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Mum took it with little grace, softening this with a thank you before turning a baleful eye on Hayden.

“We’ll need a new tablecloth and fresh plates and glasses. Everything’s a mess,” Mum said, but she didn’t have our focus. Hayden took his towel with a smile and a thank you, before his fingers moved to undo his buttons.

I knew exactly what every woman was thinking. Well, except for Mum. They watched all that golden-brown skin be revealed inch by inch. The way the fabric stuck to him? I understood why. If I was wrapped around Hayden, I’d have clung to him right now too. Instead, he towelled himself dry with a series of brisk strokes before wrapping the towel around his waist.

“Did you want me to find you a spare pair of shorts?” Frannie asked. “I can see what Dave’s got that might fit you.”

“Yes.” Amber just blurted that out, then shook her head, as if breaking a spell. “I mean, you wouldn’t want to catch a cold.”

“On a thirty-five degree day?” Mum drawled.

Everyone sucked in a breath, ready to debate this, when Dad stuck his head in the door.

“Meat’s ready! C’mon, kids, let’s have something to eat.”

“But we’re not done!” Mum twittered. “We need to reset the table and?—”

“Dave tossed the tablecloth in the washing machine,” Dad informed her, “and found some paper plates. A slap-up lunch will be fine. C’mon, before the flies get to it.”

Mum stared after Dad as he walked back to the boys, the lot of them wrapping the kids up in towels, already starting to dish up meat for the kids.

“Guess we better get the salads out,” Frannie said with a tiny smile. “Otherwise the kids will fill up on sausages.”

“Uh oh…” I looked up to see Hayden smiling. “I’m guessing I didn’t make the best impression?”

“On Mum?” His grin was infectious, so I couldn’t hold back my own. “Maybe not, but…” I leaned in closer, dimly aware that Amber was watching the entire time. “She was never the one you needed to impress.”

“So it’s all about the kids?” His voice was low and husky as he stepped closer. “I think they accept me. Apparently I’m pretty cool for a grown up.”

“You are pretty cool.”

His arms went around me to pull me close, the knot of his towel pressing into me, and I never expected to feel this. The laugh bubbling up inside me, wanting to get out, brought my mood with it, wiping away worry and stress and replacing it with this.

I hadn’t intended to kiss him, but right now I couldn’t bear to do anything else but. A question rose in his eyes for a split second before I answered it. I’d meant this to be a simple, sweet kiss, a show of gratitude for what he’d done, but as soon as his mouth touched mine, it became clear that would never be enough. He devoured me, parting my lips, searching for my tongue. My hands went around his back, clinging for dear life as he kissed me senseless, it taking seconds for me to realise he’d pulled away, and then I saw my sister’s-in-law reactions.

Nadia looked like she was about to search for some popcorn and sit back and watch the show, and Frannie was clasping her hands to her chest. Amber? Her gaze had turned flat, but she didn’t look away.

“Jamie’s boyfriends didn’t deserve her,” he told them, wrapping his arm around my waist. “I’m not sure if we do either, but I know this: I’m determined to do whatever it takes to prove I’m worthy of her consideration, and if you need more proof of that, I’m happy to provide it.”

“Are you lot coming to eat or what?” Dad called out. “C’mon, the meat’s getting cold!”

I barely felt the salad bowl I carried outside, couldn’t have told you what was in it if you put a gun to my head. All I could focus on was Hayden. His hand on the small of my back as he carried another salad out, taking both bowls before ushering me over to a seat. Him grabbing me a plate and filling it with exactly the kind of food I liked to eat. A small tendril of fear rose at that, but I smothered it quickly. The kids were all grinning, stuffing their faces with food, having spent the afternoon rampaging through the backyard, and right now I wanted to enjoy this too.

And so I did.

When I let a breath out and released the tension in my body, I could take in Frankie’s dishevelled appearance and Mum’s glower, Dad’s evident pride in his barbecuing skills, and even Steve and Dave’s stupid banter. Like every other family in Australia, we could just be together as a family.

Of course I couldn’t be allowed to enjoy that for long.

“That’s a boy that wants kids,” Frannie said sometime later as we women all collected the salads and emptied cups. She was stacking the dishwasher and staring out through the window as my dad, my brothers, and Hayden all mucked around with the kids, spinning them around and throwing them up in the air.

“Might have your own screaming the house down,” Amber said, sticking a finger in her ear and wiggling it with a wince. “Though could you imagine the babies Hayden would father?” She eyed me the way a farmer might a horse at market. “You just know they’d be beautiful.”

“Not with him.” Mum paused midway through scooping salad into a Tupperware cover. “Not someone that looks like him.” She fixed me with a scowl. “You’d never know if that one would come home at night, all the offers he’d be getting. You’re pretty enough when you put the effort in, Jamie, but not enough to keep a man like that.”

“Ah…”

All that warm, fuzzy feeling of the afternoon was washed away abruptly, leaving me standing there, the focus of everyone’s attention. I needed to say something, anything, Nadia’s look of concern demanding it. But right before I could think of something, the sliding door opened.