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I sighed. “Joy.”
“Yeah, not really.”
I tried to brighten the mood. “It’ll all be over, mostly, by this time tomorrow.”
He nodded. “Just one day.”
“It’ll almost be as bad as that time you went back to Melbourne and left me for a day. Worst thirty-five hours of my life.”
He chuckled. “Almost.”
Then we noticed a truck on the security camera. A tow truck, more specifically. And it came into the yard.
What the hell?
“I’ll go,” I said, putting the food containers down and heading toward the door. I picked up the baseball bat and went out. The driver was a huge man, and I wasn’t sure if holdin’ the bat was a good or bad decision.
Until Doreen and a smaller woman jumped out of the truck. “Thanks, mate. Be safe,” Doreen said with a wave to the tow truck driver.
The woman she was with, who I could see now was holding Bruce, blew the truck driver a kiss. Doreen laughed, slung a bag over her shoulder, and she turned to see me.
Holding her bat.
She grinned. “I knew I liked you, Tully.”
I snorted. “Thanks. Something wrong with your bike?”
“Nah. Just thought I’d leave it at home. Safer there.”
Yeah, of course. “Good idea.”
Doreen threw her thumb toward the now-leaving tow truck. “That’s my baby brother.” Then she slung her arm around the woman. “And this is my Suri.”
Suri was a small woman with long black hair, Indonesian or Malaysian, if I had to guess. She was maybe fifty years old, tucked right into Doreen’s side like she was made for it, and had a beautiful smile. “Hello,” she said brightly.
“Nice to meet you,” I said, holding the door for them. “I do believe we’re in for a spot of weather. Might want to come inside.”
Doreen snorted. “Figured we’d get in before the rain started. No point in getting wet,” she said, letting Suri walk in first.
I grinned at her and she rolled her eyes as she walked in. “Oyyy,” she said, seeing the screens and flashing buttons on the console dash. “Jiminy Crickets, you a bit busy or something?” she said, immediately taking her seat and helping Jeremiah. “Saw the gate was chained open,” she said after a few seconds. She glanced back at me and gave a nod. “Smart thinkin’.”
I shrugged. “Don’t look at me. It was Jeremiah.”
Jeremiah stood up and went to the data feed screen, which was now rolling like a poker machine. “I just thought it would be safer, should we need to leave in a hurry, or if debris should be forced against the fence, it could block us in. I didn’t think we’d get any unwanted visitors today.”
He went back to his seat and only then seemed to notice the other person in the room. “Oh, my goodness, I’m sorry,” he said, getting back to his feet.
“Jeremiah,” I said. “This is Suri, Doreen’s better half.”
“Muchbetter half,” Suri said.
“Hey,” Doreen grumbled.
Suri winked, and then she nodded to the screens up the top, showing different views of the storm. “Oh, look. Some screens that work.”
Jeremiah held his hand out for Suri to shake. “Nice to meet you. And Tully replaced those screens. And he fixed the old chair.”
Well, the screens hadn’t cost much, and I’d paid for them because it was unlikely that Jeremiah would get much funding out of the head office. The chair was a necessity, especially with all the time I’d spent here with him in his first week. It was bad enough that his office was straight out of the time warp, and I wanted him to stay. I tried to make it as comfortable for him as I could.
