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An entire box of opals. More pieces of jewellery, intact this time. A band of thick silver nursed a square opal, not perfectly smooth, but as though it had been chosen for the unsymmetrical and less than perfect appearance. One swipe across it with her finger and the colours sparkled once more. Surely it wouldn’t fit? Ava placed it onto her right-hand ring finger anyway. With the heat of the day and her slightly swollen fingers, it sat in place and didn’t slip.
Maybe this one would be worth something and she could keep her ring? It was too late, anyway. As promised, Clive had told her of a place where she could sell her ring and she’d gotten rid of it. There couldn’t be any comparison, her engagement ring had been worth a lot. There was no way this ring could match the value. Forget about it … she concentrated on her box of discovery.
Rummaging through the items, Ava extracted shells, and an entire range of objects that she surmised could be teeth, plants and other animal life.
Holy shit.
She slumped back on her bottom. The heat of the sun bit her neck, flies buzzed around her ears, a kangaroo bounced away and to her left, a kookaburra made its distinct call. Soft fur rubbed at her arm and Dolly puppy vied for her attention. She bundled the dog up, cuddled it close to her neck, and inhaled its scent. ‘Look at this.’ She put the puppy’s face up close to her finds. ‘Dolly, this place is special. And I need to keep us here, safe.’ There hadn’t been any further emails from her husband, thank goodness.
She stole a glance at Noah then, only to see more rippled muscles and looked away. ‘It might just heal us all, Dolly. What do you think about that, huh, girl? Wouldn’t that be something?’ Dolly wriggled out of her grasp and she set the dog back down and it wandered away on its four adorable little stumps for legs and cute waddle.
A shadow fell across her. ‘You’ve done it again, haven’t you?’
‘Done what?’
‘You’ve found something else in this place, haven’t you?’
‘Yes.’ Her face creased into a sudden smile.
‘Want me to lift this box onto the deck for you?’
‘Yes, please.’ Her smile turned coquettish and shy.
‘Are you going to spend tonight trawling through your box of treasures?’
‘Probably. But I thought I might put on a barbeque for the boys first. Do you think they’d appreciate that as a thank you for their hard work today?’
‘I think they’d love that and if you throw in a beer, they’d like it even more.’
‘Hey, mate. What’s up?’ Noah answered the call on Bluetooth in his car on the first ring. Brady was a father in his support group; it must be important.
‘Hey, Noah.’ The male voice rang out loud through the car speakers, but he was alone travelling early to Brisbane. ‘Elisha won’t let me attend the kid’s first day of school.’ No pleasantries: it was often like this. These blokes weren’t friends, they had common problems.
‘It does fall on her day, but that’s not the point, right? It’s a special event and it shouldn’t matter who the kids are with, right?’
Noah’s breakfast churned in his belly. More conflict, but at least this time it wasn’t his. His job now was to listen to Brady and help, if necessary.
‘Agreed, mate. It’s a neutral location.’ Noah outlined the first day events he’d already miss: breakfast, shining shoes, plaits in the hair and first photo.
There was silence for a moment as Brady digested the information. ‘Yeah, well, that other stuff is Elisha’s field anyway, I still can’t master plaits. But I want to see them at school.’
‘Is she saying you can’t see the kids at all?’
‘Yep.’
Noah winced. But then with enormous clarity, the image of Ava popped into Noah’s mind and her comment about the best interests of the child. Yeah, and he agreed. It was the best interests of Brady’s kids that both parents were present on the first day of school. That was common sense, right? Would the social worker he was seeing today for these court ordered family report interviews concur?
Noah asked about the reasons his wife was refusing.
Brady groaned. ‘She’s pissed off at me, man because I’ve been late twice returning the kids during my visits and now, she won’t agree to anything. You know how it is, and then she punishes me by holding time back.’
With Ava’s salient words echoing, he tossed around different ideas with Brady. Noah suggested asking Elisha how best it would work for her. Brady arced up. He didn’t want to negotiate. Noah reasoned with him—negotiate or not see the kids. Brady took some persuading but eventually agreed and to let him know how he went.
Noah thought Brady hung up mildly placated; he felt satisfied he’d helped.
He was halfway now on his trip and needed a break. Spotting a servo with café attached, he’d refuel, have a toilet break and grab a coffee.
With Ava on his mind, he texted her to advise that he wouldn’t be working at her place today. Usually, he’d leave it at that. But he went further and told her why and pressed send before he could prevaricate.
