We’d worked hard, not only on ourselves over the last two years, but also together, to make sure our interactions were as amicable as possible for our children. And looking at Payton and Saxon today, I was thankful and relieved that it appeared to have worked. Sure, we still had the odd hiccup, but mostly they’d come out the other side of our divorce relatively unscathed.

Sax’s grades had improved again and now that he was just about to start Year 11 he was stoked he’d no longer have to move his stuff between two houses. My eyes drifted to where he stood a few feet away taking photos with Jedda’s camera. He’d developed a keen interest in photography on his trips to the Point this past year, and thus had been charged with taking photos for the Reporter, a job he took very seriously.

I was so proud of the man he was growing into, and Payton had really matured as well. Right now, she was trying to entertain Alby so that Hayley and Wei could listen to Dan’s speech, but that wasn’t a hardship for her at all. Although still passionate about soccer, she’d become obsessed with babies. She was way too clucky for a twelve-year-old, always going on about how she wanted to be a mum. It had started with Bindi, who she still couldn’t get enough of, and then she’d fallen head over heels the moment Alby was born.

Honestly, who could blame her? Born with a shock of jet-black hair like his dad’s and Hayley’s mischievous grin, he truly was the cutest little thing you’d ever seen, but also already a handful.

‘Alby, no!’ Payton hissed, as he tried to shove a handful of sand into his mouth.

Wei caught me smiling and grinned back. Now that he was part of the family—even if there wasn’t a simple word for my ex-husband’s-sister’s-boyfriend, our kids were cousins—I’d got to know him a lot better and I couldn’t be more thrilled for Hayley. I’d been wrong to judge them on him being so much younger than her—they were absolutely perfect together.

And, they weren’t the only ones.

Once again, my eyes drifted to Dan who stood proudly at the front, almost coming to the end of his speech, which I knew by heart myself because I’d already heard him rehearse it numerous times. As if he sensed me looking, his gaze met mine and I gave him a thumbs up.

He smiled back and I knew I’d made the right decision.

Some relationships were definitely worth doing whatever it took to make them ‘work’.

Acknowledgements

Acknowledgements