Anyway, the main thing was that Doggo had been taken care of. He would have been uncomfortable under all that matted fur. It was already a hot summer. He wasn’t sure if it was his imagination, but it seemed like there was a difference in the way the dog was walking now, more pride in his trot, whereas before he’d seemed kind of mopey as he walked along.

‘I know exactly how you feel,’ Darren said, looking down at him. ‘I’m the same after I get my hair cut. You own that swagger, buddy.’

He looked up in time to see an older woman staring at him, a bemused look on her face as she passed. He nodded politely at her, not the least bit embarrassed to be caught chatting with a dog as he walked along.

‘What should we do today, Doggo? Visit the park?’ His phone started vibrating in his pocket and he pulled it out to see Tony’s name on the screen. Unusual. He and Tony got along well enough when the family got together, but with Darren and Pete being the closer brothers, Tony didn’t often call out of the blue.

‘What’s up, mate?’ Darren said as he stopped under the shade of a tree and answered the call.’

‘Quick favour. I’m on my way to talk to Andrea’s class about writing. You’ve done these things in the past, haven’t you?’

‘Yep, a couple.’

‘Have you got some notes you can shoot through to my email for me? I just need something to get me started.’

‘Yeah, I should have some stuff saved. Not a full speech, just a few dot points.’

‘That’s fine, perfect.’

‘Okay, I’ll send it through to you now.’

‘Thanks, appreciate it.’

Darren hung up and searched through his Dropbox account on his phone. He found a document that should give Tony a few basic pointers and emailed it through. It wasn’t often that Tony asked for help with anything. He generally preferred to come across as completely self-sufficient. It was nice to feel needed by his eldest brother for a change.

Right, what to do now? He could drop by to Pete’s place. Although Pete would only hassle him about the fact that he should be writing. He mentally ran through a list of his mates, wondering if any of them might be available to catch up. But it was a weekday — they’d all be working. Sometimes Jono or Raj could duck out and catch up for lunch, but they needed notice.