‘Yeah, that’s the other thing. You did pay. I mean, I used your Visa. Emergency dentist costs a shit ton. I’m really sorry. I’m gonna pay you back soon as I get another job. Or sooner if you need the money. I can call Mum, ask her to transfer it.’

‘Don’t be silly. It’s fine. I’m happy to pay for my nephew to not be in excruciating pain! I just wish you’d asked me. I don’t understand why you felt you had to sneak around. You know I would’ve helped.’

He wished Lena was here to appreciate his amazing self-control in this moment. No laughing in disbelief. No: Are you fucking kidding me? Not even a sarcastic smile, though that was as much to do with the post-dentist ache in his mouth as it was the desire not to let Aunty Nic know how ridiculous she sounded.

‘Didn’t want to bother you,’ he said, filling the sink with water and dish soap.

‘Haven’t I always treated you and Lena like my own kids?’ Aunty Nic’s voice broke like a thirteen-year-old boy’s. ‘Who makes their own kids pay back money for a dentist’s bill, for god’s sake?’ Will turned off the tap, leant against the kitchen counter. She

had always treated him and Lena like her own. Dropped everything to mind them, stepped forward with the cash if there was a school excursion Mum and Dad couldn’t afford, always took the time to crouch or sit at their level and hear their winding, pointless stories or mediate their petty fights. Except.

Maybe the strong gear he’d been taking was still in him because he couldn’t stop himself from saying it. ‘You know, I used to imagine moving in here with you.’

‘I know. You kids used to say it all the time. Why can’t we live with Aunty Nic? No wonder Michelle’d get the shits.’

‘Nah, I mean later. When I was in prison. After Mum moved. I thought about it a lot. But you never came to see me or rang or anything. Figured you didn’t want much to do with me.’ Will plunged his hands into the hot suds, washed their dinner plates and cutlery. Dried each item, put it away.

Finally, her voice small and scared behind him: ‘You have to know, Will, that I’m not a very strong person. And that’s what you needed.’

He turned, saw she was crying silently, said it anyway: ‘I needed whatever kind of person I could get.’

‘If I thought about you, I couldn’t bear it. So I stopped.’

‘You didn’t stop thinking about Lena when she went away.’ He hated how whiny his voice was. Might as well have been five years old, complaining that Lena always got first pick of the iceblocks.