Seriously, this man was dangerously close to getting bear hugged. “Good. That’s good. And everything is sorted for the adoption?”

Wrapped in his hoody again, he crossed his arms, almost hugging himself. “Yeah—I chose a family?” He smiled, looking more assured. “Did Cora tell you?”

Of course she hadn’t. All Cora did was tell her to go away and stare at her with weird sex eyes and kiss her when it was the last thing Frazer felt like at that moment.

“No! I haven’t managed to hand over with her about clients. Who did you go for?”

“I chose the two dads. I was leaning towards the single mum, but then I read that statistics showed gay male couples are the least likely to get a baby. Even more than single parents. So…”

Frazer smiled at him. “Good choice.”

“I should go…”

“Do you have enough coupons for the bus?”

“My uncle is waiting in the car park.”

That did it. If she ever met him, she was going to embarrass herself. “Great. Be safe, and we’ll see you soon, okay?”

“Yeah, okay.”

“Oh, and Jack.”

“Yeah?”

“Did you think about during the birth? Drugs, no drugs?

“Oh.” He rummaged in his pocket and pulled out a piece of paper, wrinkled and a bit tatty. “I wrote up a kind of plan. Like you said. Basically, I want all the drugs. Google told me the baby may be sleepy when it comes out, but besides that, it has no effect.”

What would they do without the internet? “Sounds like a plan. Okay, mate. Bye.”

He waved and waddled out, the stoop of his shoulders too much for his age.

Frazer let out a long breath and collapsed into her chair.

Without Jack there, her pleasure at his happiness started ebbing away and Frazer felt herself getting angry again. Her phone vibrated in her pocket—a message from her sister that she didn’t bother reading, opting instead to call her.

“Frazer! So, you want to come?”

“Come where?”

“Did you not read my message?”

“I missed you so dearly that I called instead.”

“Liar. Dinner tonight? Meeting the lecturer…”

Frazer straightened. Now there was a distraction. “I’m so, so in. I can’t wait to glare at the man corrupting my tiny sister.”

“We both know I’ve always been corrupted. So, seven? The good Indian place in Cottesloe? The only one that Awa says she’ll set foot in?”

She chuckled. No food was as good as their grandmother’s. “Sounds good. See you then.”

They hung up, and Frazer looked forward to a swim in a couple of hours. She could go channel her anger into the pool and then glare at the man she’d heard a lot about for too long.

And pretend Cora hadn’t kissed her.

* * *

The first thing Cora did when she got back to Lisa’s was Google lesbianism. Then bisexuality. Then pansexuality.