Unsuitable

“Merrill will call you when Audrey needs you again, okay?” said Les.

Not okay. Not right. Not best. Not fair. He’d been dismissed, because he was an unknown with no rights, a threat, because Mia learned a swear word, because he’d kissed Audrey and no one knew what to make of that, and he couldn’t tell them it was the most incredible thing that’d happened to him, because it hadn’t meant that much to her, other than a drought break, a moment out of time, something she might not remember when she was well again.

Merrill kept Mia busy while he left. He had to rip her car seat out of his car. The only pleasure in that was knowing it’d be a pain for Joe to refit in his. He called Polly and gave him an update. He was finishing up. He drove to Audrey’s and found Polly had installed a new door identical to the one Reece had trashed.

“Thought you said it’d be a temporary fix?”

“It was. Then I got lucky with stock. And man, Audrey needs a break. This is a present from Pollidore Homes, because shit, meningitis.” He shoved his drill in his tool bag. “Where’s little Audrey?”

“With Merrill and Joe. I’m out.”

“What do you mean, out?”

He tried his key in the door. Polly had used them to key the lock the same, making it easy for everyone. “I dunno, dismissed for now at least.”

“Can they do that?”

He shrugged. “They’re her legal guardians.” He re-pocketed his keys. He wasn’t giving them up yet. “Until Audrey is awake we don’t know what she wants.”

“Right, right, but this is a temporary thing, because she’s going to wake up, right, and she’s going to want you back on deck.” Polly ran a hand over the door, brushing a sprinkling of fine sawdust off the glass panel.

Reece looked at the door. You wouldn’t know its twin had been in pieces a few hours ago. You couldn’t know how close to death Audrey would come this morning, when you kissed her breathless last night. The shock of that still hadn’t left him. The idea that she might not recover was bigger than he could grasp.

Polly picked up his tool bag and shoved it in the back of his ute. “Reece?”

He followed Polly to the kerb. He felt lost. He still felt gut sick, anxious about Mia, rocked about Audrey. He knew he wouldn’t feel right till he learned she was awake and issuing instructions again. And it was the middle of the day. What was he supposed to do without Mia?

“I might’ve fucked up.”

“With the kid? No way. So what’d you do to Audrey?”

For a guy who had trouble accepting Reece preferred building with Lego to building houses, Polly was a good mate. When Reece had shown up with a bag of clothes, his pillow and assorted possessions after the bust up with Sky, he hadn’t said a word about it. Just thrown a couple of sheets at him and asked for help moving the massive TV screen out of the spare bedroom.

“I kissed her.”

“Like, on the forehead?”

Why did everyone go there first? Why was it such a leap to think he’d want to have Audrey’s mouth all over him, his all over every pore of her silk soft skin? He shook his head.

“Fucking hell, Reece.”

“Yeah.”

“Are you going to get sick?”

“What? No. Maybe. I dunno. I’ve got to take antibiotics. Precautionary.”

Polly weighted that. He leant against the cab of the ute. “So you kissed your boss. Heavy.”

“Yeah.”

“How was it?”

“I’m not talking about it.”

“Yeah you are, unless you want to go home to Charlie and chuck Etta out of your old room.”

Reece grunted, braced both hands on the side of the ute. It was full of broken bits of the old door. He was full of chopped up feelings; sharp, angular, awkward, useless.