Their eyes meet across the yard. There's a spark, a thought, a wish ... a hope.
Nestled away in the Australian countryside, two teachers find each other, but how long before either of them act on their feelings? That's where the friends step in ...
Kylie and Jack were hosting Sophie and Dean; Ali, Loz, the boys and Jack's old roommates Kieran, Zach and Marty for a lazy afternoon of nibbles and cuppas. Earlier that morning, Kylie had woken up to a message alert on her phone. She opened it up to find a long, tear–jerking message from Loz that brought her tears and apparently loud enough to startle Jack awake.
"What – Kylie! Why're you crying? What's wrong?" Jack had asked in shock to see Kylie sobbing beside him.
"I'm n–not crying! You're c–crying!" Kylie had wailed back at him, dabbing her eyes with one hand and flinging, limp wristed, her phone at Jack.
Catching the phone, Jack read the message, put her phone on the bedside table, rolled onto his side and kissed her forehead with a chuckle.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
"You're such a dag, Wombat." Jack said when Kylie curled into him, having finally stopped crying. They drifted back to sleep for another hour before finally getting up and muddling through a lazy weekend.
As the day progressed, everyone arrived well into the early afternoon. For Jack, this would be the last time he and his housemates would be all together for a long time and although the girls had no idea, but it would be the last time they all met before everything changed for them as well.
Everyone lounged at the dining table, sipping cuppas and nibbling on whatever food was laid out, sharing their news.
"– the doctor said his recovery seems to be on track –"
"– yeah, moving into the house at Broken Hill tomorrow finally, start the job on Monday –"
"– seeing as you three fellas all had something else going on, I told the real estate none of us were staying –"
"– yeah, end of an era, that. What'd we get, six years in that place?"
"Something like that. We should toast it – who's up for a visit to the pub after this? Brookie, you allowed out after dark?" Marty quipped with a silent nod in Kylie's direction, who had her back to him, deep in conversation with the girls and with Aiden on her lap.
Jack stretched out, his hands clasped behind his head and yawned. He nodded to Marty and although he shot him a warning look, said nothing.
"Yeah, I can join you for a few. Bloody wiped, this week has been full on ..." Jack said slowly.
While Jack and his mates reminisced over their time in Rosella, the girls were listening to Loz describe the last twenty – four hours of Ryan's recovery since waking up early yesterday morning.
Not only had Ryan woken up, being monitored by doctors, nurses and Loz, who hardly dared to blink, but on Friday afternoon, she convinced Ali to bring the boys to the hospital so she could tell them what had happened.
