‘Hi,’ Fin signed as he smiled at the girl whose frizzy hair had been pulled back into a tight ponytail. ‘It’s good to see you.’ He switched his attention to Gordon, holding out his hand. ‘And you.’
Gordon shook hands then glanced at his granddaughter as he spoke and signed. ‘Winnie would like to join the team if the offer is still open.’
Winnie took a step closer to Gordon, her hand sliding around his nearest leg, but she didn’t hide completely as she had last week.
‘Oh, yes. That’s great!’ Fin signed one thumbs up.
‘How about that, sweetie?’ Gordon signed. ‘You’re in the team.’
Winnie looked shyly over the field, her expression uncertain, and Fin worried she might chicken out if he didn’t strike while the iron was hot. Looking over his shoulder, he located his goddaughters, who were sitting on a ball each. Nellie was blowing an impressive bubblegum bubble. Tori went to pop it but missed and lost her balance, toppling backwards off the ball.
‘Tori!’ he called as she sat up and brushed grass off her arms. ‘Nellie!’
The girls hauled themselves up and skipped towards him holding hands, and he braced himself for a trip that would see them both on their asses or, worse, their faces, but his fears were unfounded as they pulled up in front of him, their features the perfect blend of both Donny and Mai.
‘Winnie is joining the team,’ he announced to them as he signed.
The girls gasped and beamed as they jittered from foot to foot, clearly excited. ‘Hi,’ Tori signed, her hello gesture moving from left to right forming a perfect rainbow in the air. Donny must have been teaching them some AUSLAN.
‘My name is—’ She stumbled a little through the finger spelling of her name but managed it well enough. ‘Tori,’ she said as she finished.
‘And I’m—’ It was Nellie’s turn to sign. ‘N-e-l-l-i-e.’
Fin had never been prouder than he was in this moment. Donny’s kids may have inherited his two left feet but they were the happiest, dearest little girls, and he felt a moment of true admiration for his cousin and Mai to have produced and raised such amazing humans.
‘Would you like to introduce yourself?’ Gordon signed, giving his granddaughter an encouraging smile.
For a moment, Fin thought she might decline and change her mind about the team but, tentatively, she let go of her grandfather’s leg and solemnly signed her name.
I am Winnie.
Noticing the sudden brightness in Gordon’s eyes, Fin glanced at Nellie. ‘Why don’t you two take Winnie over to the rest of the team and introduce her?’
Nellie nodded, pleased as punch to be given the responsibility.
Fin raised an eyebrow at Winnie. ‘Is that okay?’
Once again Winnie hesitated but, after a couple of beats, she nodded slowly. Which was all the encouragement Tori needed. She leaped forward with an abundance of sweetness and enthusiasm and slipped her hand into Winnie’s. ‘Let’s go,’ she said.
Fin wasn’t sure the poor girl had much choice when Nellie took her other hand and they both tugged in the direction of the field, but Winnie went, peeking only once over her shoulder at her grandfather before she, too, was skipping along.
‘Oh, man.’ Gordon cleared his throat as his hand slid to his chest, his gaze tracking his granddaughter’s progress. ‘That’s so good to see.’ He glanced at Fin. ‘I hope you don’t mind. We were just passing last week and she pointed out the window at all the kids on the field, and it’s the first time she’s shown interest in anything so…’
‘No worries,’ Fin assured. ‘Happy to have the extra body. Especially when she can kick a ball without falling down.’
Gordon, who had been witness to the team’s demolition derby training sessions this past week, laughed. ‘She definitely has good ball skills and coordination. Takes after her mum.’ He cut off abruptly and took a couple of deep breaths before he eyed Fin. ‘She’s just… been through a lot and she’s hard to draw out of her shell.’
Fin didn’t need to be a shrink to read between the lines—Gordon’s emotion was palpable enough to guess that whatever Winnie had been through had been traumatic not just for her. ‘Well, if anyone can draw her out of her shell, it’ll be those two,’ he said.
They looked in the direction of the three girls, who were now all lying on their backs in the grass, squinting up at the sky and pointing at an aeroplane that was so high up it could only be seen, not heard.
‘Yes.’ Gordon laughed. ‘I can see that.’
Fin noticed Sweeney was snapping pics of them and smiled to himself before returning his attention to the guy standing at his side. ‘Look … Gordon, I don’t know what Winnie is going through right now and I really don’t want to pry, but I also don’t want to do or say anything that might exacerbate or trigger anything for her during training. I don’t need to know the details, only the things I should be concerned about.’
Gordon met his gaze. ‘There was a car accident a year ago. The authorities aren’t sure what happened exactly but they think the car was struck by a heavy vehicle, instantly killing my son and our daughter-in-law and pushing the car off the road down a small ravine. Winnie was unharmed but trapped in the car unable to get out. It wasn’t discovered for almost two days.’
‘Oh god.’ Fin couldn’t even to begin to imagine how traumatising that must have been for Winnie, alone and frightened, probably hungry and thirsty as well, her parents dead and unresponsive to her cries.
