Kim had suggested to Zara that perhaps her mother’s grief wasn’t only for Will. It probably brought all the old feelings from Brian’s death to the surface. Zara thought she was right, because she’d found herself returning over and over to her dad’s death in the aftermath of Will’s. It dragged up all the old pain, the feelings of disbelief and injustice. Sometimes the empty space felt too enormous to comprehend.

Now she was on her way back to Adelaide. Not for good, but for a couple of weeks. The agreement she had with her mum and Lachy was that she would have two weeks in the office and two weeks in Barker, until Lynda felt she was able to cope by herself.

The excitement was building as she thought about her return to the office. She was craving normality, distraction, real life. Her phone rang and she smiled as she saw it was Liz.

‘Hey,’ she answered.

‘Hi, where are you?’

‘About thirty minutes away. Is my desk ready?’

‘It’s been ready since you left. So, you’ll be in time for the editorial meeting?’

‘Hopefully the traffic will be light and I’ll get there.’

‘I think Lachy will hold off until you’re here, anyway.’ There was a pause and Zara knew that Liz wanted to ask how she was.

‘I’m fine.’

‘I didn’t ask!’ Liz sounded indignant.

‘But you want to. I’m learning to read people’s pauses.’

‘Everyone’s really excited you’re coming back, Zara. We’ve all missed you.’

Hanging on to the steering wheel tightly as a truck overtook her, Zara smiled. ‘I’ve missed you all too. Has the mystery of Mr O’Grady been solved yet?’

There was a silence before she said, ‘No, not yet.’ Liz paused again. This time when she spoke, her voice was bright. ‘But I’ve got some office gossip.’

‘Oh, do tell!’

‘We think Michael has been shagging the new journo, Claudia!’ Liz’s voice was full of glee.

‘Nooo!’ Zara said. ‘Michael wouldn’t mix work and personal life, would he?’

‘Well, I saw them having dinner at the Boat Shed on Saturday and it didn’t look like they were talking about work, if you get what I mean.’

‘He’s stupid!’

‘You’re telling me,’ Liz lowered her voice. ‘I think Lachy suspects something because he pulled both Michael and Claudia into his office separately today. And neither of them looked very happy when they came out. Lachy will have a fit if that’s what’s going on. He’s always said that there shouldn’t be office romances.’

‘I know but, in reality, how can you stop them? You can’t stop love. Apparently, that’s a force not to be denied.’

‘Can’t say I’d know.’