But the last twenty-four hours had rattled her. She reassured herself that despite Nick’s recent unpredictable behavior, whenever she got him to sit down with her for a drink—tea, coffee, ideally alcohol—he eventually unwound. When that happened, the Nick she loved appeared and they talked and laughed together easily. It made perfect sense that if she lived next door and Nick could see her without the stress of having to create opportunities, then their rare moments of companionship would become an everyday event. Over time, they’d rebuild their closeness.

But life had taught her it wasn’t a perfect world and timing was everything. It was going to take time to show Nick that his two families could coexist in harmony. Time for Nick to relax into that realization and the only way it could happen was with Jess living next door.

She’d mulled over the best way to achieve this and had eventually decided to go through Nick, rather than Libby. Despite Libby owning the medical practice, she preferred being a doctor and deferred to Nick and Jess for business advice. It had taken Jess weeks of reasoning and demanding, along with some pouty pleading, to get Nick to agree to the three of them buying the Sullivan place together. He’d finally conceded that Leo deserved to grow up in a better house and have the security home ownership offered her. She suggested she sow the joint ownership seed with Libby, but for reasons she still couldn’t fathom, Nick had been unusually adamant that he do it. As much as Jess wanted to override him, she wasn’t stupid. She heeded the tension in his warning and waited for the excited phone call from Libby telling her the good news. Or better yet, anticipated arriving at Burrunan for one of their twice-weekly dinners to find her friend greeting her with a bottle of Veuve.

Neither of those things happened so after two weeks of silence on the topic, Jess tested the waters. Libby’s bald statement that Sulli had accepted Nick’s offer and her suggestion Jess rent the place had not only devastated Jess, it had lit a bonfire of fury inside her. In a rare moment of unguarded anger, she’d allowed it to burn Nick. Oh, how she regretted the texts and the phone call. It was why she’d faked a job interview so she could drive to the hospital, apologize and rescue everything with Nick on the drive home.

At first, the overwrought man sitting beside her reminded her of the Nick she’d found when she’d first returned to the bay. On her second day back in town, she’d asked Libby if Nick could bring around a ladder so she could clean the light fixtures. It was the first time they’d been alone together in months and his hands shook so much she’d lifted the ladder and set it up herself.

“You promised me no matter how much Libby begged, you’d stay in Sydney. Why are you back?”