When she retreated, I yanked the phone out of Saxon’s hand.

‘Hey!’ He looked at me like I’d cut off his hand—so much for our reconciliation.

‘No phones at the table,’ I reminded him, dumping it in my handbag.

‘Dad lets me,’ he spat, crossing his arms over his chest.

‘Is that right?’

‘He only lets you because you refuse to come out of your room for dinner if he doesn’t,’ Payton said.

It sounded like my household was going to hell in a handbasket. What else was Adrian letting them get away with? ‘Well, that’s too bad because we’re going to talk to each other, not text people who aren’t even here.’

‘I don’t text my friends,’ Sax said, his tone scathing.

‘He uses Snapchat or TikTok …’ Payton said, adding a whole host of other things I assumed were social media apps.

‘No, I don’t. I talk to other gamers through Tournament.’

Thankfully, our lunches arrived before the kids could get into an all-out brawl but, despite my desire for conversation, we ate in near silence. Why was this so hard?

Knowing I was probably flogging a dead horse, once we’d finished eating, I insisted on heading into the processing plant to do the self-guided tour and look at the local history displays. I took solace in the fact Saxon showed a slight interest in the shipwrecks display, but we didn’t last in the actual plant two minutes because Payton couldn’t bear the smell.

‘Can we please go back to the shack?’ they both begged.

‘Fine,’ I snapped. ‘Let’s go.’

I left feeling even more disheartened than I had that morning. I hadn’t even caught a glimpse of Dan, which if I was honest, I’d been hoping for. Now that he didn’t need to go out to the island daily to feed Lion, I missed running into him on my morning walks and I hadn’t yet had a chance to thank him for the possum house.

Back at the shack, I left Saxon to his own devices, while Payton and I took a walk along the beach to Jedda’s cafe. Pity she didn’t serve anything stronger than coffee.

We were almost there when we met Dan coming out of the post office.

‘Well, isn’t this a pleasant surprise?’ Although he smiled, he didn’t look his usual perky self.

Still, it was nice to talk to someone who wasn’t glowering or whining at me. ‘Hi,’ I said, smiling back. ‘I’d like you to meet my daughter, Payton.’

‘Hi there.’

‘Hello.’ She looked at him suspiciously as he offered his hand but shook it nonetheless. ‘How do you know my mum?’

‘We’re neighbours,’ Dan replied, nonplussed.

She nodded then yanked my hand. ‘Come on, let’s go see Bindi.’