‘Bless you,’ Ruby offered as she came through the church-hall door. ‘So now you can’t blame poor little Fanny for your allergy, can you? She’s not even here.’‘Susie?’‘Ruby.’ ‘Ruby, her dirty little hairs are obviously now embedded into the wooden floor.’‘Maybe you’re allergic to me?’ ‘More likely the moaners who come here every Tuesday.’‘Harsh. But true.’ Laughing, she walked through to the small kitchen at the back of the hall.‘Diet Coke?’‘Yep, lovely.’Ruby didn’t dare say she knew that in his mug at the front he had already poured his vodka. Mind you, maybe it wasn’t such a bad idea. She was finding helping out here a lot harder than she’d anticipated. It had made her assess her own loss in ways she wouldn’t have thought possible.‘So are you seeing anyone again, after your husband passing?’‘Sort of.’‘Ah, shagging someone then?’‘Simon!’ Ruby turned her head to the side. ‘I think it’s more than that.’‘Think?’ Ever the counsellor, he wouldn’t drop it.‘Simon, stop it.
