“Come with me,” Kate heard herself say. “I’m going back to Mum’s for lunch and Beccy will be there with my niece and they’d love to see you.”

Pensively, Tilly glanced across the car park to the sisters, then back to Kate.

“The sisters know how to read the bus timetable without you, Til—they get the public bus all over Mornington. They’ll just get it back to the pier.”

Tilly captured her bottom lip between her teeth.

Smiling, Kate tilted her head. “Don’t go back to Lords,” she implored. “Come with me.”

“Before we head back home, do you mind if we go a bit further into the city?”

In the passenger seat of the convent van, Tilly turned to face her. “Sure…” Her eyes narrowed. “Why?”

It was only three—they had hours before they had to be back at Mornington. As Kate made a left at the end of her mother’s street instead of a right, she scratched at the back of her neck. “There’s something I just realised I want to show you,” she said. Truthfully, she’d been thinking about it all through lunch.

Tilly smiled curiously as Kate headed in the opposite direction to Mornington, onto the road that would take them to the inner-city suburbs. The St. Kilda terrace was only a thirty-minute drive from her mother’s house in Dandenong.

As Kate parked alongside the curb half an hour later, Tilly looked at her, an eyebrow arched. “Why are we in St. Kilda?”

Kate pointed across the street to the ornate Victorian terrace house with the double-chimney.

“Are you pointing at the one with the For Sale sign?” Tilly clarified.

Kate nodded. The day before had been the second time she’d seen it, and she’d fallen in love with it all over again. Now, she was certain of what she wanted. “This is where I was yesterday,” she said, and Tilly exhaled softly as realisation set in. “Do you like it?”

For a long moment, Tilly was quiet.

Kate unclicked her seat belt. “Do you think it’s too quaint for me?”

“No,” Tilly whispered, “I don’t think it’s too quaint.” She paused. “I’m sorry but…this is going to sound so bizarre…”

As she watched Tilly’s lips part in confusion, Kate’s curiosity piqued. “What is it?”

“I just…

“You what?”

“I had a dream about this house. Years ago. This house. Those bars on the windows. The second-floor balcony. The veranda tile. Slate roof. All of it.” She exhaled slowly. “Gosh, I must have been about twenty-five.”

Kate expected Tilly to say something to the effect of the dream being a sign from God. Instead, she was quiet. “Weird,” Kate said.

“Uh-huh…”

The urge to show Tilly inside grew. “Want to see the backyard?” she offered. “It’s a rental at the moment and it’s empty.”

Tilly’s eyes widened. “Oh, Kate, we couldn’t.”

“Couldn’t we?”

Grinning, Kate unclipped Tilly’s seat belt. “Come on, goody-two-shoes.”

Just as it was the day before at the showing, the back gate was unlocked. With Tilly hot on her heels, Kate led the way around the side of the house and into the small backyard. Stepping up onto the low veranda, Kate cupped her hands against the kitchen window. Tilly followed suit.