Page 1 of Seal of Approval

CHAPTER ONE

Jasmine

Rose crossed her arms and dropped onto the couch. Nine years of stubbornness flashed in her blue eyes. “I’m not sharing a room with him.” She threw a piercing glare at her brother.

Bailey’s head whipped in her direction, his mouth opening to offer a retort.

I sighed, cutting him off. “You have no choice. The new ranger, Ethan, is arriving in two days.”

Being a mum was hard sometimes, and this was one of those times. How many repetitions of this same conversation did we need to have?

“Why does he have to live here?” Rose’s arms tightened across her chest.

Bailey rolled his eyes skyward. If they lifted any higher, they’d hit the ceiling. My lips quirked. Rose stilled them with a pointed stare.

“The house Ethan was moving into is being renovated and isn’t ready yet.”

Rose could be as stubborn as she wanted, but it wouldn’t change the fact that the new part-time ranger would soon be sharing our house. I didn’t like it either. I liked our peaceful life and the easy routine we’d built over the last five years since we’d moved here.

“Why can’t he live somewhere else?” Rose said.

“It’s tourist season. All the other houses are taken.”

The only movement from either child came from Bailey, whose glare switched from his sister to me. I wasn’t going to be ambushed by an eleven-year-old and a nine-year-old.

“You either help me move your stuff or I’ll do it myself.” I walked off towards Bailey’s bedroom. “If you don’t like where I put everything, that’s your problem.” Five metres out from the bedroom, and there was no movement behind me. Two metres. Nothing. I reached the doorway and stepped inside. As I tied my long brown hair into a ponytail, Bailey arrived at my side. I smiled to myself. I knew calling their bluff would work. There was no way he’d want me to mess up his stuff.

“I know it will be squishy, but hopefully Ethan won’t have to stay long,” I said.

I turned back to the couch. Rose was still there, not willing to admit defeat yet. She would. As soon as we started moving things into her room.

“We’ll need to move your bookcase and books into the living room,” I said to Bailey. “And Rose’s too,” I added loud enough for her to hear, “so your bed will fit.”

Rose ran to her room. “I’ll move my books. They have to go in the exact same order.”

I left them with that task and started to move Bailey’s clothes. I knew exactly how they felt about Ethan moving in. Head office thought Ethan moving in with us, rather than living in Somewhere Bay thirty minutes away, was ideal. I didn’t think having our space invaded by a stranger was ideal. They wanted him close so he could learn and have easy access to the sea lions for his research. They never explained exactly what that research would be. But according to them, I needed to help him in any way I could.

There was no point arguing. We lived in a government-provided house rent-free as part of my employment package. The house next door would be part of Ethan’s package. Him living with us would save them on unnecessary rental fees and travel expenses until the renovations on his house were complete.

They were adamant the renovations would be finished soon. They wouldn’t listen when I told them they’d hardly been started. It looked like I was going to need to project manage it if it was going to happen at all.

They may have been completely disorganised on that front, but I knew that their hiring protocols were strict. They were a government department, after all. They wouldn’t hire anyone with a criminal record. In fact, you couldn’t even get into Australia if you had a criminal record, so at least we were safe on that front. They’d emailed me his name this morning so I would do some more research before he arrived; just to make sure. You can’t hide on the internet. If he was sketchy, I would find it.

“Finished, Mummy,” Rose said. She’d lined her books up on her bed.

“Go get the beach cart. It will be easier to move the books.”

She ran off.

“Bailey, can you help me move the bookcase, please?”

Within seconds, he was there.

Rose supervised as we moved her bookcase. “I want my books closer to the door so the mermaids can get to the books easier when they want to read.”

“Because an extra metre is really going to hurt them,” Bailey said.

Rose huffed. “They don’t have legs, you know.”

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