‘I can’t believe you’re serious,’ Caroline broke in. ‘You can’t bring yourself to look for a job here, but you’re willing to do it on the other side of the world?’ Her voice was laced with a healthy dose of disappointment.

‘It’s an experience I can’t get back at home, Mum.’

‘I sometimes wished I’d taken a year to travel overseas after I finished university,’ Alister said, sounding a little wistful.

‘Only, you were married and had a career to think about,’ Caroline added pointedly.

‘Yes, well, maybe in hindsight we didn’t have to rush quite so much. We could have taken the time to travel before we settled down,’ Alister said, and Elle raised an eyebrow at her father’s candid reply.

‘Hindsight is a fine thing,’ her mother said with an impatient sniff.

‘Oh, come on, Caroline,’ Alister said. ‘Tell me you didn’t say exactly the same thing when we went on our first trip to Greece. Remember we were doing a tour of the islands and we got talking to those backpackers who’d just finished university?’

‘I don’t remember that at all, Alister.’

‘You must?’ Elle could hear the teasing grin on his face from all the way over here. ‘You said, you wished we’d gone and done something so spontaneous before we decided to open our own practices and start a family.’

‘I’m sure I said no such thing.’

‘Oh? So, you’ve probably also forgotten how we spent the remainder of that night then?’ Alister countered with a decidedly suggestive tone, and Elle quickly stepped in to put a stop to hearing anything remotely traumatising about her parents’ past sex life.

‘I should go. I’ll call in two days’ time and I’ll make sure I’ve got reception,’ she promised. ‘Love you. Bye.’

Crisis averted, she thought with a relieved sigh as she walked back inside. Then she was momentarily distracted by Stuart coming downstairs in just a pair of jeans.

‘How are your parents?’ he asked.

‘Relieved I wasn’t dead in some ditch, apparently.’

‘It’s what parents do,’ he said with a grin. ‘It must be a bit of a concern to have kids so far away from home.’

‘Yeah, I know,’ she said. ‘I told them about changing my flight. They took it better than I expected. Dad actually stood up for me.’

‘Well, that’s good.’

‘Yeah,’ she said, less than enthusiastically.

‘Isn’t it?’ he asked as he came to a stop beside her.