The sound of crunching gravel alerted her to someone’s arrival and sat up straight as she saw Mandy’s ute pull up.

‘Hi,’ called Mandy from the fence. ‘Look at you there basking in the sun.’

‘Hey.’ Nicole waved. ‘To what do I owe this pleasure?’

‘I wanted to say sorry about the way I blurted out the Caitlyn thing at the pub, Nicole.’

‘It’s okay. I’m glad you told me.’

‘Thank goodness.’ Mandy raised a hand to her chest. ‘He’s a good man, you know.’

Nicole sighed.

‘Okay, spill.’ Mandy sat herself down on the other wicker chair and turned to face Nicole directly. ‘What’s the problem?’

‘Nothing gets past you, does it, Mandy?’

‘Not a lot.’

How much could she tell Mandy? It might be good to get it off her chest. Some of it, anyway. Would Mandy judge her?

‘There’s a guy. In my past. He … I …’ No. She couldn’t do it. ‘And then there’s this place and the lease …’

Nicole threw her hands in the air. Oh, what was the point of any it?

‘Hmmm.’ Mandy tilted her head to the side. ‘You haven’t given me a lot to go on. But let’s see what I can do with it anyway.’ Her smile was gentle and warm. ‘Okay. The easy one first. When the lease runs out here, you can rent somewhere else. There are a few rooms in town. If worst comes to worst, there’s always a spare room at our place. Even if it’s just for a little while, till you figure out what you want to do. How’d I do with that one?’

A gentle breeze pushed through the gum leaves across the path, shifting shadows in a delicate dance. ‘Pretty good.’ A short-term, interim plan, but a least a plan.

‘But that’s not really the problem, is it?’ Mandy shook her head.

Not the insurmountable one, thought Nicole.

Mandy got up and paced the verandah. ‘This guy in your past? If he’s definitely in the past, maybe it’s time to leave him there. I don’t know if you and Danny have a future, but wouldn’t it be fun to find out?’

Nicole laughed. Yes. It would probably be a lot of fun. But that wasn’t really the point.

‘I’ve known Danny since he was a pimple-faced kid.’ Mandy reached out and touched Nicole’s arm gently. ‘He’s one of the good ones.’

Nicole nodded. ‘I gathered that.’ That was why she couldn’t hurt him with the truth about her inability to have children.

Mandy crouched down beside Nicole. ‘I know trusting someone can be hard, if you’ve been hurt before, but you’ll never know if Danny’s worth it unless you try.’