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anything.’
    Lizzie bit her lip and her face grew serious. ‘You never did want to stick around here, did you?’
    She sighed. ‘No, I didn’t. But coming home … it’s been harder than I imagined. I still see Mum in every corner. It’s so much her house.’
    Lizzie’s eyes glistened and Julia could feel the love and sympathy flow from her.
    ‘She was a wonderful woman, Jools. And she was so proud of everything you’ve done with your life.’
    Julia took a deep breath to swallow a sob, swiped the tears from her cheeks with her pashmina. She still felt guilty about all the times she’d never come home, all those occasions when she’d avoided being in her home town. It was always easier to buy her mother an air ticket to Melbourne than to make the trip herself. Middle Point had always been full of too many memories.
    ‘Jools, I totally get that you’re the big-city girl you always wanted to be. And you wear it well, you really do. But it’s been twelve months already. Your choices are pretty obvious. Rent it or sell it.’
    Lizzie was right, she knew. Her choices were clear. Keep one foot here and rent or sever all ties and sell. Julia shuddered at the word ‘sell’. Her emotions were still battling with her commonsense on that score. The house had been in her family for forty years, since her parents had married. They’d buried her father from that house when Julia was seventeen. Her childhood and her teenage years were in its walls. Yet, she had to be realistic. It was falling down around itself, hadn’t seen a decent lick of paint for twenty years, had leaking gutters and a kitchen that screamed vintage on the outside but clapped-out on the inside.
    Her rational side was telling her to sell it for land value and get it over with. A beachfront property like that, one of the few remaining untouched old shacks on the esplanade, would sell in a flash to some city lawyer or surgeon who would flatten it and build another glass-and-steel eyesore. While she might not approve of their architectural choices, it would mean she could leave and never look back.
    But. There was always a but. ‘The truth is, Lizzie, for about the first time in my life, I have no idea what I should do.’
    ‘You? Not know what to do? That’s unprecedented. I seem to recall that not only did you always know exactly what you wanted, but you tried to tell certain other people what they should do as well. Like cut off all their hair when they were fifteen to expose their cheekbones.’
    ‘I know you haven’t forgiven me, but you looked just like that girl we liked from Dawson’s Creek . Except taller. And perhaps not quite so pale.’
    ‘Lucky for me I stopped taking your fashion advice years ago. Too much black.’ Lizzie screwed up her nose. ‘You’ve got some time to think about what to do before you head back to Melbourne, don’t you? Perhaps some time to have a little fun with moi ?’ Lizzie reached over to squeeze her hand.
    ‘I wouldn’t have it any other way. But I think we’d better find somewhere else to eat. I’m guessing I’m banned from the pub.’
    Their laughter was carried in the breeze along the quietness of the street and echoed back at them. Julia let herself really breathe for the first time since she’d been back. There were a multitude of benefits about living in Melbourne. But she could never sit with Lizzie like this, safe in the comfort of her oldest friendship. And just be.
    But. And there was another but. It was only temporary and she had to get practical real quick.
    ‘I have to spruce the place up a little, clean out Mum’s things. Does Kevin Higgins still work at that real estate agency in Port Elliot?’
    ‘Work there? He runs the place now. Look him up on the ’net. I’m sure he’ll be thrilled to help you out. You missed your chance there, Jools. He was a catch.’
    ‘Does he still surf?’ Julia remembered those board shorts and smiled.
    ‘Oh yeah, almost every morning. Still looks as