‘Not explaining. I knew what it meant. I just needed . . . clarification. I didn’t understand why there was an A in there.’

‘Ah yes, what the actual fuck,’ Andrea said. ‘Where are Callie and Tara anyway? I thought this was meant to be a girls’ lunch with all the girls.’

‘Callie ditched us in favour of the beach with her friends and Tara has percussion lessons. She’s doing extra at the moment because she’s performing at a Christmas musical evening at the end of term.’

‘I didn’t know she was performing,’ said Jill. ‘When is it? I’ll come.’

‘Honestly, you don’t need to,’ said Mimi. ‘It’s not really a big deal. There’s a whole heap of schools involved and she’ll only be on stage for all of three minutes.’

‘That doesn’t matter! I’d love to come. Send me the details and I’ll be there.’

Mimi shrugged. ‘Your choice, but no pressure.’

A waiter interrupted them. ‘Ready to order?’

‘Oops, haven’t looked,’ said Andrea, leaning forward to pick up a menu with one hand while keeping James snuggled into her shoulder.

Mimi spoke at the same time. ‘Bottle of the Margaret River cab sav,’ she said. ‘Three?’ She glanced around at the others then continued without waiting for an answer. ‘Yes, three glasses, please.’

The waiter nodded. ‘I’ll come back for your food orders.’

‘Oh yes,’ said Andrea, ‘you’re free from breastfeeding now, hey?’

‘Hell yes.’

‘Still,’ interrupted Jill, ‘it’s an early lunch. Should we be having wine?’

‘Wine-o-clock somewhere,’ Mimi said.

‘Fair enough,’ said Andrea. ‘Oh, Jill, did Tony remember to come and move those boxes up into the roof storage for you yesterday? I forgot to ask him if he did it last night.’

‘No, but he doesn’t need to. I can handle that.’

Andrea exchanged yet another quick look with Mimi while Jill had her eyes focused down on Elliot. They had aired their concerns with one another about how hard it was to get Jill to accept any help. Andrea particularly didn’t like the idea of her trying to climb up to the roof space on her own.

‘It’s no trouble,’ Andrea said. ‘He works his own hours, he can drop by.’

‘For that matter, so could Pete,’ Mimi added.

‘Nonsense. Pete needs to be at home helping you out with these babies. And Tony’s on deadline for the next book. We don’t want him working through Christmas, do we?’

‘True.’ Andrea paused. ‘Jill, Tony said the other day that you’re still happy to do the usual trip up the coast. Are you sure that’s what you want? Because we’d all be more than happy to—’

‘Absolutely,’ Jill cut in. ‘And this year we’re going to make sure we have a set meeting point so that we all leave at the same time.’

‘Of course, we can do that,’ said Mimi.