“This is why.” Jess laid Leo into his arms.

He threw her an agitated look. “You living here is too much of a risk!”

“Relax, Nick.” She smiled reassuringly while she stroked Leo’s dark curls, so much like his father’s. “Everything’s going to work out fine.”

And for a year, everything went according to plan until Nick fell apart and landed himself in the hospital. During their precious hour alone in the car, Jess had carefully and calmly reminded him of all the positive reasons why her name needed to be on the title deeds.

“Nick, you’ve made yourself ill for no reason and worried us sick. Libby loves you. She loves me. She’ll love this idea.”

His fingers drummed on the dashboard. “What if she doesn’t?”

“Come on, Nick. You know that’s as likely as the tide not changing.” Jess plucked at the dress she was wearing. “I asked to borrow this and she gave it to me on the spot.”

“Sulli’s place is hardly a dress!”

“This dress cost $350 on sale and she gifted it to me without blinking.” Jess shook her head indulgently. “Think about it, Nick. There’s no way Libby’s going to say no. She already knows I was thinking of buying somewhere. Tell her you’ve crunched the numbers and discussed it with me to check I can afford my share. Tell her it’s a concrete way the two of you can help me get a foot in the market. You know she prides herself on helping. In fact, I bet you a Mars Bar that in a year’s time, she’ll have reinvented history and be telling us it was her idea.”

“Yeah.” Nick’s shoulders fell and he managed a small smile. “You’re probably right.”

“Finally, the man believes me,” she’d joked. “I promise you, this is the perfect solution for everyone.” But after the previous day’s events, she was no longer prepared to let Nick run things. When she dropped him off a street away from the marina, she’d said, “I’ll call Libby this afternoon.”

Now at home in her kitchen, Jess belted out the final chorus to “We Are The Champions” and hugged herself. Not only was she finally entering the property market, she was staking a legal claim in the Hunter-Pirellis’ lives—a partnership. It would give her and Leo one type of security she craved and the rest would follow.

Excited, she grabbed some paper and doodled house plans. Unlike this small 1930’s clapboard with its tiny windows and dark rooms, she sketched a large, light-filled open-plan living space that would face the water. It wasn’t dissimilar in design to Burrunan but Jess planned an outdoor kitchen and a dedicated office. Lucy and Indi would need their own rooms too so they could come and go freely between the two houses like their father and their brother.