I laughed and turned to retrieve the rolls that had been warming in the oven. At the smell of fresh bread, Payton emerged from the bedroom, wearing nothing but her one-piece bathers, goggles and flippers.

‘Where’d you get them?’

‘Wei gave them to me.’ She pushed the goggles up onto her forehead and smiled at him as she flapped loudly to the table.

While we ate, we talked a little bit about my plans for the shack going forward.

‘You sure you won’t get lonely up here all by yourself?’ Hayley asked, before popping another spoonful of soup into her mouth.

‘Lonely?’ I snorted. ‘I’ve had more of a social life here in the last couple of months than I’ve had in Perth the last few years, and I’m enjoying actually working again too.’

She’d already heard about the trivia night, but I caught her up on the last week—getting to know locals during my shifts in the cafe; attending an evening meeting of the CWA so I could write an article about their drive to attract more younger women; another couple of nights at Jedda’s place drinking wine as we worked on the Reporter; and, of course, about yesterday’s busy bee out on the island.

‘I thought you had more colour in your cheeks than usual. The fresh air and sun clearly agree with you.’

‘I’m going to help the Island Progress Association with some fundraising,’ I finished, not mentioning Dan or our dinner because I didn’t want Hayley to jump to conclusions.

She rolled her eyes. ‘You just can’t help yourself can you—if there’s a committee or something to be organised, you’ve got to be in it.’

‘I’ve actually resigned from the P&F and the school fundraising committee, so now I’m on fewer committees than I was before.’

‘That’s something. Anyway, this island and castle thing sounds fascinating. Can we have a look?’

‘Sorry, it’s not open to the public yet and you need to have a boat to get out there.’ Dan might take them, but even if he wasn’t working, I wouldn’t ask him. I didn’t want to push our newfound friendship.

‘What are you smiling for?’ Hayley’s question caught me unawares, but luckily Payton asked another before I could answer it.

‘Can I go swimming yet?’

‘Okay.’ We’d kept her waiting long enough. ‘Why don’t you have a piece of caramel slice and I’ll go get Sax?’

I found him sitting in bed, his laptop on his knees and headphones in his ears.

‘I thought you were having a nap!’

He blinked at the sound of my raised voice and yanked out one earbud. ‘Huh?’

‘I thought you said you were tired.’