29. Chapter Twenty-Seven

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Lara walked into the beer garden of the Ribbonwood pub at lunchtime the following Thursday. She didn’t often close the store completely for her lunch break, usually choosing to eat where she could still hear the door chime. But there were perks to owning your own business and one of them was deciding that when the weather was gorgeous and balmy and a friend wanted to catch up, a pub lunch was a solid choice.

Eva Sinclair had, to her surprise, started to become just that: a friend. Lara was pretty close with a lot of the women who came to bonfire night in a half-way sort of way. She knew incredibly personal details about them, and they knew the basic facts of her life too. There was a gratitude towards her for the help she’d been willing to offer and then a camaraderie built from the ongoing bonfire nights. They’d laughed together and drank together, but the occasional crying or venting came from the women she’d helped, never from Lara’s end. Lara thought of it as almost a professional boundary. She had to hold it together so that they could let go. If they thought of her as strong then they could be strong too.

Eva though, had snuck in under Lara’s radar. She didn’t know what it was about her, but for all Eva had been through she felt like an increasingly solid presence. She was stocky with a rigidly upright posture and a sly sense of humour that snuck out more frequently now that she wasn’t living in pure survival mode. Lara liked her. Somehow, the lines were blurring because Lara found she could fight through her own shyness and actually talk to her.

“I heard a new rumour about you,” Eva told her now, turning her beer glass around in her hands.

Lara raised her eyebrows, her chip hand pausing on the way to her mouth.

“If it was from Crystal Berry,” she started, “I can confirm that I did not fuck her husband but I did tell her he was about as tempting as a bundle of dry sticks.”

Eva cackled. Then she quickly turned her head, finding Spencer was still miraculously snoozing through it all in his pram.

“Not that one,” she said. “Amber O’Brien said she drove past the lookout the other night and saw you making out with Ollie Gabrielli in the carpark. ”

Lara blinked.

“Actually,” she said, “we were having sex, right up against a 2015 Ford Fiesta. She must have missed the finer details.”

Eva laughed again.

“I’m not going to lie: I’m pretty sure I believe that rumour. There were vibes,” she pointed a finger at Lara, “at bonfire night.”

Lara hesitated. She’d never come out to anyone that wasn’t Sadie. Or, she supposed, Ollie.

“Can you blame me?” Her smile slipped out, making the decision for her. “She’s hot.”

Eva looked both appropriately scandalised and straight up smug, clutching her hand to her chest.

“I knew it! That we hated each other in high school thing… then all of a sudden you’re making eyes at each other over the bonfire.”

“I wasn’t making eyes, ” Lara denied.

“Yeah, sure. So you’re a thing?”

“Yes and no,” Lara said. “We’re seeing each other, but she lives in Melbourne, so it’s not going anywhere.”

“Lara,” Eva widened her eyes. “Move to Melbourne. ”

Lara laughed. Despite everything, Eva still had an over-inflated sense of romanticism.

“Not a chance.” She shook her head, firmly relieving Eva of the notion. “I hate cities. Ribbonwood sucks but it’s still my little corner of the world. I know who I am here and who my daughter goes to school with. My mind would be lost in minutes being surrounded in all that concrete. I’m not going to move interstate to be miserable with someone I-” she hesitated, “am having incredibly hot sex with.”

Eva smiled conspiratorially, but she wasn’t dissuaded from the romance novel track it was heading down.

“Would she stay?”

“No,” Lara said immediately. “Here? Fuck no. It just…is what it is. A good time, not a long time. ”

“Hmm,” Eva looked at her. “So this whole glow you’ve got going on is just sex huh?”

Lara thought of Ollie almost fucking her through the mattress on Saturday night, making Lara limp and boneless with pleasure. She thought of you looked so cute in your jammies and Ollie cooking her dinner and you did a beautiful job of your whole fucking life Lara and Ollie’s dark eyes and heated kiss and hands curled around her hips, you can say no to anything.

“Yep,” she said.“Just sex.”

“Righto,” said Eva. She sipped her beer. “Want to hear my latest?”

“I so do.”

Eva told her Dan’s most recent bullshit and Lara felt her blood get hot. So far their plan had worked as far as getting a little regular chunk of money in Eva’s bank account, enough to keep the lights on and stop them going hungry, but now Dan was getting nasty.

“Honey,” Lara told her. “He’s not going to get away with this. I swear to god, we’re going to find a way to make him pay.”

“That sounds so mafia,” Eva managed, scrunching up her eyes to stop the tears from escaping.

“He’ll sleep with the fishes,” Lara promised her darkly.

Eva snorted slightly.

“I believe you,” she said. “After all, Chloe Perkins being safe to walk this planet is on you. If you can get rid of a threat like Dale, then Dan is just small fry.”

“Honestly?” Lara frowned. “I hope I never have to go to that kind of extent ever again. It was messy. But I promise you, Dan won’t even know what hit him.”

“You right, mate?”

Lara looked up to see Eva was addressing a vaguely familiar young man, absurdly large muscles bursting from his running gear, sitting over at the next table, his eyes as wide as saucers as he stared directly at them.

“Ah, yeah- yep,” he stammered, his face going red. He looked down at his half-eaten burger and cleared his throat. “Sorry, just…daydreaming.”

Eva gave him a hard stare for a couple more seconds. Then she rolled her eyes at Lara.

“Joe Armstrong,” she shook her head, her voice low. “My babysitter dated his brother. He seems to have taken a fancy to you.” She looked over to check that Joe wasn’t staring any more. “Honestly, is it like this every time you leave the house?” Lara snorted and shook her head. Eva took a solid mouthful of her beer. “Have you considered a potato sack? Maybe two?”

Lara had enjoyed a pleasant walk back in the sunshine to her store. She’d crossed paths with Kimberley Evans, the girl who’d once been her best friend, ages eight through sixteen. She’d ditched Lara like she was literal poison in Year Eleven. Kimberley had approached Lara exactly once since then, two years ago. She’d heard, like, Lara did favours for women who needed them? She wanted Lara to humiliate her husband who she’d discovered was trying on her clothes when no one was home. Lara had distinctly refused and Kimberley’s ex was now living a much happier life in Sydney. To say it was satisfying when Kimberley glared at her on the way up the footpath, like Lara was gum on her shoe, was to understate the pleasures of small town life.

Just as she went to unlock the front door and flip the sign back to open, her phone pinged with a message. She saw Ollie’s name flash up and instantly smiled. And then, she frowned. She left the sign on closed.

When her car bumped up the gravel drive through the olive grove and stopped in front of the house the dogs didn’t erupt out to greet her, though she could hear their barking contained somewhere. On the front porch stood a very attractive young woman with flaming red hair cascading down her spine. She and Ollie stood close, in an involved conversation.

Lara got out of the car and Ollie looked up. The expression on her face went intensely soft and Lara swallowed. She hung back, leaning against her car, watching the conversation play out. The redhead gave her a polite - slightly uncertain - smile as she passed Lara on her way to her own car. Lara made her way to the porch steps.

“Who was that?” she asked immediately, trying to hide her intense irritation at the way the woman had touched her hair as she looked up at Ollie.

“The palliative care nurse,” Ollie told her, reaching out to pull her in close.

“She’s hot,” Lara observed, narrowing her eyes at Ollie.

“Yeah,” said Ollie. “We were just about to fuck actually but then you got here.”

Lara snorted out a small laugh and shoved Ollie’s hip. Ollie slipped her hands into her hair and kissed her until Lara felt a little shaky.

“Am I getting in the way, being here?” she asked, her voice coming out way too soft for her own liking .

“I’m so fucking glad to see you,” Ollie told her. “Just this little stolen moment out here?” She drifted her hands down Lara’s sides, stroking her hips. “Means the world.”

“Want to go for a walk?” Lara offered. She hadn’t been sure what to expect when Ollie had texted her that her grandmother was dying, really dying now, not in the slow way she’d been before. She thought of the tiny frail lady in the wheelchair, of Ollie’s gaze full of worry and love as she watched her pick at her dinner. She reached out and took Ollie’s hand.

She didn’t let go as they passed the vegetable garden, the hen house, the dam, the vines, the trees. She felt conflicted. Was this okay, that she was here, holding Ollie’s hand like some kind of girlfriend? Was it the right thing for either one of them? Ollie had been so good at being present for her. Now she wanted to do the same for Ollie. And god, if Lara had learned anything new recently it was how damn good it felt for someone else to catch you when you were falling, if only for a moment. And so she held her hand anyway.

They reached the crest of the hill and sat down side-by-side to look over the valley in the afternoon sunlight. Ollie’s eyelids were swollen. It was clear she’d been crying but right now she looked calm, almost peaceful. She slipped an arm around Lara’s shoulders and Lara leaned in against her body. Goddamnit, this was nice. She hoped the warmth felt that way for Ollie too and by her small sigh it seemed that it did.

“It’s so cute that you were jealous of literally my grandmother’s nurse , ” Ollie said out of nowhere and Lara’s head jerked up .

“Oh I was not-”

“You looked like you were going to walk up and knee her in the guts,” Ollie grinned.

“That is pure invention on your part,” Lara told her. “We all know I’m world famous in Ribbonwood basically just for my resting bitch face.” Ollie looked entirely unrepentant as Lara kept trying. “I was checking her out actually,” she added, doubling down.

“Really?” Ollie cocked her head. “Hey quick question. How do you feel about threesomes?”

“Ollie, I swear to god if you touch that woman-”

Ollie burst into laughter.

“I knew it.” She squeezed Lara’s shoulders and Lara rolled her eyes.

“I’m not jealous,” she tried one more time to deny it. “I’m just entitled enough to tell you that since I only have you for another like, six weeks, that you do not have time to be sleeping with anybody else, even pretty redheads, are we clear? ”

“Oh, you’re entitled to me,” Ollie bit her lip. “I’m in full agreement on that.” Lara couldn’t take the sight of those neat white teeth sinking into that full lower lip another second so she kissed her. When Ollie drew back, her smile was soft. “Also, it’s not quite five weeks, just so you know. So you better keep some room in your schedule for me, Lara Bennett.” She paused. “You know. Sometime after my grandmother dies.”

Then she cried.

As Lara held onto her, a weird feeling grew in her chest. This was…this was nice. Lara had hugged plenty of crying women, it kind of came with the whole secret witch business thing, but this was something else altogether. To know that the woman who’d given her such comfort and care could also experience it from Lara? It made her feel like she was… good. Not good deeds good. Not helpful or practical or smart with a sneaky plan. Just deep down good, for Ollie Gabrielli to find solace in her, Lara Bennett of all people.

When Ollie straightened up, she pulled back, checked her pockets and coming up empty straight up tugged up her t-shirt to wipe her face. Lara watched, slightly gobsmacked. It should have been off-putting watching a grown woman wipe her nose on her shirt. It was perhaps a solidly concerning sign that the extended flash of athletic torso was enough to make her want to pull Ollie urgently down in the grass with her, despite every reason that would be absolutely the wrong move right now.

When Ollie met her eyes, she caught the look on Lara’s face and her mouth quirked sharply.

“Told you,” she said. “Foreplay.”