the way she ran her fingers over the green-painted frame and smiled, as if coming round to the idea.

‘You got this for me?’ She bit her lip.

‘I did.’

‘Thank you, Theo. You love me, don’t you?’

‘I do.’ He felt the surge of love for her in his chest.

Anna moved a step closer and looked at the pedals.

‘That’s it! Now climb on.’

She did as she was told, gripping his shoulder tightly as she gingerly put one leg either side of the metal frame and placed her foot on one of the pedals.

‘It’s going to wobble, Theo!’ There was no mistaking the slight edge of panic to her voice. ‘I don’t like it!’

‘It will, yes, but I’ve already promised you I won’t let you fall.’

He relished the way she looked at him so trustingly. It was lovely to hold her steady and see her almost literally steeling herself for the challenge.

‘That’s it,’ he said encouragingly as she lifted herself up and sat back on the saddle, her feet on the pedals and her hands clenching the handlebars as if her life depended on it.

‘Look at you, Anna Bee Cole! You’re on a bike!’

‘Don’t let go!’ she squealed. ‘Please don’t let go!’

‘I’m going to hold you upright but we’ll move forward, so the wheels will shift but I’ll be holding you at the back, okay?’

‘No!’ Anna screamed. ‘Not okay!’

But he did it anyway and he could tell she didn’t know whether to laugh or cry as she sailed along with him gripping the back of her saddle.

‘See, you’re doing great!’ He beamed. ‘Now we’re going to try the same thing but along the pavement.’

‘Oh God! No, Theo, please, I might hit someone!’ she implored, but without the conviction of someone who was truly afraid. This he took as a sign that she was more willing than she cared to admit.

He steered the bike along the path until it was lined up with the wall at the front of the garden. He started to walk, still guiding her from behind. Her feet kept up with the turning pedals and she began to laugh. ‘I quite like it! Don’t let go!’

‘Don’t worry! I’ve got you,’ he called, running out of puff as the bike gathered pace.

Soon she was going too fast for him to keep up. He stood back and watched with pride as Anna trundled on down the pavement, too focused on pedalling to realise that he wasn’t holding her saddle any longer.

‘Woohoo! This is great!’ she yelled. She turned to her left to smile at Theo, but he was a good few paces behind now, staring after her with a grin on his face.

He raised both hands and gave her a double thumbs-up – prematurely, as it turned out. The shock of realising that she was now riding solo proved too great for Anna. She wobbled and lost her confidence. The bike careered into a neighbour’s garden wall and with a mighty clatter Anna toppled over, the bike landing on top of her.

‘Anna!’ Theo called, running to catch up. ‘Are you okay?’ He bent down, moving the bike with his hands and kneeling to examine her scuffed leg with the type of scrape and bruise usually seen on the knees of six year olds.

Anna looked up and kissed his chin, she was breathless, exhilarated. ‘I am more than all right – I can ride a bike, Theo! I did it all by myself!’

‘Yes, you did. You were brilliant. But I think we might leave it a while before we try skateboarding and swimming.’

‘My poor bike, have I damaged it?’ she looked up.

‘Forget the bike. I’d be more worried about the damage to the wall!’ he laughed.

The two kissed, as they sat on the pavement without a care in the world.

*

Springing surprises on Anna was one of the many little pleasures Theo had come to relish about his new life as a married man. The two had fallen into a happy routine, making even the most mundane of chores seem like fun. He felt optimistic about the future when he considered the genuine humour and friendship that bound them like glue. It was very different to the show of unity that his parents felt the need to portray. The loud laughter and almost rehearsed ribbing that was traded back and forth in front of their friends was more than a little staged. It was a nice feeling knowing that when he and Anna were in the car alone or about to fall asleep there was not going to be the roar of anger and resentment that might have simmered all evening and which he had heard his parents voice on more than one occasion. It was a new and wonderful feeling to be at peace.

He couldn’t wait to tell her about the Maldives holiday he’d just booked to celebrate their first anniversary, but whether or not that would be the place to try and teach her to swim, he wasn’t quite sure. He was certain she’d love the Maldives though – she’d never been to the tropics and he could practically hear her squeals of delight. That was part of the joy for him, seeing things through Anna’s eyes. He would tell her that night, he decided, after their dinner date with Anna’s friend Melissa and her husband Gerard.

‘Yours was a cracking wedding,’ Gerard commented, as he filled Theo’s wine glass with a warm red. ‘None of the usual shenanigans. It was simple and so much better for it.’

‘Neither of us wanted anything flashy.’

‘And pure genius in the choice of venue, a great lunch and then a short cab ride home in time for the football, job done. In fact I remember saying something similar to your mother who looked none too impressed!’ Gerard laughed, loudly. ‘I think I was wearing my champagne goggles, I then asked her who she supported.’

Theo laughed at the idea. ‘What did she say?’

‘Nothing, she stared at me as if she didn’t have the faintest idea what I was talking about and reached for your father’s arm.’

‘That’ll be about right. Cheers!’ Theo took a sip, as Melissa arrived from upstairs.

‘Hello my darlings! So good to see you both. Sorry I am behind as always. This little scrap is the biggest distraction; I don’t know where the hours go. Do you want to hold him?’

Melissa waved baby Nicholas in his direction. Theo stared at the little boy in his pale blue sleepsuit and felt his face colour, as he wiped his hands nervously on his thighs. ‘I’m not very good with babies.’

‘Well, you’d better get good at it, pal, because trust me before you know it there will be the pitter patter of Montgomery feet in the house and you are going to wish you had paid better attention!’ Gerard laughed. ‘At least that’s how it was in my case. One minute I am married to the biggest party girl on the planet, out all night dancing,’ he lifted his wine glass in Melissa’s direction, ‘and the next I’m queuing in the all-night chemist for disposable nappies and nipple cream watching men who used to be me, trot along the pavement with the wobble of drink and a silly grin on their faces, and do you know what I envied the most about them?’ Gerard waited for a response.

Melissa tutted, ‘Oh not this again!’

‘Yes! This again,’ he winked at Theo, ‘what I envied in them the most was not their drunken antics or the freedom they had to plan an evening on the town and actually leave the house, no, it was the fact that I knew these men were going home to sleep! Imagine that? Sleeping in a bed for longer than two and a half hours before a wailing monster squawks into the night and we all have to jump to attention.’ He took a slug of his wine. ‘I was plain jealous.’

‘Poor Gerard.’ Anna smiled at him.

‘Poor Gerard?’ Melissa shouted. ‘It wasn’t poor Gerard who was sliding off the mattress too tired to stand so a child could brutalise his once lovely chest! Don’t you dare give him sympathy!’

‘You love it right?’ Anna asked.

Gerard scooped baby Nicholas into his arms and kissed his little face. ‘I do, Anna, I love it more than I can possibly describe. And don’t tell him this,’ he lowered his voice to a whisper, ‘but I’d get up to him any time of day and night, just to get the chance to spend five minutes with him. I’m obsessed.’

Theo felt Anna’s stare across the room and hated her look of hope. It was proving to be the biggest bone of contention between them, her desire to start a family and his attempts at deflecting the issue.

It was as they drove home to Barnes that Anna again broached the topic, as he had guessed she would.

‘Nicholas brings so much joy to their lives, doesn’t he?’ Her words sounded off the cuff, but he suspected she had been mentally rehearsing them since they had left.

‘He does. But I also get the impression that they have given up a lot. I mean, Gerard was saying they hardly ever get the chance to go dancing or go out.’ He let this trail.

‘Oh God yes, I would hate for us to have to give up our dancing!’ she laughed and he joined in, knowing they had never done this. ‘I just feel so excited when I think about it, Theo. I can’t help it.’

‘I know you do, but there are lots of advantages to not having kids.’ He squeezed her leg.

‘Like what?’

‘Well, the sleep Gerard mentioned, can you imagine not being able to sleep? That must be like torture!’

‘I promise I will do every single night feed and you will not be disturbed. The advantage of having a big house is you can sleep in the spare room.’ She smiled.

‘I can think of other advantages.’ He coughed, preparing to announce his big surprise.

‘I get the feeling you are going to suggest sex?’

‘Actually, I was going to tell you that I have booked for us to go to the Maldives for our wedding anniversary, but if sex is on the cards...’

He watched her turn in the seat and place her hand over her mouth. ‘Oh my god! Theo! Really?’

‘Uh-huh. Our own villa, luxury all the way.’

He heard her sharp intake of breath. ‘Oh Theo, that will be wonderful, thank you. Thank you, darling.’ She reached over and kissed his face. ‘The Maldives.’

He listened, as she practised the sound of the place and couldn’t help but notice the slight edge of disappointment to her tone, as if no amount of fancy travel could make up for what she wanted most. A baby. He swallowed the guilt that swirled on his tongue and put the radio on.