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I let go of my foot and turn round. Penny is in one of the raised beds, digging like she’s tunnelling out of prison, tail going mad.

“Oi! What would your maw say?”

I scoop her up before she can do any more damage. She wriggles, paws black with muck, then twists round to lick my chin.

“Naw, don’t you try and sweet-talk me.” I hold her up so we’re eye to eye. “I’ll be telling Briony about this. She’s no gonnae be impressed.”

Penny just pants at me, looking delighted with herself.

I sigh and press a kiss to the top of her scruffy wee head. Not something I’d do when out and about, but in the back court? Aye, why not.

I’m assessing the damage to the flowerbed when I clock there’s somebody standing at the back door. Kathy.

Fuck. What’s she doing here?

“She’s quite the little excavator, isn’t she?” Kathy says, stepping onto the lawn. “When Penny takes a notion, no flowerbed in Glasgow is safe from her.”

“Aye.” That’s it. That’s all I’ve got.

Penny squirms, keen to say hello, so I set her down. She shoots across the grass and jumps up at Kathy’s knees, leaving two muddy pawprints on her trousers. Kathy doesn’t seem to mind. She bends and lets Penny lick her fingers.

“Briony’s in the shop,” I say. I imagine that’s who she’s looking for.

Kathy straightens. “I stuck my head in a minute ago. She was with a customer.”

“Right.”

“I was actually hoping to catch you too, Ryan. To clear the air.”

I’d rather take a liver shot. A heart-to-heart with my girlfriend’s maw sounds fucking grim.

“It’s fine,” I say. “No hard feelings on my end, anyway. All good.”

But she sits on the bench and pats the space beside her. “Can we talk?”

Bollocks. I glance at the washing-line pole. I still have stretches to finish, but as much as I’d like that to be a good excuse, I know it isn’t. So I go over and sit.

“What I said in the kitchen last night,” Kathy says. “It was unfair, and it was unkind, and I’m sorry.”

I wait for the but. It doesn’t come.

“I told Briony it came out wrong, but it didn’t. It came out exactly as I’d been thinking it, which is rather the problem.” She looks down at her hands. “I’d made up my mind about you from some clips of your fights Innes showed me. Then you sat at my table and were perfectly polite, but I just couldn’t see past them.”

“Like I say, no hard feelings on my end.”

“Innes had a fair bit to say after you both left,” Kathy continues, as though I didn’t say anything. “But I’m not here because my son told me off. I was wrong, and I wanted to tell you so myself.”

“Aye. Nae worries.”

I’m hoping that’s us done, but she’s got more to say.

“I worry, Ryan. Far more than I need to. I’m sure it drives Briony up the wall. But after what happened to Innes…once you know these things can happen…and then, with Briony having been mugged…”

“For what it’s worth,” I say when she trails off, “there’s nothing wrong wi’ being protective of your daughter. I’m sure I’m no who you imagined for her.”

“No,” she admits. “You’re not.”

Well, at least she’s honest.