At this reminder, she slowly peeled back the corner of her doona and poked out her head. ‘You’re still coming, aren’t you?’

‘Of course.’ I reached out and stroked her hair. I’d only maybe missed one or two excursions since my kids started school. ‘Hopefully we get to see the elephants pooing like we did last time.’

Payton made a face but giggled nonetheless and I tapped her lightly on the bum. ‘Right, missy. Up you get. I’m going to make brekkie.’

Today that consisted of bacon, scrambled eggs, fried tomatoes and wholegrain toast as I had a suspicion that the most they ate when Adrian was in charge was toast or cereal. One look at Saxon as he walked into the kitchen ten minutes after me confirmed my decision was a good one.

He looked as if he’d bypassed the brush and used his fingers to groom his hair, his clothes were crumpled despite the fact I’d ironed his uniform last night, but it was his bloodshot eyes and the dark bags beneath them that worried me.

‘Are you feeling okay, sweetheart?’ I asked as I put a full plate of food in front of him.

‘Yeah. Why wouldn’t I be?’ Saxon grunted as he picked up his cutlery. He looked as if he hadn’t slept a wink. Had he been up late doing homework? I dared not ask him for fear he’d snap at me again. I thought we’d sorted things out when I’d laid my heart on the line to him about wanting to get our family back together, but he still spoke in bare syllables to me, his tone generally pissed off when he did. Perhaps he needed an iron supplement.

I grabbed a pen to write that down on my shopping list as Payton skipped into the room dressed in her school uniform and holding my phone in her hand.

‘Mum, couldn’t you hear this?’ She thrust it towards me. ‘It’s Dad.’

No time to be nervous, I lifted the phone to my ear. ‘Good morning, Adrian.’

‘Ash, thank God.’

My heart leapt to my throat. ‘What is it?’

‘Kristen’s caught the blasted flu.’

Who? It took me a second to work out he was talking about our head receptionist. Of course, now his phone call made sense. ‘Oh, that’s awful. Poor Kristen.’

‘Yes, I hope she recovers quickly, but in the meantime, I need you to do me a favour.’

I could guess what it was, and it irked me that he’d demanded rather than asked.

‘Laura is good, but she can’t handle everything on her own and the doctor’s given Kristen a whole week, possibly two, of sick leave. Can you come and fill in for her until she gets back?’

That was almost a question.