Galvin’s POV

The question hung in the sitting room long after she said it.

“Is there any way I can be of help?”

Her words resounded in my head, over and over. She stood a few feet away in that thin tank top and cut-off shorts, waiting for an answer I should never give her.

I should have laughed it off. I should have told her to go upstairs and forget the entire conversation. Instead I stayed where I was and looked at her properly for the first time all night, lust clouding my sense of reasoning.

She was twenty-two. I had known her since she was twelve. I had...