Paula looked up at Tom’s tangle of bedraggled curls then down to the purple and black area around his eye. Without his customary gentle smile it gave him a menacing look. He still wore the football guernsey over his shirt and his jeans were torn and grease stained. He was such a shy bloke, he probably hadn’t even looked Louise in the eye. If Paula had been meeting him for the first time she would have been a little unnerved herself. Maybe she should get Dan to take him aside and explain the finer points of asking a girl out.

“Don’t you think I should have asked her?” Tom said.

“Of course but…perhaps she was just too shy to accept.”

“You’re right. She did look a bit nervous. She kind of did a bolt and nearly tripped getting up the steps to the bank.”

“I saw her briefly on grand final day. She’s only new to the area and she did look a bit overwhelmed.”

“Do you think?” Tom joined her at the table. “Should I ask her again?”

Paula chewed her lip and looked at the guernsey. Up close, she could see it had more marks down the front of it. She’d noticed a couple of other blokes from the team still wearing their footy jumpers when she’d been in town. “Why don’t you leave it till the dinner is over and things get back to normal? We could have a barbecue here if you like.”

“Yeah, maybe.”

Paula couldn’t help but eye off the guernsey again. “Will everyone be wearing their jumpers to the dinner?”

“We sure are.” He bent his nose towards his shoulder, hooked the top of his guernsey up with his thumb and grinned. “Have to get them back to be cleaned before then. This one’s starting to pong.”

An hour later, Paula was waving Tom off as Dan drove up. She was pleased with her efforts this morning. She’d helped Tom go through his bank documents. He could read, he just found it slow going and had difficulty deciphering some words. Official documents were often very wordy. He needed more practice to gain confidence and she was sure he would be able to manage on his own.

Once they’d done that, she’d enlisted his help to move the ladders out of the baby’s room and shift in the chest of drawers that Dan had brought over from his old room at Rowena’s. While Tom had carried the ladders and paint things to the shed, Paula had put the last of the old baby items, including the rocking horse, in the bedroom. She hadn’t yet told Dan about that – or the other little treasures she’d found in the box.