“Thanks for coming out, Farid. This is my partner, Kim.”
Farid shakes both their hands. “The house is untidy inside. The owners are packing up—they’re moving in three weeks. They’re keen to get this house under contract before then. I’ll be listing it next week, but Shirley persuaded me to let you look at it first.”
They walk through the house. There are four bedrooms with a modern ensuite attached to the main, but a dated family bathroom and kitchen. It needs paint, new carpet, and a few minor repairs—door handles, rusty ceiling fans replacing, air conditioning.
“You can access the studio from the rear garden,” Farid says.
A studio too? This place ismassive. Why would Danika want something so large…unless… A seed takes root in Kim’smind. Unless she’s suggesting that Kim and Bella move in. Four bedrooms allows one each for Bella and Cami, plus a spare, and a studio…Maybe that could be an office for them both. She pushes past the drooping shrubbery.
The studio is a large, light-filled room.
“Barbara is an artist,” Farid says. “She has arthritis in her hands now, so it’s harder for her to create, but she has a painting in the National Gallery of Victoria.”
A large easel holds a finished painting of a beach scene. Curling white waves crash to shore, and seabirds wheel overhead. The scene looks familiar. Kim looks closer and gasps. It’s Johanna Beach. She straightens to tell Danika and finds her gazing at the painting too. A delicate pink stains her neck and cheeks.
“Subject to planning approval, you could easily convert this to a self-contained unit,” Farid continues. “You could rent it out, have relatives live here, or it could be a teenagers’ den.”
Kim’s happy buzz deflates. Maybe this is why Danika needs a larger house. Maybe Shirley and Paul are assisting with the purchase based on their future needs.
Farid looks from one to the other. “I’ll leave you to wander around. I’ll be on the front veranda if you’ve any questions.” He retreats to the house.
“What do you think?” Danika asks. “I don’t think the work is anything too awful, and as Mum would say, the house has good bones.”
“It’s lovely. I can see you and Cami being happy here. Lots of space.”
Danika steps closer. “What about you and Bella?”
The tendril of hope unfurls again. Strange, how although they have yet to discuss moving in together, this hint of maybe has her heart skittering.
“What are you asking, Danika?” Her voice is low. “Are you asking generally, or do you have a specific reason?”
Danika rests a hand on Kim’s waist. “I’ve been looking at smaller places. And some of them are lovely. Perfect, even, for me and Cami. But I couldn’t see myself living in any of them. Maybe this is too early for you. Maybe it will never be the right time. But when Mum mentioned this house, I had a picture in my head of us all living here: you, me, Bella, Cami, and Hugo. Even though I hadn’t even seen the house, itfeltpossible.” She takes a deep breath and her gaze shifts to stare out the studio window.
“There’s a lovely main bedroom for us. Two decent-sized bedrooms for the girls, and a small guest room. This studio could be office space for both of us. There’s storage for you, if you want to start selling things you salvage. A big yard for Hugo, room for veggies. If the girls want to remain at their current schools, it’s almost equidistant. Very close to their soccer club.”
Kim is silent. Exactly what is Danika suggesting?
“Thing is, I can’t afford it by myself. But if we bought it together…” She doesn’t say more but the avenue for that for that is obvious. The money in the trust. Would it be enough? Or would she need to sell her apartment as well? The apartment she’s owned for nearly fifteen years. The only home Bella has known.
She thinks of its familiar and warm space. She thinks of its restrictions.
“But I don’t know if you’d want to do that.” Danika kisses Kim softly on the lips. “It’s okay if it’s not what you want. If it’s never going to be what you want. But if I know, then I can stop dreaming and maybe settle on somewhere for me and Cami.”
Kim smiles against Danika’s lips. “You’re not dreaming. We’re a family in most things now. Let’s move in together, too.”
Danika closes her eyes for a moment, and when she opens them again the relief shines out like a beacon. “I thought, maybe, you wanted that, too, but didn’t want to presume.”
“The money in the trust. The money we can’t decide what to do with… Would that be enough for my share? Or would I need to sell my flat as well?”
“I’m not sure,” Danika says. “I guess it would depend on how we do this. If we do.”
“Let’s put in an offer.” Kim looks around the studio. “An offer that means we can afford to fix it up.”
Together they wander through the house once more, but this time Kim imagines her and Bella living there with Danika and Cami. The four of them—five with Hugo—sharing all of their lives, not just the parts they can make fit. She thinks about how they will tame the overgrown garden, and Bella’s pleasure at having space to run, to kick a soccer ball around.
As they stand in the main bedroom, Kim thinks of them in a king bed, making sweet morning love in the easterly light that will stream through the windows. She thinks of coffee or wine on the veranda, of their daughters growing even closer in their unbreakable sisterly bond.
And she thinks of her and Danika, and how they will grow. Maybe they’ll get married—something she never looked for previously, but that now seems mistily appealing.
