Enjoy Your Stay (22 page)

“Oh my God, you go skinny-dipping at the creek one time, and suddenly you’re that girl who always gets into mischief,” she mutters.

“I’m gonna have to take you kids into custody.” He holsters his gun and glances down at the dogs milling around his feet. “I got a busted front door, a shitload of dogs on the loose, and Vickie’s away til tomorrow.”

“Look, we’re really sorry. Holly was in here, and she wasn’t answering her phone. I thought she might’ve gone into labour, or been eaten by dogs or something.”

“Way to throw me under the bus, Jackarse,” she whispers.

“Hey, if you had just waited until morning, none of this would have happened.”

“Come on you two, the station awaits.”

“Well, what about Snickers?” she asks, as she struggles to hold onto him. He’s not a wriggly little puppy anymore, so much as beast of a thing. He’s got these long legs that he hasn’t quite grown into, and his paws are the size of tennis balls. Hols’ having a hell of a time trying to keep him in her arms, but the stubborn shit won’t let go. She came here to get her dog back, and that’s what she’s gonna do.

Constable Davis sighs, and shakes his head. “Never bloody well could say no to a damsel in distress.” He turns to me and smirks. “I think that might be your problem too, son.”

“Yeah, I’m starting to think that, too.”

“Bring him with us. I’ll have Sargent Johnson stay here and put the dogs away until we can get Trevor out here with some new locks.”

We follow him out through the pound and into the awaiting police car: a happy dog, a bipolar pregnant woman, and an idiot, head-over-arse in love.

Holly slumps back on the metal bed with her arms crossed. We’re sharing a cell on account of there being only two in the Sugartown police station, and they’re using the other for storing their confiscated crap and office supplies. “I mean, it’s not as if we broke in to steal the dogs, or anything.”

“Just ours.”

“Right. But if she hadn’t been away, we wouldn’t have had to break in.”

I lean back against the wall and roll my head towards her. “You didn’t even ring her, Hols.”

“Well no, but it wouldn’t matter if I had. She’s obviously not in range, and Snickers had to get out of that place.” Snickers is curled up in the space between us. He lifts his head and wags his tail.

“Snickers had to get out, or you just couldn’t calm your impatient arse down long enough to wait the night until someone came in the morning to feed and walk the dogs?”

“Hey don’t get all pissy with me. What if we’d left him there and some other family had adopted him in the meantime?” She scratches his ear, and he pants and closes his eyes. Lucky bastard. “What are you so angry about, anyway? It’s not like they’re going to charge us with anything.”

“You don’t know that, Holly. Fuck! Sometimes, I just wish you’d think before you do shit. This is gonna look great when I go to the bank for a loan on Monday.”

“The bank? What the hell do you need a loan for? I thought you were just freeloading off the government?”

“Seriously, you think that’s what I’m doing? Just living it up and freeloading? Let me tell you something, sweetheart, with the exception of my time in Sugartown, I’ve worked my whole goddamn life. First it was to help Mum pay the bills, then it was to pay for her medical bills, then funeral costs, her mortgage … I was even fucking working when I should have been in the hospital saying goodbye. Instead, I got to say my goodbyes to an empty body with a machine pumping her lungs in order to keep her alive ‘til I got there.”

She flinches, no doubt remembering my time in hospital. Either that, or the baby’s kicking her vag again. That kinda makes her throw a bitch-fit. “Until Mum died, I never used a red cent I didn’t work for. I’ve been living on the estate she left me, but I got plans for something more, and I need the bank’s help to do it. So yeah, I’m a little fucking pissy at the moment. Why didn’t you call the rock-star boyfriend to come buy you out of this shit?”

There’s a beat. She opens her mouth, and then closes it again. “I didn’t think about calling him.” I can tell she’s ashamed to admit that, because immediately after the words leave her mouth she drops her gaze and blushes. I don’t know whether to be giddy with relief or pissed that I got roped into Holly’s shit again, like a fucking sucker. “I didn’t know you had a meeting with the bank. I’m sorry, Jack. Next time, I’ll call Coop.”

“That’d be nice, since he just spent half the night going crazy trying to find you.” Cooper just appears from nowhere, walking right up to our cell alongside Constable Davis. He gives her a lazy smile that makes me wanna beat the shit outta him. “If only I’d looked here to begin with, huh?”

Davis opens the cell, and steps back to let us out. “Vickie’s not pressing charges. So you’re free to go, providing you can cover the cost of the locksmith.” He hands me a slip of paper with Trevor’s logo on it. It’s a hefty five-hundred bucks, plus a quote for a new kennel door that I busted beyond repair.

“Yeah, I got it,” I say, as I watch Holly and Cooper walk down the hall and out to the front desk to collect her belongings. Snickers sits at my feet and whines.

“I know you and I don’t know one another that well, but I’ve known your family a long time, and I like you, kid, so I’m gonna give you a piece of advice,” he says, and I turn around and face him. “That girl might seem like trouble, but she’s a good kid. And right now, she’s a confused and very pregnant kid. Unless you’re in it for the long haul, unless you can say without a doubt in your heart that you’re gonna be there for her and her baby, no matter what, you walk away and you let them be a family. Because she might not love this guy the way two parents- to-be should, but she’s gonna love that kid more than anything in the world. He’s gonna be the one who understands that because it’ll be the same for him. There’s nothing like holding your child in your arms to put life into perspective. So, unless you’re prepared to feel that right alongside her, she’s gonna choose him.”

Fucking small towns. Just once I’d like to live somewhere where not everyone knows your business.

“She already did,” I mumble as I walk past the officer and follow Holly out to the reception area. Seems like I’ve been tagging along behind this girl for a little too long now.

I
SLIDE
my head down onto Coop’s shoulder as the opening credits start. Ana and Elijah are sitting in their chair, and I swear to God, if I have to witness the two of them going at it again like the Fingergate incident, I’m gonna call them on that shit. I mean, yeah, I get it, the lights go out and boys turn into instant horn-dogs, proving they haven’t changed any from the time they were teenagers and trying to hit second base in the cinema—I once had a guy web-sling my hand at the movies by shoving it down his pants right before he came. I mean, what the fuck is up with that shit? You can’t give a girl a little warning, and maybe a tissue before you fizz your jizz all over the place? Rude!

Just as the movie starts and Orlando Bloom’s scrumptious face comes on the screen, I hear Jack’s keys in the door, and my heart gives a tight squeeze. He strolls into the lounge room, takes one look at Coop and I on the couch, and sits himself down beside me, shoving his meaty fist into the popcorn and spilling it over my lap.

I spend the next twenty minutes pretending this isn’t awkward as hell, but the two aren’t at each other’s throats so maybe we’re okay for the time being. I finish the rest of my chocolate milk and set the glass back on the table. Coop eases his shoulder out from mine, and picks up the glass as he stands up. “You want anything else, baby?”

“Yeah, can you get me a beer?” Jack smirks. “Thanks.”

I glare at him and he shrugs. Coop wanders off to the kitchen, Ana lets out a little laugh, and Jack throws a handful of popcorn at them. “Hey Cade, keep your fingers to yourself this time, yeah mate? I’m not taking Coop out for ice cream so he can blow me.”

I shoot daggers in his direction. “Would you shut up, please?”

“Oh, rock star doesn’t know what happened between us after the Fingergate incident, huh?”

“You guys named it Fingergate?” Ana asks, mortified.

“Well maybe we should talk to Rock Star about this?” Jackson ignores his cousin completely and leans back against the arm of the couch. He is far too excited. “I mean, the dude has a right to know what happens when he takes you out for ice cream. It’s only—”

The baby takes that moment to kick my guts in, and I grunt, and then act on instinct as I yank Jack’s hand over and onto my belly. “Ow, what are you—”

“You feel that?”

“Holy shit! The little dude’s gonna kick off for the Balmain Tigers. That’s fucking incredible,” he says as he spreads his big palm out over my belly, and then he surprises me by putting his head down to my abdomen and talking to the baby. I don’t even really know what the hell he just said, something about becoming a star footy player so he can get Uncle Jack into strip clubs? This is the first time anyone but a sonographer, or my doctor have felt the baby kick. Tears spring into my eyes as I stare down at Jack, who in turn is looking up at me in awe.

“Holy shit, Hols, there’s a life inside you.”

“Yeah, kinda noticed that already.”

His eyes are wide and slightly misted over, and I don’t want to tear my gaze away, but when I finally do, Coop is glaring at the two of us. Jack follows my line of sight and then shifts away from me, leaning his body into the armrest, his face completely unreadable. Coop’s, on the other hand, is not. He’s livid. He steps forward and hands Jack a beer, though his expression tells me what he really wants to do is club him over the head with it.

“What did I miss?”

I lick my lips, suddenly horrified that he wasn’t the one to feel it. I should have called out to him. I should have done something other than sit there and stare at Jack. “The baby kicked.”

“He did?” he asks. His whole face twists with disappointment. “Is he still?”

“No, he stopped. Maybe he got stage fright?” I supply unhelpfully.

“I’m sure he’ll start up again once we’re quiet,” Ana adds with a placating smile. God, she’s so much better at that than I am.

“Yeah, I’m sure,” Coop says, and flops down beside me. I take his hand in mine, and press it against my lower abdomen. “Maybe later you should try singing to him?”

Jackson gasps and chokes on his beer, and then coughs, “Pussy.”

“Shut up, Jack,” I say.

“What? I’m just coughing.”

“You really think he’d like that?” Coop asks, ignoring Jack.

“Coop, have you ever met a person who doesn’t like hearing you sing?”

“Wanker.” Jackson coughs again.

“Have you ever met anyone besides Jack who doesn’t like hearing you sing?” I say sarcastically, and Coop smiles at me.

“How ’bout later I make you sing for me?” he says and his blue-grey eyes are blazing with self-satisfaction. I nearly choke on my chocolate milk. I can practically feel the anger rolling off of Jack. I hate shoving Coop in his face like this, especially after him finally coming clean about his feelings. It just seems like no matter what I do here, someone gets hurt.

“Okay, if you two are gonna chit-chat all night can you go get a fucking room? Some of us are trying to watch … What the fuck are we watching?”

“
Pirates of the Caribbean
,” Elijah says.

“The porn version or the original?”

“Original.”