Except Lucy. Her heart ached for her best friend and she promised herself she’d call Lucy before the end of the day.

When Jules abandoned her thoughts to give Matt her full attention, it was obvious that he was lost in his own. “Hey,” she said in a whisper. She touched his chin with her fingertips, running them along his late-afternoon whiskers.

Matt looked at her and she saw the sheen of tears in his eyes, then surprisingly felt her own well up. “I was such a shit to her, Jules. She didn’t deserve that.”

“No, probably not. But is that why you didn’t move to the States? The fight? Wait, did you move there?”

“No, I didn’t go. I came back here after the fight with Mum and ended up having it out with Kirsten.”

“Well, that sucks. Two massive fights in a row.”

“You have no idea. I haven’t even got to worst part yet,” he said, his tone ominous. “Turned out that Kirsten wasn’t who I thought she was. Well, hang on, she wasn’t like a spy or a crim or anything like that. But she was pregnant.”

“Oh.” Jules’s stomach plummeted. So, this was it, Matt’s big reveal—he was a father.

“Oh no, no! The baby wasn’t mine. Sorry, babe, I should have led with that. Sorry.” He blew out a breath and amid the tumult of her emotions, Jules latched on to the joy of Matt calling her “babe”.

“No, see, she’d arrived in Australia knowing she was expecting. No plan, just running away from her life. She hadn’t told the father—didn’t even give the guy a chance, ’cause they’d broken up by the time she found out. And, so, when she met me, she saw a way out—a nice guy who could give her a good life. She wasn’t even going to tell me. She was just gonna let me think the baby was mine …”

“Oh, Matt. What the hell?”

“Yeah, that’s what I thought too.”

“But how did you find out?”

“Well, after I told her about the fight with Mum, she got the guilts and came clean.”

“Ohhh, right, so, when your mom heard my voice on the phone …”

“She must have heard the accent and thought the worst, yeah.”

“Well, no wonder! I would. God, Matt, I cannot believe that happened to you.” She tried to imagine how someone could be so deceitful, then remembered that Ash had mentioned Matt going through a hard time a while back—talk about an understatement.

“I heard through Monica that Kirsten told the baby’s father when she got back to the States. They’re not together, but they are co-parenting, so at least there’s that.”

“And you made things right with your mom?”

“Yeah, ’course. I mean, that’s what mothers do, isn’t it? Take us at our worst and love us anyway?”

“Mmm,” she murmured, her thoughts returning to her mom. She’d have to schedule some time for them to hang out when she got home. Home. She’d be there in a few days.