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“I doubt it. I’d say you were just bored.”
I appreciated her attempt at lightening the mood more than I wanted to admit. “That must be it, then.”
Silence descended over us again and I felt myself breathing easily. For the first time in a very long time, I could almost pretend that my life was perfect. That I didn’t disappoint anyone who’d ever been stupid enough to care about me. That I wasn’t headed nowhere fast. That I didn’t have a five-year-old waiting on me at home getting in my face every moment she could.
“Aren’t your friends missing you?” she asked at one point.
I smiled to myself. “I wouldn’t call them friends.”
“That’s nice.” I could tell by her tone that she didn’t think it was nice at all.
“Friends don’t get friends arrested,” I told her.
“Then maybe you shouldn’t let Rio get arrested,” she offered, and I heard the sass in her voice.
I couldn’t help myself when I replied, “He knows the drill. He runs. I get the cuffs.”
I felt her turn her head to look at me and I looked at her. “So, he is your friend?”
I’d walked myself into that one, so I tried to cover. I shrugged as nonchalantly as I could. “Hard to have a lookout when he’s locked up.”
She nodded, but I could tell she didn’t believe me. Not that she called me out on it. We went back to just lying there and looking at the stars for a while. Finally, she sat up stretching.
“I guess I should probably head to bed.”
I had to restrain everything in me not to make some quip about joining her. “Want me to drive you?”
She looked back at me over her shoulder and gave me a warm smile. “Yeah. Okay. Sure. Thanks.”
I helped her with the blanket, and we walked back to the ute together. My eyes kept being drawn back to her as we headed back to our houses. She just watched the world go by outside the side window. I pulled up in my usual parking spot and she threw me another of those warm smiles.
“Thanks, Lombardi.”
I inclined my head. “No problems, Barlow.”
She bit her lip like she had to stop herself saying something else, gave me a nod, bundled up the blanket and headed inside. I watched her go, my arms resting on the steering wheel. Once the light was on in her room, I intended to turn the ute back on and go and meet Rio like I’d planned.
Instead, I found myself pulling the key out of the ignition, and dragging myself inside. Mum and Maddy were in bed, and I sat in my open window to keep an eye on the stars while I had a few smokes and wondered about the girl next door.
I’d seen a different side to her than I’d ever seen. Than I’d deserved to see. Than was possibly safe for me to see.
But I wanted to see more.
