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‘Well, neither of us have anywhere to be for a few hours, so you could start making it up to me now.’ He gave her a cheeky grin.

‘Hmm.’ She pondered the question while running a finger over his chest and making him squirm. ‘I guess I don’t really have anything better to do.’

He laughed and grabbed her, pulling her underneath him.

‘I get to wear make-up?’ Summer squealed in delight. ‘Can I Mum? Pleasepleasepleasepleaseplease?’

Evelyn laughed at the power of Summer’s enthusiasm. ‘OK’—she glanced at the make-up artist—‘but only a bit, please?’

The woman nodded her understanding, and gave Evelyn a wink. She’d take good care of Summer, who practically leapt into the chair in front of the mirror in excitement.

Evelyn turned to Nick. ‘Exactly how big of a favour was this?’

‘The biggest. My wife Claudia is a print journalist. She hates to give away an exclusive, but she knew you’d get more attention and raise more money with TV coverage. So she called one of her old uni friends, Meghan, who’s a soft news correspondent here.’

‘Soft news?’ Evelyn didn’t recognise the term.

‘Fluffy stories. Nice, feel good things. But don’t ever let her hear you call it fluffy journalism,’ he said. ‘So Meghan took the story idea to the weekly editorial meeting, and they liked it so much it’s been uplifted to become a studio story.’

‘Which is good?’

‘It’s great,’ Jake reassured her.

‘I didn’t expect all this. I thought it was just going to be a little local news thing.’ Evelyn looked around the glossy studio, feeling a bit overwhelmed.

‘It was. Then it got uplifted.’ Jake shrugged. ‘This is going to be great. And just look how much fun Summer’s having already. She’s loving the attention.’

‘She really is.’ Evelyn smiled as she watched Summer being fussed over in the make-up chair. ‘And she deserves it. I’m just a bit nervous. How many people do you think will see this?’

‘Our viewing figures vary a bit from the hundreds of thousands to the millions. But we’d expect somewhere in the higher figures for a story like this, especially if we get some good sound bites for the trail.’ A woman with a clipboard and headset came up to them. ‘The trail is the bit we fit into the headlines to encourage people to stay tuned in. And a story like this will get a lot of viewers. We’re ready to start miking you up. Once you’re ready, I’ll take you through to meet Natalie, and she’ll run through some of the questions she’d like to cover on air with you.’

‘Oh wow, this is really happening.’ Evelyn grinned at Jake. ‘Wait, Natalie like Natalie Rosh?’

‘Who else? Are we miking you up as well?’ She looked at Jake.

‘I hadn’t thought about it,’ he admitted. ‘This is yours and Summer’s thing.’

‘It’s yours too,’ Evelyn argued, ‘and I think I really need you. I don’t know if I can do this any more.’ Her breath came in fast gasps as she realised the enormity of what she was about to face: the woman who she’d watched almost every evening was about to interview her in front of millions of people.

‘It’s OK. You’ve got this.’ Jake wrapped his warm, firm hand around her shaking fingers and gave them a squeeze, before looking over to where Summer was now preening in the mirror. ‘Hey, princess. Do you mind if I come with you and your mum when you talk to the news lady?’

‘Duh. It was all your idea. Of course you’re going to talk. Obviously.’ Even from where she was stood, Evelyn could see Summer roll her eyes. Eight years old, going on thirteen. She shook her head in amusement, and then the panic set in again. If she got this right, Summer really could live to see her thirteenth birthday, but if she got it wrong …

‘Relax.’ Jake waited for Evelyn to look at him. ‘We just go and have a chat about Summer and Summer’s Christmas, chat about the fundraising a bit, and then they’ll edit it into something really good.’ He looked to the woman with the clipboard.

‘That’s exactly it. And we’ll do a good job. Our Editor-in-Chief has twins about Summer’s age. That’s part of the reason he was so eager to help and uplift the story. You’ll do great.’

Jake kept his hand wrapped firmly around Evelyn’s, tucked just behind Summer who was sat in between them, grinning from ear-to-ear as she was interviewed. She patiently held up her bravery beads necklace and showed them to Natalie, pointing out the most important beads while the interviewer made the appropriate noises.

Eventually she turned to Evelyn. ‘So, can you explain what all this is for? Why does Summer need to go to Boston?’

‘Very simply, the cancer has returned.’ Evelyn tried to keep her voice neutral. ‘And this time it’s not operable.’

‘It’s in her spine, right?’ She waited for Evelyn’s nod. ‘So what about chemotherapy and things like that?’

‘There weren’t that many drugs that the cancer was sensitive to, and Summer developed a bad reaction to some of them.’ She hesitated. ‘Most of them, actually. But the doctors in Boston are very optimistic that their new treatment regime could help.’

‘How optimistic?’