You're the One (12 page)

Mr Miller
fingered the edge of the newspaper. “Cutter and another bloke
showed up on your property? Last night?”

“In the dark?”
Mrs Miller added.

Uh oh. “They
came for the dog. Okay, I gotta go and pick up Missy’s food or I’ll
be late to open the shop.” Del gave her parents a quick wave and
made for the door.

“That Cutter
is bad news.” Mrs Miller hurried behind her, Missy clutched in her
arms. “You be careful around him.”

“I’m not
making friends with him, Mum. Not him or Dawson or-”

“Brand Dawson
turned up as well?”

Crap on a
stick. Del barrelled out the front door. “They came for the dog,
remember? Not for a cup of tea.” She shut the door before her
mother could go any further. “Don’t keep the door open, Mum, or
Missy will get out.”

That
effectively stopped her mother. For all of about three seconds. She
simple started calling through the door as Del escaped to the car.
“I’m worried, Del!”

“No need, Mum.
I’m fine. Just look after Missy for me until tonight, okay?” She
opened the car door. “See you shortly.”

Oh boy. Del
drove into town. Talk about a slip of the tongue. She shouldn’t
have mentioned the blokes that was for sure. Now her parents would
start worrying.

The
supermarket was quiet, only a few people in the aisles doing early
morning shopping. Will, the rotund, grey-haired owner, called a
cheerful greeting to her, which she returned before disappearing
into the pet food aisle where she chose a number of small tins, a
box of kitten biscuits and several small cartons of kitten milk.
She was sorely tempted to get a litter tray and some litter, but
mindful that the kitten might belong to someone and be claimed, she
resisted. The small box filled with sand would do for now.
Surprisingly, the thought of Missy going to someone else didn’t
make her happy. Funny how fast she was becoming attached to her.
Not a good thing. She could become attached once she found out if
Missy had an owner or not. Another job to do today.

Del headed
back to her parent’s house with the bag of food and milk, dropping
it off quickly and making her getaway before her mother could grill
her too much more about keeping bad company and being careful.

For sure it
wasn’t going to be the last she heard of it. She had to pick Missy
up that night and return her the next morning and…and maybe she
wouldn’t have her by tonight, never mind tomorrow night. Sobering
thought. Hopefully no one would come forward. Sometimes it sucked
being honest.

By lunchtime
she’d put a notice up in the shop window, had Dee put one up in
hers, Will on the supermarket notice board, rung the vet, the
stock-feeders, the two churches, the cop shop and the estate agent.
Figuring she’d done as much as she could - no way was she forking
out for a notice in the local rag, she had to drawn the line
somewhere with her budget - Del locked the shop and headed into the
newsagents.

Dee looked up
from where she was cleaning out the display case holding a small
selection of mobile phones and covers. “Hungry?”

“Yep.” Del
waved an apple and the foam cup of instant noodles she’d dug out of
the back of the pantry.

“Wow. Talk
about a feast.”

“Nothing wrong
with instant noodles.”

“Someone say
noodles?” A voice asked cheerfully from behind them.

Del turned as
Ash and Molly entered. Her gaze fell on Molly’s empty arms. “Hey,
where’s the baby?”

“Lily is with
Mrs Miller. Not your mum,” Molly added. “Dee’s mum.”

“Why’s she
with Aunt Beth?”

“Because I
mentioned that I was working three mornings a week at the bakery
again. The bakery is happy for my shifts to be when Kirk’s off duty
so he can have the baby, but there is the odd time when he does
extra or someone’s sick and he has to work for them, and then we
need a last-minute baby-sitter, like today. She nearly fell over
herself to get the babysitting job. Which is really nice of her,
considering she had to bring up Dee and her assorted siblings. I’d
have thought that would have put her off babies for life.”

Dee flipped
her the bird. “I was the best of the bunch.”

“Didn’t set
the bar high very high, did you?”

“Don’t be
bitter, no one can reach my heights.”

“Sure. You
keep telling yourself that.” Molly’s gaze fell on the instant
noodles in Del’s hand. “That wouldn’t fill my big toe.”

Del doubted it
would fill hers, either. She really needed to do some food
shopping. “I’m not that hungry.” As if to announce to the world
that she was fibbing, her belly chose that exact moment to growl
loudly.

Dee’s eyebrows
rose. “Either that’s hunger pangs or you’ve got a touch of the
squirts coming on.”

“Hope its
hunger pangs,” Molly said. “I brought a left-over savoury bread
twist from yesterday.”

Ash held up a
bag. “Also, Molly taught me to bake little quiches and I was going
to test them out on us before giving them to Scott.”

“Jesus,” said
Dee, “you’d risk our health before his?”

“Need you
ask?”

“You should’ve
tried them out on Simon. That man eats anything.”

“Simon has a
cast-iron gut.” Elissa walked through the door in time to hear. “No
point trying food experiments on him, he’ll love anything he can
eat.”

Del’s mouth
was watering at the thought of the little quiches. “I’ll sacrifice
myself for the greater good.”

Ash started
for the back of the shop. “Let’s go, I’ve food to test out.”

Within minutes
they were around the table in Dee’s little kitchenette at the back
of the shop. Ash was warming the quiches in the microwave while Del
poured hot water into the noodle cup. Elissa placed five plastic
glasses on the table and Dee filled them with Diet Coke from the
large bottle she pulled from the little ‘fridge. Del placed paper
plates on the table from Dee’s stash in the cupboard and Ash handed
out plastic knives and forks.

“I think I see
a pattern forming,” Molly said as they sat and shared out the
little quiches and savoury twist.

“You think
we’re seeing too much of each other?” Ash queried.

“No, I think
we’re getting lazy.”

They all
paused.

Molly pointed
to the paper plates, plastic knives and forks, and plastic
glasses.

Dee shrugged.
“Normally we eat from plastic wrap, lunch wrap or lunch box.”

“Besides, who
wants to do the dishes today?” Del queried.

Molly looked
around. “Good point. This is actually economical.”

“Oh, this
ought to be good.”

“I’m serious.
This is saving time.”

“You
think?”

“How much time
would it take to wash five plates, glasses, knives and forks?”

“Not
long.”

“Longer than
tossing all this in the bin.”

“A little
wasteful.”

“Ah, but
that’s the thing. By using this disposable stuff now and again,
we’re creating jobs and saving time. In fact, I’d say we’re doing
the world a service.”

“You think it
balances the disservice we do it by using disposable items?”

“I think it
balances it out. We’re good people.”

Dee rolled her
eyes.

Ash dimpled.
“You do present a good argument. A little twisted, maybe-”

“A little?”
Elissa snorted.

“-but still a
good argument. On some points.”

“Most of
Molly’s ideas are twisted.” Dee bit into a quiche. “Oh, yum.”

Everyone
thought they were delicious, Del thought they were divine.
Definitely filled her more than just the noodles would have done.
The savoury twist was definitely yummy, as well.

“There is
definitely an upside to working in a bakery,” she mused.

“It does have
its moments,” Molly agreed. “Getting up in the dead of night to
cook, however, not so much.”

“Dead of
night?” Dee squinted at her. “Geez, you make it sound like
midnight.”

“I get to work
by five thirty to start the cakes and help with the bread.”

“Well, pardon
me. I get up at the arse crack of dawn six days a week to open up
by six am. You certainly don’t get up every morning at that
time.”

“She has a
point,” Del agreed.

This had
everyone’s gaze turning to her.

“What?”

“You open the
shop at nine in the morning,” Elissa said.

“What’s your
point?”

“I bet you
don’t drag your bum out of bed at five thirty or six.”

“I get to work
on time every day.”

“What time do
you get up?”

“What time do
you
get up?”

“I’ll answer
if you do.”

“Good grief,”
Dee said. “This is killing me. Del rolls her lazy arse out of bed
about seven thirty. Even sometimes, dare I say it, eight
o’clock.”

“So?” Del
twirled some noodles around the fork.

“Here you are
backing me up, saying I have a point when you don’t even do it
yourself.”

“Hey, I was
backing you up. Doesn’t mean I have to do it.” Del smiled at her
cousin. “Not all of us are meant to be up before the birds.”

“In summer the
birds are already up.”

“And in winter
I’m still toasting my toes on the hot water bottle while you’re
freezing your arse off hauling in bundles of newspaper.”

Dee’s lips
pursed.

“In the
rain.”

Elissa
grinned. “Okay, now Del has a point.”

“You used to
be a quiet sheila, Elissa, but it's obvious you’ve been keeping bad
company,” Dee said.

“I never
thought of you girls that way.”

“Want to see
how bad I can get?”

“How kinky is
this going to be?” Molly picked up her plastic glass. “Because I’m
warning you all, I didn’t have sex this morning so-”

“My ears are
starting to bleed.”

“I’m just
saying.”

“Is this
because you had to get up early for work?”

“Well, Kirk
and I were getting a little frisky before that-”

Del squinted
at Molly. “How detailed is this going to be?”

“How detailed
do you want it to be?”

“How much pain
do you want to be in?”

“So is that ‘a
lot’ or ‘a little’ in regards to the details?”

“What do you
think?”

“I think
you’re giving me a headache with all this indecisiveness.”

“You must do
Kirk’s head in a lot.”

Molly smirked.
“His head? I’ll tell you what I do to his-”

“Please
don’t.”

Molly turned
to Ash. “Anyone would think Del was shy.”

Ash
smiled.

Del rolled her
eyes.

“Anyway.”
Molly turned back to Del. “What I was going to say was that Kirk
and I were getting a little frisky, but then Lily woke up and
pfft!
That was it.”

“Flames of
desire fizzled?” Dee nodded. “That’s what happens.”

“How would you
know?” Del looked at her incredulously.

“I’m just
trying to be the understanding friend.”

“Well don’t.
It’s unnerving.”

Molly nodded.
“We pretty much like you as our usual Dee.”

“Rude and
sardonic,” Elissa agreed.

Ash smiled
gently at Dee. “We love you just the way you are.”

“Thank God,”
Dee muttered. “I was starting to feel ill from all the
sweetness.”

Del grinned.
“It was becoming a bit of a stretch.”

“Speaking of
stretches.” Her cousin turned her attention to Del, the amusement
disappearing from her eyes to be replaced with a steelier gaze. “I
heard you had a night visitor.”

“Huh?”

“More than
one, in fact.”

For several
seconds Del couldn’t think what Dee meant, but then she realised
and groaned. “For crying out loud! Did Mum ring you?”

“She wanted to
know if I knew anything about last night.”

“What about
last night?” Elissa asked curiously.

“Nothing.” Del
shrugged. “Just a dog chasing a kitten through my property. The
kitten took refuge on my veranda, and Cutter and a couple of his
mates came over to get the dog.”

Ash’s
expression grew concerned. “What time of night?”

“Well, you
know, late afternoon-”

“Around seven,
seven thirty,” Dee cut in.

“How the hell
would you know?” Del demanded.

“Ryder and I
stayed in the flat last night, I saw you leave at six fifty.”

“Jesus, you’re
nosey.”

“I’m
observant, and don’t change the subject.”

“Did you call
the police?” Elissa queried.

“Why would I?”
Del replied, a little irritated “I dealt with it.”

“Cutter’s bad
news,” Ash stated.

Elissa rolled
the bottom of the plastic glass on the table. “You’re out there
alone.”

“Now you’re
sounding like your brother.”

“We’re from
the city, what do you expect? Where we come from everyone locks
their doors.”

“We lock our
doors here.”

“At night and
when away, but that’s about it.”

Del took a sip
of Diet Coke, catching her cousin’s intent look. “What?”

“You need to
be careful.”

“Are you
kidding me? You, Dee?”

“You had that
altercation with Pierce and Dawson, then had a confrontation with a
savage dog and three idiots. And Cutter’s not exactly a harmless
idiot.”

Del folded her
arms. “I have a baseball bat.”

“And an
attitude.”

Del burst out
laughing, she couldn’t help it. That particular wording from the
Queen of Attitude was almost hilarious. Even her friends had to
grin.

Ignoring them,
Dee pointed at Del. “You need help, you ring me.”

“You?” Molly
echoed. “What about the cops?”

“Fine. Ring me
and then the cops.”

“Then ring
me,” Molly added.

Good grief.
Del held up her hands. “Okay, stop. I’m fine. It was one
encounter-”

“Two,” Dee
said.