Page 84 of Only ever you-Ana & Byron
"Oh aye?" Byron arched a brow, caught her wrist, and spun her with a laugh. "Still got a left hook like a bloody windmill, you have."
Cadi shook her head, sipping her wine. "You two are ridiculous."
Ana flopped down beside her with a contented sigh, brushing her windblown hair back. "My freelance job is the tits. Mostly I sit in my pyjamas, fix other people's grammar, and sketch weird shit between deadlines."
"Sounds ideal," Cadi grinned. "And Byron?"
"He is loving coaching the under-18s, though he would never admit it"
"Pays well?"
Ana snorted. "He says and I quote 'it's earnin' me a shitload, A.'"
From the grass, Byron called out while dodging a flying plastic truck. "Tryin' to coach that lot's like tryna herd a bunch of feral cats on Red Bull. You tell 'em pass, they throw it backwards. You tell 'em run drills, they do cartwheels. Absolute bloody zoo, that is."
Deaglán ran up and whacked his dad with a foam sword. Byron dramatically collapsed, groaning, "Avenge me, love! Your son's turned on me!"
Ana grinned and yelled, "Tough luck. I like him more."
Cadi laughed until she had to wipe her eyes. Then, she glanced at Ana. "Did you ever think, back when we were all in that grim little primary... did you ever imagine we'd end up here?"
Ana tilted her head, watching Byron let the toddler climb him like a mountain goat while she squealed with glee.
"I thought I'd end up in an attic, writing angry feminist pieces on my ancient typewriter and screaming into the void."
Cadi raised a brow.
Ana sipped her drink. "And I was, for a while."
She glanced at Byron.
"But then this idiot showed up with his shoulders and his stupid face and his god complex and ruined everything."
Cadi smirked. "Yeah. But at least he grills a decent burger."
Ana rolled her eyes. "Barely. He still thinks you flip it once, like it's some science experiment."
From the grass, Byron shouted while Gray manned the grill, "Oi! You flip it more than once, and it's dry! That's burger murder, that is!"
Ana looked back at Cadi and said smugly, "See what I live with?"
But her smile lingered, soft and sure.
And the light turned golden as it always did this time of day, bathing the oak tree on the hill and everything they had lost and found again in something close to peace.
***
Chapter thirty-six
A memory
Ana (8 months preggers with Eshne)
The farmhouse wasn’t made for this kind of heat.
Even with the windows flung open and the tower fan wheezing valiantly in the corner, the room simmered like a stew in a slow cooker. Ana lay spread out on their bed like a defeated starfish, her belly rising from her like a great dome. In her own words-otherworldly, impressive, alien. She was humming the title track ofStarwars.
She eyed it again, lips twitching. “Somewhere out there, ancient humans are pointing at this monolith and asking what divine force put it here.”
