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  ‘Can I check which slides you’re showing, Dad, just to make sure there aren’t too many, or we could be here all night, and I have a busy day tomorrow.’ She reached for the pile of envelopes on the table but her father grasped her hand.

  ‘Uh-uh, no peeking. It’s a surprise for you too.’

  ‘Please, no baby photos, c’mon!’ she said.

  Her father laughed. ‘There’s nothing embarrassing, I promise.’ He winked at Luca.

  Ooh, goodie! He was keen to see some good old embarrassing baby and toddler photos. As long as they weren’t of himself. He should have done that for Stefan’s birthday... maybe next year. Poor Hannah was clearly already embarrassed, but he found it cute. And endearing.

  Luca faced the kitchen, where Mrs Delaney was ladling dinner into some bowls. ‘How can I help, Mrs Delaney?’ he asked.

  ‘You can start by calling me Kathleen,’ she replied.

  ‘And me, Doug,’ said her husband.

  Luca nodded. ‘And how about I carry these to the table?’ He gestured to the bowls.

  ‘Well, I won’t say no,’ she said with a smile.

  Luca carried the bowls of steaming chicken casserole to the table. ‘This smells delicious. Might have to give you a job at my restaurant.’

  ‘Oh gosh,’ she said, ‘A family meal I can handle, but a room full of paying customers? I think I’d have a mild panic attack.’ She chuckled. ‘Oh, that smaller serving is Doug’s,’ she pointed out. ‘He’s supposed to watch his portion sizes.’

  ‘Ah, got it.’ He placed it down.

  ‘Unfair!’ Doug called out.

  ‘So is not being able to look at the slides before the slide show!’ Hannah called out.

  Luca smiled, it was nice to see good old family dynamics in action again. He missed it.

  When all meals and drinks were served, they sat at the table and began eating. ‘Mmm, I taste fresh thyme, my favourite herb,’ he said.

  ‘Isn’t it great? So versatile. This thyme is from Hannah’s garden. Oh, excuse me,’ she said, a hand on her heart, ‘your garden, now.’ She smiled.

  ‘I can’t wait to make good use of what you’ve all created at Iona.’

  ‘Did Hannah explain how we named it?’

  ‘Yes indeed. And I plan to keep it.’

  Kathleen clasped her hands together in delight, and Doug closed his eyes with a grateful nod and smile. ‘Thank you, Luca,’ said Kathleen. ‘That means a lot.’

  ‘Of course. Family history is so important.’ He took a sip of water. ‘I’d love to visit there one day, the Isle of Iona.’

  ‘Oh you must,’ said Doug. ‘Magical place. What’s your background again?’

  ‘Romanian.’

  ‘Ah yes, that’s right. Do you have family over there?’

  ‘I do. Haven’t been back for a few years though. I’m about due for a visit. But not yet, I have a few things to do here in the foreseeable future.’

  ‘So, six weeks to open your restaurant, does it have a name?’ Hannah’s mother asked.

  Luca glanced at Hannah with a smile, and at the same time, once again, they both said, ‘Home.’

  ‘Oh, how lovely. I already can’t wait to eat there. We’ll be at the grand opening, that’s for sure, won’t we, Doug.’

  ‘You betcha,’ he responded. ‘Can I choose my own portion size there?’

  Luca grinned. ‘Our portion sizes will definitely be satisfying,’ he confirmed, and Doug placed his hands together and bowed in gratitude. Luca then turned his attention to Kathleen. ‘While also being moderate and not over-filling.’ She copied her husband’s gesture.

  ‘Thank you, that was so nice.’ Luca dabbed at the corners of his mouth with his napkin, after finishing his meal. ‘Let me help you clear the table.’ He stood, picking up his bowl and Hannah’s and taking it to the sink, while Kathleen brought over hers and Doug’s. Doug went to the coffee machine.

  ‘Coffee, tea of various kinds, hot chocolate?’ Doug asked.

  ‘Hmm. Tea, thanks. Any is fine.’

  ‘Black tea, or do you prefer herbal: peppermint, chamomile, lemongrass?’

  ‘Ooh, I love lemongrass.’

  ‘Good choice!’ Doug got out some teacups. ‘Hannah, same for you?’

  ‘Lemongrass it is,’ she said. ‘So, about the slide show...’

  ‘Yes!’ said Doug, ‘Let’s get onto that once we have our tea and biscuits. Love, do we have some candles somewhere?’

  Kathleen opened a drawer and took a few out. ‘It’s been a while since we used these, must get back to having candlelit diners sometime, darling.’

  ‘So much for your surprise tomorrow night,’ he chuckled.

  ‘Ooh, okay, I’ll conveniently forget then.’ She grinned, then fanned her face. ‘Still so romantic after all these years.’ She went over to her husband and pecked him on the cheek.

  ‘Sorry for all the schmaltz,’ Hannah whispered to him. He hadn’t even noticed she had approached, he’d been too busy watching the couple, and remembering his own parents in the kitchen and how they used to flirt and show their love for each other. His mind also went to Stefan and he wondered how his brother’s date was faring.

  Luca shook his head. ‘It’s lovely,’ he whispered back, giving her elbow a quick squeeze.

  Her soft and subtle scent wafted around him, with a vanilla element to it. He wanted to follow her around, breathe in more of it, but when she went to the couch to take her seat, he didn’t want to sit until her parents had everything ready. ‘Shall I take the biscuits over?’ he asked.

  ‘Sure thing,’ Doug handed him a plate, and Luca arranged a few of the homemade delights onto the plate.

  When Mrs Delaney had asked him for dinner over the phone, saying she’d be delighted if he could join them, he’d held back a laugh, recalling his conversation with Stefan about talking like an old man. He hadn’t expected Hannah’s mother to suddenly appear on the phone, but he was glad she did. The night was proving to be much-needed relief for his sadness and tiredness. And tomorrow the work would begin, once Hannah had her plan ready to present to him, hopefully by the end of the day, or Tuesday. But with the Goldstein kitchen appliances arriving tomorrow, he’d have to be up early to receive them and make sure the kitchen people put everything in the right places. He couldn’t wait to have it all set up so he could focus on the rest of what had to be done, and so he could start some menu preparations and figure out what would work in his kitchen in terms of size, space, and how many staff he would need.

  ‘Lemongrass tea is served,’ Doug said, placing a teapot on the coffee table. He took a seat with the slide projector in front of him, Kathleen to his right, and Hannah to his left on the other couch. She motioned for him to join her.

  Luca sat and was once again swept up in the sweet, warmth of her scent, soon overtaken by the woodiness of the lemongrass as he sipped at his tea.

  ‘Ladies and gentlemen of Senior Land, I present to you...’ Doug began, ‘The history of the Delaney Family.’ The projector came to life with a burst of light.

  ‘Oh dear God,’ Hannah whispered. ‘Save me now.’

  Luca turned his face to look at her and chuckled. ‘Not a chance,’ he said with a fakeevil cackle.

  The projector hummed and made a click sound when Doug flipped on the first slide. A young Doug sporting an impressive thick beard and moustache and Kathleen with hair parted down the middle were at a party, which he explained was their engagement.

  ‘My stylish parents, as you can see,’ Hannah remarked.

  ‘And then...’ Doug flipped to a wedding photo, this time Kathleen’s hair was curled, though still parted down the middle. They were cutting a large, three-tiered cake and smiling at the camera. ‘Still as fresh in my memory as always.’

  ‘Mine too.’ Kathleen rubbed his arm.

  Doug turned to Luca. ‘Were your parents married here or overseas?’

  ‘Dad,’ said Hannah. ‘I thought this was about our family history.’

  �
�It’s okay,’ Luca replied. ‘They married in Romania and then moved to Australia to have me and my brother. Dad got work as a chef and Mum did clothing alterations.’

  Doug gave a nod.

  ‘After Dad died,’ Luca continued talking for some reason. ‘When Mum moved us back to Sydney, she resumed doing alterations while working on designs for wedding dresses, eventually making her own collection and setting up a store which became really successful and still runs today, under new owners.’

  ‘Really?’ Kathleen said. ‘How lovely, do you have any photos?’

  ‘I took some today, actually, of her one-off designs that I brought back with me. The rest are on the Teadora website.’

  ‘I’ll have to have a look.’ Kathleen leaned over as Luca held out his phone, and swiped through photos of the four dresses he’d taken back today. ‘They are absolutely beautiful! Look at that one, with all the little gems.’ She pointed to the one he’d taken off the mannequin.

  ‘Yes. That was her favourite, it was displayed in her home office.’

  ‘Lovely, Luca. Really lovely.’

  He nodded and put his phone away. Hannah was quiet.

  ‘Now, where were we up to?’ Doug flipped to the next slide. ‘Oh yes, the honeymoon.’

  The couple were on the ski slopes. ‘Thredbo by any chance?’ Luca asked.

  ‘Indeed. And I came home with not only a wife but a whopping great bruise down my left thigh, courtesy of a fall and long slide down the slopes.’ He chuckled.

  ‘Ouch.’

  ‘I told him to lay on the snow until it healed.’ Kathleen laughed.

  ‘I once slipped on a wet pool deck and got a nasty bruise myself,’ Luca said. ‘While on a cruise ship.’

  ‘Oh, a cruise! Darling, we should do one sometime,’ said Kathleen to Doug.

  ‘Easy living, remember?’ he said.

  ‘Lounging around a pool deck, no cooking or cleaning, sounds easy to me.’

  Doug tilted his head with a ‘maybe’ expression. ‘I always prefer to be on land.’

  ‘Was it worth it, as a holiday?’ Kathleen asked.

  ‘Actually I was working, in the kitchen. I did quite a few cruises. Didn’t get much time by the pool but when I did, I made the most of it. I think I was rushing to finally relax, and that’s when I slipped.’

  ‘Working on a cruise ship, that would be exciting.’

  ‘It was. Gave me a chance to see some cool places and not be stuck in any one spot. Was great.’

  ‘What other sorts of places have you worked in?’ Hannah asked.

  ‘You name it, I’ve done it.’ Luca put his phone in his pocket. ‘Cafes, restaurants, clubs, bistros, event catering, outdoor-food stalls... until now, I guess. I’ve never actually owned anything and stayed in the one place for too long before.’

  ‘It must be the right time,’ said Kathleen.

  ‘Fingers crossed it all works out.’

  ‘It will,’ Hannah piped up. ‘With a good events manager on your side, things will get off to a great start.’

  ‘I’m confident they will. And then I just have to continue it and make it last.’

  ‘You can do it, mate,’ said Doug. ‘We’ll put in a good word for you around town. Get people excited about it.’

  ‘That’d be great, thanks.’ It was like having his own family marketing team, which he was grateful for, but also wary of, because he wanted to do it himself. He wanted to prove that he could, and make his parents proud.

  ‘Anyway, enough chitchat for now, more slides await.’ Doug clicked the projector and another picture appeared.

  ‘Yes, let’s get it over with, shall we?’ said Hannah, shifting awkwardly on the couch, the sleeve of her jumper brushing against his arm with a warm tingle.

  A few more honeymoon photos were shown, followed by some with each of their parents. Hannah’s grandparents, who were no longer alive. Hannah’s maternal grandmother had lived until Hannah was ten.

  ‘And here we are next to the Tarrin’s Bay Town of New Beginnings sign when we decided to make it our own new beginning,’ said Doug.

  Luca remembered driving past that sign as a teenager, believing they would all have a new beginning with the family restaurant, but here he was again twenty years later, hoping for a second chance at that new beginning. It also made him think of how he’d hoped for a sign from his mother, and now here was another. But it was probably just because his mind was focused on it that it seemed relevant.

  ‘And our home. What it used to look like anyway.’ Doug gestured to the photo of the large expanse of land with a weatherboard house on it, hardly recognisable from the renovated house it was today.

  ‘You’ve done a great job with the place since then. And the original building obviously had a good strong foundation and structure,’ Luca remarked.

  ‘Sure did, I didn’t see the point in knocking it down and rebuilding, it was so well-built in the first place. So we kept adding to it, and adding to it, over the years.’

  ‘Wow. It’s nice to see what it looked like in the beginning.’ This was going to be his home, and he was starting to feel more connected to it now that he was seeing how it all began.

  ‘Looks so empty, the land,’ said Hannah. ‘And the coop was so small.’

  ‘It was a blank canvas waiting to be turned into our own piece of art,’ her mother said. ‘Fruit trees, herb and veggie garden, a bit of landscaping, and a bigger chicken coop. Wow, I’d almost forgotten how much work we did over the years.’

  ‘Labour of love.’ Doug smiled. ‘And here is the inspiration for our namesake, Iona.’ He clicked to the next slide. ‘It doesn’t look like Tarrin’s Bay, apart from the rock and the ocean views, but as a piece of our family ancestry, it seemed a perfect fit to name it after.’

  Several slides showing photos of the Isle of Iona graced the screen.

  ‘Stunning,’ he said.

  Rocky shores and breathtaking ocean, farmland and fields of flowers, and cute cottage-like houses lining the town. ‘And you haven’t been, Hannah?’

  She shook her head. ‘One day.’

  He wouldn’t mind seeing it one day either. But he would go anywhere, see anything, any place. ‘How far does your ancestry trace back to Iona?’ asked Luca.

  ‘A few generations. My great-great-grandparents lived there,’ Doug explained.

  ‘I might have to add it to my bucket list,’ Luca said with a smile.

  Doug gave a nod, then a chuckle at the next slide. It was of a pregnant Kathleen, and Doug with a cushion shoved under his T-shirt, making him look pregnant too.

  ‘Oh, Dad,’ said Hannah. ‘Now how do I know which one of you is my real mother?’ She giggled.

  ‘Easy,’ he replied, showing the next slide.

  Kathleen lay in a hospital bed with a newborn Hannah propped on her chest, Hannah’s little mouth hanging open in satisfaction as though she’d just had her first feed.

  Luca couldn’t hold back a huge smile. ‘I believe that is a certain someone I know,’ he winked.

  ‘Yeah, yeah. Cute wasn’t I.’ Hannah covered half her face with her hand.

  ‘Cuteness overload,’ he replied. He went on to explain how her cheeks reminded him of Stefan’s and how the kissing tradition had begun, and the family shared a few laughs on discovering Luca’s brother was still enduring this tradition even now at thirty-two.

  ‘They grow up so fast,’ said Kathleen. ‘Hannah was the only child I was blessed with, and although I would have loved for her to have a sibling, she was pretty happy as an only child, weren’t you, darl.’ Kathleen blew her daughter a kiss from the other couch.

  ‘Of course. My animals were my siblings,’ she chuckled.

  ‘Speaking of animals,’ Hannah’s dad said, clicking through a few slides of Hannah as a baby to one as a toddler at the zoo. ‘Her favourite were the penguins.’ The photo showed Hannah watching the penguins through the glass enclosure with wide eyes and an open mouth. ‘She begged us to take some home, “to keep
the chickens company”, she’d said.’ Doug laughed, and Luca grinned. ‘When we told her they wouldn’t thrive on our farm and needed the cold water, she suggested we take them to the beach for a daily swim. She wouldn’t give up on the idea of a penguin as a pet!’

  Hannah lowered and shook her head while Luca laughed.

  ‘Maybe you can get one at your new place in Sydney?’ he asked. ‘A blow-up pool out the back, some ice... could work.’ He nudged her discreetly.

  ‘They were cute, okay? I was a little kid, what little kid wouldn’t want a penguin for a pet?’ She raised her hands.

  ‘You’re right. I’m sure I asked for a penguin at some stage.’

  ‘Really?’

  ‘No, but I’m sure someone did. Somewhere, in the world. Like, Antarctica.’

  ‘Oh, stop, you!’ She gave him a whack.

  Kathleen was quietly giggling, but he noticed her satisfied smile at watching the playful exchange. It was his guess that Hannah hadn’t had a man over to dinner to meet her parents for a while. Although maybe Nathan had sat here on this couch once too, though it hadn’t sounded like anything much had happened between them.

  ‘Did you know...’ he began.

  ‘Wait, another of your random facts,’ Hannah interjected. ‘Is it... Did you know, that Antarctica is the coldest continent in the world?’

  ‘No,’ he shook his head. ‘I only mention unique and interesting random facts, when they pop in my head.’

  ‘Go on, impress us all then,’ she said with a challenging tone, and another light nudge.

  ‘When a penguin finds a mate, they are mates for life. And a penguin chooses his mate for life by proposing with a pebble.’

  ‘A pebble?’ Her eyebrows rose. ‘Not a twenty-four-carat gold diamond ring?’

  He smiled. ‘A pebble. How cute is that?’

  ‘Huh. Never knew that,’ she said. ‘How lovely.’

  ‘Ohh, that is the most adorable thing,’ said Kathleen, clasping her hands together.

  Doug cleared his throat. ‘Do you mean, after all that money I saved for my lovely wife’s ring, I could have simply picked up a pebble from the ground and won her over with that?’

  Luca chuckled. ‘Well, if she knew about the meaning behind it, maybe?’ He held out a curious hand towards Kathleen.