Chapters (48)
- Cover
- Praise
- About the Author
- Also by Tricia Stringer
- Title Page
- Dedication
- One
- Two
- Three
- Four
- Five
- Six
- Seven
- Eight
- Nine
- Ten
- Eleven
- Twelve
- Thirteen
- Fourteen
- Fifteen
- Sixteen
- Seventeen
- Eighteen
- Nineteen
- Twenty
- Twenty-One
- Twenty-Two
- Twenty-Three
- Twenty-Four
- Twenty-Five
- Twenty-Six
- Twenty-Seven
- Twenty-Eight
- Twenty-Nine
- Thirty
- Thirty-One
- Thirty-Two
- Thirty-Three
- Thirty-Four
- Thirty-Five
- Thirty-Six
- Thirty-Seven
- Thirty-Eight
- Author’s Note
- Acknowledgements
- Excerpt
- One
Natalie pulled her jacket tight against the stiff breeze rolling along the street from the Great Australian Bight with the chill of Antarctica on its breath and wished she’d brought her thick coat. Regardless of the weather, after three days with her father – wait, no, it was Thursday, so that made four days – she needed to get out. They’d picked up her mother on Tuesday and with three of them confined to the unit Natalie wanted some escape from their enquiring and sometimes censuring conversations.
She ducked into the sanctuary of a little coffee shop and let the warmth wash over her.
“Same as usual?” the bright young thing behind the counter asked.
“Gosh. Have I been in that often?”
The young woman smiled warmly. “I like to remember regular customers. Flat white, no sugar.”
“Thanks.” Natalie chose a piece of lemon slice to go with it, paid and found herself a table in the corner, her back to the wall. Her dad had brought her here the morning after she arrived. She’d come twice more with him and then yesterday on her own when she’d needed to escape the confines of her parents’ unit, and here she was doing it again.
Usually when they were together there were more family members present and Natalie had the buffer of others, and it had been a tricky few days with just the three of them, their few topics of conversation exhausted. Her parents were outwardly welcoming but she felt on tenterhooks the whole time, being careful about what she said, and she could see them doing the same. She reassured herself her parents did love her, and she them, but there was a distance between them that may as well have been as wide as the ocean outside for their – or her – lack of ability to cross it.
Last night Bron had called in briefly after dinner. Full of chat about the highs and lows of school camp and the antics of her twins, she’d brought a breath of fresh air to the unit and an animation to her parents that had been lacking when it was just Natalie with them. Bronwyn was their favourite. She always had been, it was so obvious even Bron had picked up on it, but she was never smug about it. Natalie didn’t feel real jealousy – perhaps a bit when she was younger but not now, and not of her sister. If she felt anything it was disappointment that her parents didn’t see Natalie or their granddaughters as much as they could. She was simply resigned to their stilted relationship and even more thankful that she was close to her own girls.