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“Not a problem,” Harry said, smiling. “Tonight was fun. See you tomorrow, Stacey.”
Harry walked away with a nod to Ryan. As I grabbed my things, my brother began his inquisition.
“What’s going on between you and that new guy?” Ryan hissed.
“Why do you want to know?”
“It’s my business to know,” he argued.
“My business is on a need-to-know basis, and you do not.” I turned on my heel and stomped off towards the exit.
“How do you know he’s a decent person?”
I spun around. “I’ll find out on my own what kind of person he is. I don’t need you vetting who I’m interested in.”
“But what happened with you and Doug—”
“No buts. That was ten years ago.” I pushed my hair from my eyes. “You were just plain rude to Harry. First of all, he’s my colleague. Second, you could have thanked him for helping me on the highway. Just … just stop being overbearing and let me be an adult.”
I pushed the door open with my shoulder, leaving Ryan standing in the foyer, and charged down the stairs. His massive ute, with a toolbox and winch on the tray, stood out in the carpark. A furry head rose over the tray’s edge. Reggie, Ryan’s cattle dog, let out a half-hearted woof in greeting.
Footsteps followed me to the ute. Ryan beat me to the ute and unlocked the passenger door and opened it for me. I placed my things inside, got in and Ryan paused, about to close the door.
“Sorry if I was a dick back there.”
“If?”
Ryan sighed, slamming the door shut. Reggie grunted and my brother muttered back, “Yeah, yeah. Not you, too.”
He picked up Reggie and set him down on the bench seat between us. Reggie claimed my lap with his head and stayed put from Stanmore down the highway to the Ballydoon turn-off twenty-minutes later at Eugene’s place.
Reggie and I both watched Eugene in his house yard with a head torch on. He was taking off costumes from his famous kangaroo statues. His quirky garden had been featured on a national TV gardening show last year. Every week, Eugene dressed the statues in new costumes. This morning, they’d been rock stars with blow-up guitars strapped over their pouches. Tomorrow they would have new personas.
As we pulled up to our driveway, I pushed Reggie off my lap, so I could get out and open the gate. Ryan spoke up.
“I’m trying, okay?” He looked pained. “Might not sound like it, but I am trying not to be a dick.”
Too tired to argue, I simply nodded.
Once we’d made it inside the house, Ryan paused in the hallway as I headed to my room.
“There’s something else.” He stared at the floor, face hard. “We got a letter today.”
I sighed. I seemed to be sighing a lot around my brother. “Another from the bank?”
“Not the bank. A letter, as well as a phone call while you were away. I didn’t tell you because I didn’t want to upset you,” Ryan grumbled. “But I have a feeling I’m about to do that anyway.”
I frowned. “How about you tell me right now before I get more upset?”
“The ABC want to do a special show about the bushfire ten years on.” He scrubbed his face. “They want to interview us about how we coped losing Dad. It’s for the showTales from the Land.”
“Oh my god,” I breathed. Our family watchedTales from the Landevery week. “National TV.”
“Yeah.” Ryan scowled. “You mad?”
“A little, yes. I’m an adult. You should have told me about the phone call.”
“I meant about their request.”
