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Lifting the hedger to chest height, Cameron cuts a line through the viburnum. At the corner of the garden, he puts the hedger down and rolls his shoulders. I feel Julia’s gaze again.

‘Do you think you’ll ever forgive him?’ she asks.

I don’t pretend not to know what she’s talking about. ‘Coming back here, seeing him again …’ Averydeep breath. ‘Yesterday he confirmed that he wasn’t involved, but I’d already decided he wouldn’t have been capable of it.’

‘When he owned up to what he’d said to you, I’ve never seen him so upset.’

‘We’d ignored each other, glared, turned our backs, but that was the first time he’d been deliberately unkind. I bundled that up with what’d happened with the roundabout.’

‘That was understandable.’

‘I was bloodied and bruised. I didn’t want Cameron to see me like that.’

‘You were vulnerable, Amelie. There was no hiding it.’

I grip the cup with both hands. ‘It wasn’t his fault that he found me afterwards. It wasn’t fair to be angry with him.’

‘You were a child.’

‘He was only two years older.’

Julia opens the lid of the teapot before closing it again. ‘What are you doing for Christmas?’

‘My parents live in Thailand, not that they celebrate Christmas anyway. My grandparents passed away a few years ago.’

‘A friend? A partner?’

‘No.’ I check my phone for no reason. ‘It’s no big deal, really.’

‘Would you like to join us for Christmas?’

I stand so quickly my knee bangs the table. ‘I don’t do Christmas.’

‘Would dinner on Christmas Eve make a difference? Anna, Adam and the children will be here. Also, Cam, Jimmy, Milly and Benedict. Sometimes others come along.’

I’m grateful to Julia and I like her. I also like Anna, Jimmy, Milly and Benedict. But when my fingers tangled with Cameron’s yesterday, I felt something different from like. Even watching him in the garden makes me jittery. My feelings for him have always been complicated. Nothing has changed in that.

‘Thank you, Julia, but me and Keith Urban will be fine on our own.’

‘There’s no need to decide now.’ Julia places her cup on the saucer. ‘Simply keep it in mind.’

Cameron intercepts me on my way to the ute. If I hadn’t left Keith Urban at the cabin on account of the piggery owner’s mastiffs, I could distract myself by opening the door to let him in or by ruffling his fur or—

‘How’re you feeling?’ The hat, the jeans, the shirt. Even sweat suits him.

‘Thanks for your help yesterday.’ I nod politely. ‘Julia hasn’t changed, not … inside.’

‘Did she invite you to Christmas Eve?’

‘I’m afraid I can’t make it.’

‘You don’t have to bring presents.’

‘Shouldn’t you get back to your hedges?’

‘Just because your parents didn’t—’

‘I have to go.’