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I laugh and pick up a towel. “Dress a bit long, is it?”
I can see her about to tell me to fuck off, but then Joanna comes up on the deck, so she leans back and closes her eyes again.
Chuckling, I go inside, grab my shorts and tee from the bag I left by the door, and head to the bathroom to change. When I come out, Mum and Raewyn are in the kitchen, starting to get the food ready for the girls’ tea.
“Are they ever getting out of the pool?” Raewyn asks. “They’re going to look like prunes.”
“They’ll have to—there’s not enough water left. I think I drank half of it.”
“You did seem to spend more time beneath the surface than above it,” Mum says, amused.
I lean past Raewyn to grab one of the sandwiches she’s putting on the plate. She lets me with a smile. “Take two,” she says.
“Thanks.”
“You’ve always spoiled him,” Mum complains.
“That’s because he’s such a sweet boy.” Raewyn kisses my shoulder, and I smile. I like her a lot. On the surface, Elizabeth isn’t much like either of her parents—she’s not as laid back as Neville, and she doesn’t possess Raewyn’s flakiness. She’s not particularly arty either. But when you get to know her, you realize she got her love of chemistry and her plain-spokenness from her father, and her kind heart and generosity from her mother.
“Will you take these out to the table on the deck?” Mum gestures at the plates.
“Yeah, sure.” I collect two and head out into the sunshine.
The girls are just getting out of the pool, and I spend the next fifteen minutes handing out towels, directing them to the bathrooms, then collecting wet swimming costumes and spreading them out along the deck to dry. By the time they’re all changed, the food is ready, and I hand out plates and make sure everyone has a drink and a seat before finally helping myself.
Elizabeth joins me at the table and eyes my plate, which is piled high. “Eating for two?” she asks.
“I feel as if I’ve swum the Ditch,” I say, referring to the Tasman Sea between Australia and New Zealand. “Anyway, you know I have a healthy appetite.”
She snorts and chooses another couple of sandwiches. I hold out a small fresh-cream donut. She studies it, then takes it and adds it to her plate.
I lick my fingers free of sugar. “Come for a walk with me?”
“Don’t you want to eat your tea?”
“I can multitask.”
She hesitates. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
I study her face for a moment. She’s had to cleanse her face of most of her smudged makeup, and now she looks fresh-faced and youthful. Her wet brown hair is drying with a touch of a wave, which I didn’t expect.
“Give me five minutes,” I say. “I want to apologize.”
She gestures for me to pass her another donut. “All right. Hold on a minute.”
She takes a moment to tuck the skirt of her dress up in her knickers so it doesn’t trail on the ground. “Don’t say a word,” she scolds as I smirk.
With our plates full and a cup of soda in the other hand, we walk down the steps. There’s a bench under the jacaranda tree, and we head there and sit, putting our drinks on the ground. We lean back, and for a little while we eat our food, listening to the girls laughing up on the deck, and the song of the fantails above our heads.
I look down at her sitting beside me. “I’m sorry I threw you in the pool.”
“Did your mother make you apologize?”
I laugh. “No. This is all me. I shouldn’t have done it. It was very childish.”
“It was.”
“Are you mad at me?”
