Lara shrugs. ‘He was travelling.’ Distaste colours her words. ‘Said to have the funeral without him.’

‘Oh …’

‘He said Mum wouldn’t mind—that the funeral wasn’t going to change anything for him. But still …’ Lara clearly thinks he made the wrong decision.

‘I guess we all have to make peace with the choices we make.’

‘Well, he’s right. Mum wouldn’t have minded. She would have told him to keep travelling and have a good time. She hated to inconvenience anyone.’

‘My sister was like that.’ The words are out of her mouth too quickly. Penelope doesn’t know why she’s being so careless.

A faint line of concern rushes over Lara’s face at hearing was. ‘Your sister?’

‘She died, a few years ago now.’ Penelope prepares herself for it—the sympathy and horror.

‘You’ve lost both your mum and your sister?’ Lara doesn’t even wait for her to respond, she just throws herself forward, wrapping Penelope in a hug. She smells of Weet-Bix and laundry powder. ‘You poor thing.’

Penelope surprises herself by sinking into the hug and, for the first time in a long time, she lets herself be swept away in the sadness.

Chapter 26

26

The clue for today’s group date is Food Appreciation and Bonnie feels nothing but relief. A few days ago, half the girls went on an athletics carnival group date. Bonnie had almost been sick as she’d waited to see if her name was going to be called out. Physical competition is not her strong point. She was lucky with the horse-riding date but doubts there’ll be another sports activity she can actually do. A date revolving around food is definitely her kind of thing.

But when they arrive at the date, Bonnie feels the colour drain from her face. There are six kitchen workstations set up. She isn’t going to be eating food, she’s going to be making it. A clear memory of Carla opening her freezer stocked full of frozen dinners pops into her mind.

‘Bonnie,’ Carla had said, horrified. ‘I have three kids and manage to put something healthy and nutritious on the table every night.’

‘And I work seven days a week,’ she’d bitten back.

Carla had just frowned. ‘It wouldn’t take long to throw together a healthy stir-fry.’

‘I’d end up having to eat it as leftovers for the next week, or throw it out—you wouldn’t want me to waste it, would you?’ Bonnie had said it seriously, knowing Carla had a thing about wasting food.

Bonnie watched as Carla thought about it for a moment, waiting for her next plan of attack. ‘Surely you could make some lasagnes and shepherd’s pies and freeze them in single portions? It’d be much healthier than the store-bought stuff.’

Bonnie had been exhausted, Carla draining the last of her energy. ‘I’m sure I could.’ But she wasn’t going to.