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‘Don’t forget the squabbling, tormenting of the sister, and chasing our dog.’ He grinned. ‘Don’t look so disapproving. Tormenting little sisters is what big brothers are supposed to do. Worms and all.’

‘Worms? I don’t want to know, do I?’

‘Probably not.’ He chuckled. ‘In fairness, it wasn’t always me. Sometimes Bouncer helped.’

‘Bouncer?’

‘Our dog. A proper Heinz fifty-seven mongrel — part lab, part beagle, part goodness-only-knows what else. Jake always said he thought there was some spaniel too. He could be really screwy.’

‘Sounds wonderful.’ Liv sighed wistfully. ‘I always wanted a dog when I was younger. But Mum preferred cats, and said a dog would be too much work. She was probably right.’

‘They are a lot of work, but can be really rewarding.’ He smiled nostalgically. ‘It was probably easier because there were three of us kids, and it taught us a lot about responsibility. I think he probably influenced Jake’s career at least a bit too. The patients used to love him.’

‘He was a regular with patients?’

‘Yeah, had a basket in reception. Way more fun for our littlest patients than the toy corner, and he was good for calming down people who were a bit nervous.’

‘Sounds nice.’

‘It was. I was very lucky with my childhood. So . . .’ He grinned at her. ‘This was one of my favourite places. Where was yours?’

Liv took a moment to think about the answer. ‘I used to love being in the kitchen with Mum. I wasn’t always the best of cooks or bakers, but we always had good fun. She used to lift me up on the work surface when I was tiny, and I’d steal raw pastry out of the bowl. It’s one of my earliest memories. For a while, I even thought about becoming a chef.’

‘Why didn’t you?’

‘Well, that was my plan when I was probably about Sarah’s age, and thought I’d just get to eat lots of lovely things all the time. But, like I said, I’m not exactly the best of cooks all the time. Plus I think I saw too many TV programmes with shouting, swearing head chefs. It looked pretty stressful.’

‘So instead you chose a nice calm, stress-free, low-pressure career in medicine,’ Callum teased.

‘I know, when you put it like that it makes no sense.’

‘Well, I for one am very, very glad you chose medicine, and ended up here.’ He leaned over to brush a kiss against her lips. ‘Even if I would have preferred you’d ended up here through a less stressful route.’ He stroked her wrist, fingers brushing over the scars that were still dark against her skin.

‘Enough about me.’ Liv squeezed his fingers. ‘Did you always want to be a doctor?’

‘Well, obviously with it being the family practice there was always a focus on medicine in the family. It worked for me and Jake — albeit with animals. Kimberley definitely went the path-less-trodden route.’

‘Never any question then?’

‘Well . . .’ He hesitated. ‘You have to promise not to laugh.’

‘OK.’

‘Well, there was a period when I was probably about nine or ten when I thought about a different career.’

‘What?’

‘Remember, you promised not to laugh.’ He waited for her nod. ‘A Ninja helicopter pilot.’

‘Awww, that’s sweet. And only a little bit funny.’

‘You don’t know the best bit yet.’

‘Go on . . .’

‘I hate heights.’

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