Page 80 of Coming Home to Wishington Bay
* * *
‘Oh wow.’
‘Not bad, eh? When you do a job, you do it well.’
‘What’s your mum going to say?’ My voice had risen about three pitches as I stared at him.
‘Mum and Dad will, I guarantee, laugh their arses off.’
‘Really?’ I stared at him, entirely unconvinced. The slight red bump he’d had on his nose had morphed overnight into two deeply purple black eyes. ‘Oh, Gabe,’ I whispered. ‘I … what are you going to do about work?’
‘What do you mean?’
‘You can’t go in looking like that, surely?’
‘I have to.’
I put a hand across my eyes, but the next moment, Gabe gently took it away. ‘Stop worrying. I work with kids. They’re going to get the biggest kick out of being told their big, manly doctor got rugby-tackled by his tiny girlfriend.’
I opened my mouth to say something.
‘Sorry. Fake girlfriend. But hopefully you’ll understand if I leave that bit out, just in case my parents get chatting to any of my colleagues.’
‘That wasn’t what I was going to say actually.’
‘It wasn’t?’ Gabe asked, looking more surprised than I’d expect him to.
‘No. I was merely going to point out five foot four is not tiny.’
‘It looks tiny from up here.’
‘Oh … shoosh. Now what’s this big surprise? Or did you know that was going to happen and that’s my surprise?’
‘No. I’d hoped to avoid this but never mind, and did you just shoosh me?’
‘I did. So where is it?’
Laughing he took my hand and began leading me around the front of the house.
* * *
‘Ready?’ Gabe’s large, warm hands were over my eyes and Bryan was standing on his back legs, resting on my shin.
‘Yes!’
He took his hands away and there in front of me was a dark blue, average-looking estate car.
‘You sold the bike?’
‘Christ, no.’
‘But you bought a car?’
‘If I was going to buy a car, I’d want something as pretty as yours. This is just hired.’
‘OK.’ I looked at him, laughing. ‘I’m confused.’
Smiling, but saying nothing else, he opened the passenger door and motioned for me, and Bryan, to get in.
