“Yes you did, big sister. But Meg and I are at that Japanese place you love, and we ran into Andy and Rob, who I still swear are married, even if Rob has a boyfriend—who’s glaring at me as I say this. Anyway, they said they’ve been trying to get you all day, so we voted, and you have to come join us for dinner.”

Looking longingly at the McDonald’s, the smell of grease and fat already permeating her car, Frazer considered sushi. And noodles.

And her friends. Friends she actually hadn’t been blowing off, but whom she had genuinely not had time to answer today. What with opening the doors to her private midwifery practice, and her online course, then starting another training week for new mentors—not to mention keeping up ongoing training for current mentors and finding new clients, Frazer’s life had been dominated by work. And she loved it.

It would take a long time for it all to come together, but it would. And that was amazing.

“I’m on my way.”

* * *

The restaurant was bustling, but it was easy enough to spot the table filled with the five people she was looking for. Mostly because they all caught sight of her and waved madly.

Their idiocy amused her today, she decided.

She made her way over and worked her way around the table for one-armed hugs. Meg and Jemma’s shoulders got extra tight ones.

Meg had grown on her. Her job had been on thin ice since the university had discovered she was dating a student. However, Meg and Jemma’s plan to keep it all under wraps until Jemma wasn’t in Meg’s class had worked. As Meg wasn’t technically Jemma’s teacher anymore, it was just frowned upon. Well, Meg had described it as more like glared upon.

“Hi! I’m sorry. I swear I wasn’t ignoring you. I really was busy.”

Andy poked Frazer in the side as Frazer sat down next to her. “Sure.”

“It’s true. Promise.” Frazer slashed her hand in a cross over her chest. “Cross my heart and all that.”

“Well!” Rob clapped his hands together almost gleefully before he casually dropped his arm over his partner Daniel’s chair. “Now that Frazer is here, shall you do the honours?” he asked him.

Always a little on the quiet side compared to the rest of their loud group, Daniel gave a little shrug, the pink in his cheeks obvious even against his dark skin. When he’d won a West Australian Indigenous Art award a few years ago, he’d been the same shade of embarrassment. He hated being the centre of attention.

Reaching a hand across the table for the bottle of champagne, he held it up, a grin stretching across his face. “We’re, uh, getting married.”