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“Great,” Wazza said, retaking his seat.
But before he could decide where to start, Kee asked, “Is there somewhere that Benni might be able to watch some TV?” She raised her eyebrow in Wazza’s direction. Of course, she was hinting that she didn’t want Benni to overhear what they were about to discuss.
“Skylar would be more than happy to look after her,” Daniella offered, catching on straight away. “There’s a small television in the kitchen. Benni could sit in the corner and watch that.” Wazza doubted Daniella’s claim; Skylar was busy prepping meals for the dinner time rush. And Skylar wasn’t the most motherly type, either. But he couldn’t come up with an alternative, so he held his tongue. One thing he knew; Skylar would allow no harm to befall the child.
“Will you come with me, my love?” Daniella offered her hand to Benni, who looked at her mother for permission.
Kee nodded and said, “We won’t be long, Benni Bunny. I wonder if Peppa Pig might be on TV.”
Benni calmly placed her hat back on her head and reached for Daniella. One corner of Wazza’s mouth lifted in surprise as he watched Daniella and Benni walk out, her small hand tucked safely into the older woman’s. There was something so endearing about the way Daniella led the young girl, almost as if she were her own granddaughter, not some stranger’s child.
Steve watched the pair go with an odd tilt to his head, that made Wazza think that perhaps Dale and Daisy better get married and start having kids sooner rather than later. But then Steve sat forward again and said, “Let’s start. Daniella can catch up when she returns. We’ve got a busload of guests arriving straight after lunch, and we all have things to do.”
That’s right, Wazza remembered Aaron had driven the four-wheel-drive bus to Cairns this morning to pick up eight new guests, all coming as one large party to stay for the next week. Aaron was employed as the new helicopter pilot among some of his other duties, and he often ferried the guests in on the new chopper. But it only had room for four extra people, and so the station also had a specially-kitted-out bus to make the four-hour round trip as comfortable as possible for the customers.
Kee glanced at Wazza, then took a deep breath. “If it hadn’t been for Wazza, Benni and I might’ve died out there.” That had everyone sitting forward in their chairs, as Kee went on to detail how her car had broken down by the water trough and how she’d been too silly to understand that she needed help until it was almost too late. Wazza sat lower in his chair, avoiding Steve’s gaze. He’d outright lied to his boss about what he’d found at the bore, and it didn’t sit well with him.
Then Kee went on to tell everyone why Wazza had found her where he had and what she was running from. Daniella returned, and quietly took her seat without interrupting.
Even though Wazza had already heard the story, he learned a few more things about Kee in the next half hour. That she’d been avoiding an arranged marriage. Her parents had tried to push her to marry a man from another Indian family who they’d been friends with for years. But Kee wanted more, she wanted to be allowed to marry under her own volition. Which perhaps explained why she’d jumped into the arms of the first man who came along. Kee admitted that she knew it was a mistake early on in the marriage. But then she became pregnant with Benni, and she couldn’t leave.
When Kee finally stopped talking, Wazza was brought back to himself with a start. He was embarrassed to discover he’d been staring at her. Sketching her profile with his eyes, drinking in the soft, ski-jump curve of her nose and how pink and rosy her lips were. How her tongue darted out to touch her top teeth when she was nervous. Today, she was wearing a light-pink tank top that bared her brown shoulders and clung to the curve of her small breasts. A couple of soft tendrils of hair had escaped her long braid and fell heedlessly around her face. She was an amazingly beautiful woman. Exotic and alluring. And he had to admit he was desperately attracted to her. What a shitpile of luck that was. That he was attracted to the only woman he couldn’t have.
Daisy and Daniella seemed to especially sympathize with Kee, and they took turns asking her questions, probing for the truth amongst Kee’s sometimes scattered story. They comforted her when she told them of her complete shock and horror at how Jakov’s parents had stolen Benni from her, to get revenge on her for what she’d done to their son, and refused to see that Jakov was the one who’d been in the wrong, wouldn’t believe that he was as corrupt as everyone was saying. The grandfather had flatly denied that Jakov would ever take money for stolen drugs, said that he was a good boy.
It was Steve and Dale who wanted more information on why Jakov was in jail. On the court case and how Kee had stood up in the witness box and told the jury what she’d seen. How she’d overheard some of Jakov’s phone conversations, and had answered the door to strange men demanding to see her husband in the middle of the night, seen Jakov’s ego slowly inflate, and his love for expensive things, like watches and designer clothes outstrip their meager income.
She answered all the questions as well as she could. Looking each of them in the eye and holding her chin up high. But Wazza could tell this whole thing was taking a toll on her. She would probably be mortified all these people now knew her intimate business.
Finally, Daniella held up a hand. He’d seen her getting more and more on edge as the time slipped away. She clearly wanted to get back to business. “I think we’ve heard enough for now. This lady and her child deserve our protection. I’m happy for her to stay here until the car is fixed, at the very least. She can’t keep staying at Daisy’s, not with River staying there, too. We’ve got a spare cabin she can use. Do you agree Steve?”
“Yes, she needs to stay here. Where we can help her,” Steve agreed.
“Wait. What?” Kee looked shocked. “I don’t want to stay here. I don’t want to put you out like that.”
“Well, it’s too late, my dear. It’s already been decided.”
Kee opened her mouth to argue, and Daniella held up a hand. Kee was about to find out that when Daniella made up her mind, it was like trying to argue with a brick wall.
