Julie busies herself at the stove with the sausages. ‘I think I upset her.’ ‘I heard about it.’ When Julie turns around, he is quietly smiling. ‘Don’t worry about it, mate,’ he says. ‘She’ll come round.’ Julie pulls a face. ‘You think so? She seems like the type to hold a grudge, to me.’ Tony laughs. ‘You’ve got no problem with her son, though . . . You’ve made a friend for life there, by the looks of it.’ Julie brings the sausages to the table. ‘Mm.’ Ryan has been at the house all day. He arrived on the doorstep bright and early, and settled in for a day of smooching on the couch. Which is nice enough, she supposes, but she doesn’t want to spend her whole time in New Guinea locked inside the house with the curtains drawn, with Ryan’s tongue in her mouth and his hands up her shirt. She tries to persuade him to walk with her to the library that Robyn has told her about, but he won’t come. He sprawls on the couch and complains about how boring it is in Mt Hagen and how he can’t wait to get back to Brisbane.
