‘Look at you in this light.’ It was an effort to keep his voice level. ‘I want to carry you away and learn your magic.’ He was very glad he’d made arrangements before he’d come to see her. ‘I don’t suppose I could invite you over to my hotel room for some contemplation of …’ he pretended to search for inspiration ‘… the afternoon view from our verandah?’

She laughed. ‘It would be nice to have some alone time with you that didn’t include babies or medical emergencies.’

He reached for her hand, and once they were joined he felt ridiculously complete to have her fingers in his. Hip brushing hip, they walked up the curved footpath towards the hotel. The sun cast long, thin shadows away from them and he waved his other hand back at the health centre. ‘All good on transfer?’

‘Amazing. Jessamine’s breastfed the boys twin fashion. She’s calm about the flight now. The pilot told her how many thousands of safe landings he’s had.’

She squeezed his hand, her mind obviously on other things, but that was fine by him. He loved the way her mind roamed. In fact, he loved everything about her.

‘It’s five years away,’ she said musingly, ‘but when these babies go to school, I’ll talk to Jessamine about looking at a scholarship in health. She’d be an incredible nurse. Maybe even a midwife if it isn’t too far for her to travel for study.’

Five years. She expected to be here? Of course she did. That was food for thought but not unexpected. Given his feelings, there was a big chance he’d be here too. For the moment, he only said, ‘You’re a midwife. From here. Nothing stopped you.’

‘No, it didn’t. But everyone is different. I do think she’d be such a great resource. We don’t have enough Indigenous midwives, and her inner strength shines. That’s where the change will come from. When Indigenous midwives can support Indigenous women in communities, we’ll see more outreach births. More babies born on country.’

There was a long road to travel and a lot of red tape to cut through before that would be a reality, but if anyone could encourage it to happen, Ava and the friends she had here could. ‘No matter how good your set-up became, you’d not get twins booked to be born on country,’ he commented with a small laugh.

‘Yes. Except for today.’ They both smiled again at the thought. ‘Jessamine was brilliant with those babies coming out so well. Probably the long walk did it.’

He’d thought about that. ‘She’s lucky she didn’t have them on the way.’