Outback Sisters (29 page)

‘I'm fine,' she told her, putting her own hand over Grace's and then bringing it down to rest on her knee. ‘Just tired. I didn't mean to nap for so long though.'

Damn Angus. If thoughts of him weren't keeping her awake at night, she wouldn't have needed a nanna nap. Every time she closed her eyes, he appeared in her head—tall, rugged and naked as he had been the night before the wedding. Her mouth went dry, her insides twisted and her body temperature soared at the thought. Sometimes she even found herself half-wishing she was still going out with Logan so she could grill him about what Angus had been like since the wedding. Was he thinking about her—about their night together—as much as she was?

The not knowing was making her loopy. Or loopier.

‘Did you have a good day at school?' she asked, mentally telling Angus to take a hike.

‘Yep.' Grace nodded. ‘Mrs Beaton gave me the highest mark in our class for our English essays.'

‘That's awesome. I'm so proud of you.'

‘Thanks, Mum. Can I have a snack? I'm starving.'

‘Sure, honey. There's some of Frankie's chocolate cake in the fridge.'

‘Yum,' Grace said, leaping up with the kind of energy no adult ever had.

Simone heaved herself up off the couch and followed her into the kitchen. ‘Where's Harriet?'

Grace frowned as she retrieved the container from the fridge. ‘She went to Alyssa's from the bus. I thought you knew.'

‘Nope.' Simone shook her head, irritated by Harriet's lack of communication and continuing disrespect, especially after last year's high jinks. She had a good mind to drive over to Alyssa's house and make a big scene about hauling Harriet home, but … she didn't have the energy. Maybe she
was
sick, because right now all she wanted to do was head back to the couch.

‘Do you want a piece, Mum?' Grace asked.

Simone smiled. ‘No, thanks, honey.' Frankie's chocolate cake was something she usually couldn't say no to but today the thought of eating made her want to throw up. ‘Do you need any help with your homework?'

‘No, we don't have much, 'cos tomorrow is the sports carnival. Are you still coming?'

‘I wouldn't miss it for the world,' Simone said, hoping that by then she wouldn't be feeling like death warmed up. ‘I'm just going to have a shower and text your sister. Thank God one of you is good to your mother.' Simone leaned forward and kissed Grace on the forehead.

Grace smiled and then sank her teeth into the cake as Simone headed for the bathroom. En route she messaged her older daughter, aware Harriet likely wouldn't bother with a reply.

I heard you're at Alyssa's. Next time it would be nice if you asked my permission before you go somewhere else after school. You might not think about anyone but yourself, but I happen to worry if I don't know where you are. Be home for dinner. Frankie's cooking. Love Mum.

The knowledge her beloved Aunty Eff was making dinner would ensure Harriet came home in time to eat. Simone intended to tell her that if she didn't start toeing the line, she could kiss goodbye to her boyfriend, because she'd be grounded for the rest of the year. She had never grounded either of her daughters—she'd always thought it sounded like such an American thing to do—but how else were you supposed to punish a sixteen-year-old who insisted on acting like she was twenty-one? Simone couldn't help but wonder if Harriet would have been so much of a handful if Jason was still alive. Single-parenting was not for the faint-hearted, that's for sure.

With a sigh, Simone stepped into the bathroom and stripped. She was usually conservative with showers and encouraged her girls to be the same, but today she couldn't bring herself to hurry. She needed the comforting warmth to refresh her. Finally, after about ten minutes, she turned off the water and wrapped a towel around herself.

‘I thought you were never going to finish,' Grace said, sneaking into the bathroom the moment Simone opened the door. ‘I need to pee.'

Simone raised an eyebrow. ‘Since when do you two worry about things like privacy?' For as long as she could remember her girls had been barging in on her in the shower and even Harriet still had the occasional conversation while one of them was on the toilet.

‘Mum!' Grace looked horrified. Simone wondered if maybe she'd been too quick to think she wouldn't go through the same awkward stage as her older sister. Then the door was shut in her face.

She blinked and headed off to her bedroom to get dressed. When she emerged, Grace was in the living room watching TV. It was some show about teenage rock stars that held absolutely no appeal to Simone, so she decided to head out into her studio and try to make up some of the time she'd lost that afternoon.

‘I'm going to do some work,' she called to Grace. ‘Can you come get me when Harriet comes home or Frankie arrives?'

Grace didn't look up from the TV but she raised her hand in acknowledgement. ‘Sure, Mum.'

Simone lost herself in her latest textile project for the next hour and a half and was startled when the knock came on her shed door. The door opened and Gracie appeared.

‘Aunty Eff
and
Harriet are here.'

‘Oh good.' Simone put down her scissors and stood.

‘I'm not sure you're going to think that when you see Harriet.'

Simone's stomach clenched. ‘Why? What's she done?'

‘I think you should come see for yourself.'

Her heart hammering, she charged past Grace, up the garden path, not even caring about shutting the shed door, and stormed into the kitchen. Her eyes landed first on Frankie laying plates out on the bench and then she turned to see Harriet half in the fridge, drinking straight from the juice bottle.

‘What the hell have you done to your hair?' she yelled, unable to believe the sight before her.

Harriet put the lid back on the juice, returned it to the shelf, shut the fridge door, slowly turned to face her mother and then shrugged. ‘I dyed it blue.'

Feeling her blood pressure rising, Simone put her hands on her hips. ‘Don't be smart with me, young lady. I'm not colourblind. I'll rephrase my question. Why the hell did you think it was a good idea to dye your hair blue?'

Harriet narrowed her eyes, thrust her shoulders back and stuck out her chin as she flicked her fingers through the ends of her long
blue
hair. ‘Jaxon loves it.'

‘Oh, well that's okay then,' Simone snapped. ‘Never mind what your mother thinks. As long as
Jaxon
approves.'

‘Mum, don't be so boring. I swear you act twice as old as you actually are.'

‘Harriet—a word of aunterly advice,' piped up Frankie from where she was dishing out her pumpkin, spinach and ricotta cannelloni. ‘Now might be a good time to be quiet.'

‘I thought you were at Alyssa's,' Simone said, forcing herself to calm her breathing. If Harriet gave her one more word of cheek, she wasn't sure she'd be able to resist picking up something hard and hurling it at her.

‘I was, but Jaxon and Brad were there too,' Harriet said like it was nothing at all and Simone decided there and then that it was time to show her daughter who was in charge around here.

‘You know very well you are not supposed to see Jaxon outside of school without my permission. I would have thought you'd know that dyeing your hair without talking to me about it first was also a no-no.' She sighed. ‘Honestly, Harriet, you leave me no choice. I'm grounding you for a month. You'll go to school and come home and don't even bother asking me if you can go to anyone's house or have a friend over here because the answer will be no.'

‘
What?
You can't do that!' Harriet's hands flew to her hips, echoing Simone's stance.

‘I think I just did,' Simone replied with a smug smile.

‘But it's Alyssa's birthday party on Saturday night.
Everyone
is going to be there.'

‘Everyone except you.'

‘That's not fair. I
hate
you.' Harriet turned and ran from the kitchen. A few seconds later they heard her bedroom door slam.

Simone inhaled deeply, resisting the urge to scream after her that the feeling was mutual. She loved her daughter but she didn't
like
her very much at the moment.

‘I promise I'll never dye my hair blue,' Grace said as she pulled out a chair and sat down at the table. ‘And if she doesn't come back, can I have her serving of cannelloni?'

‘No,' Simone sighed, her fury easing. ‘She needs to eat. We'll leave it for when she's calmed down.'

‘It's all right, Grace,' Frankie said as she brought the first two plates to the table. ‘I made plenty. If you're still hungry after this, you can have seconds.'

Grace smiled up at Frankie and stretched across the table to grab the bowl of salad. ‘Thanks, Aunty Eff.'

Simone looked down at the plate in front of her and just knew she wasn't going to be able to stomach much of it.

‘Shall I get you a glass of wine?' Frankie asked, turning to the fridge. ‘I could do with one myself. It's been a long week.'

‘Thanks.' Simone nodded and within a few moments Frankie had poured the glass, given it to Simone and sat down again with her own drink. Simone found that even her favourite chardonnay didn't taste good. She wished she could just crawl into bed and forget about today. No, scrap that, she wished she could crawl into bed and forget about the last two weeks, but peace wouldn't come with slumber, only Angus, so maybe she should persevere with the wine.

As Frankie's and Grace's cutlery scraped across the plates, Simone picked up her glass again. ‘So, how's you, Frank? Anything interesting happening I should know about?'

‘Um … Not exactly.'

Simone raised an eyebrow; Frankie had deliberated too long. ‘What's going on?'

‘Nothing. Absolutely nothing. I wonder how Adam and Stella are going on their honeymoon?'

‘I ran into Aunty Esther yesterday morning when she was dropping Heidi at school. She looked exhausted but said they'd heard from the newlyweds and they were having a wonderful time but missing Heidi.'

‘I can imagine,' Frankie said. ‘But Stella really deserves a holiday.'

‘They both do. Esther wants to clean the house and make sure everything is nice for them before they come home on Monday, so I told her I'd take the girls over on Sunday and help. Want to come?'

‘Um …' That look of discomfort flashed across Frankie's face and this time Simone was certain she hadn't imagined it. ‘I can't this Sunday.'

‘What's going on?'

‘Um …'

‘Would you quit saying “um” and fill me in.'

‘Well …' Frankie inhaled and then let out her breath slowly. ‘I'm going on a date on Sunday.'

‘What?' Simone didn't know what she'd been expecting but it wasn't that.

‘Go, Aunty Eff!' Grace cheered, lifting her arm to offer Frankie a high five. ‘What's his name?'

Frankie laughed nervously and high fived her back.

‘Do we know him?' Simone asked.

Again Frankie took her time answering. ‘I met him on Rural Matchmakers.'

Harriet chose that moment to return to the kitchen. ‘Met who on Rural Matchmakers?' she asked, sitting down at the table and making a show of not looking at her mother. Which was just fine, as Simone didn't want to look at her blue hair right now either.

‘Aunty Eff's got a boyfriend.'

‘He's not a boyfriend,' Frankie said, ‘just someone I'm … pursuing.'

‘Let's hope you have better luck than
she
had with
Logan
.'

Simone chose not to let Harriet rile her any further. She simply said, ‘Yes, let's hope she does. I'm happy for you, Frank. So what's his name?'

‘Uh … Clive,' Frankie said and Simone couldn't help but smirk along with her daughters.

‘I hope he's better looking than he sounds,' Harriet said, her nose screwed up in disgust. Although Simone shared her sentiment, she bit her tongue.

‘When do we get to meet him?' she asked instead.

‘Not sure. It's early days. I just want to see how things go first.'

‘I understand,' Simone said. She'd felt the same about Logan but ended up bringing him to the wedding to meet practically everyone she was close to. Look how much of a debacle that had been. Not that it was Logan's fault she and Angus had such amazing chemistry. An unwanted shiver shot down her spine at the thought.

‘Thanks.' Frankie smiled and stood up. ‘Now, does anyone want seconds?'

‘Yes, please,' said Grace.

Frankie parked her hatchback in the car park at Tarcoola Beach, grabbed her sunhat off the passenger seat and popped it onto her head. She'd tied her long red hair in a knot and now pushed it under the hat, then looked into the rear-vision mirror. Hopefully with the hat, dark sunglasses and her hair tucked up, she wouldn't be recognised if someone saw her and Logan together. And she was wearing a dress, something she rarely did.

Guilt churned the butterflies in her stomach as she locked the car and headed to the spot where Logan had told her to meet him. Mostly she couldn't wait to see him, but there was a tiny part of her that worried things wouldn't be so easy between them now they'd officially agreed to start seeing each other. Wind blew against her face as she walked, and she pressed a hand to her lips, wondering if her lipstick was overkill. Her make-up ritual usually consisted of a layer of tinted moisturiser and a little lip gloss, but today she'd made a big effort. She hoped she didn't look like an overdressed clown.

When she'd voiced her concern that someone she knew might see them in a café or restaurant, Logan had suggested a picnic on the beach and told her he would handle everything. No guy had ever made a picnic or even cooked for her before—they all expected that because she was a chef she was happy to do the honours. But it was nice not to have to worry about the food on top of her nerves and her guilt and everything else.