The Patterson Girls

by Rachael Johns

  ‘Remember that time you lost your pocket money and couldn’t afford our after-school snack?’ Mitch asked, obviously thinking along similar lines.

  ‘Uh huh.’ She cringed, her cheeks flaring in embarrassment. ‘I cried because you’d be able to buy a Giant Twin and I wouldn’t.’ In her defence, she’d only been eight years old.

  ‘It worked though. I gave you half of mine,’ he said, his tone amused. ‘You do realise I wouldn’t share one of these—’ he held up what was left of his ice-cream ‘—with just anyone.’

  She swallowed her mouthful, loving the way the cold creamy sugar melted on her tongue. ‘You are a true friend, Mitch McDonald.’

  ‘And don’t you forget it.’ He screwed up the wrapper of his Giant Twin and held his hand out for hers. ‘I’ll go put these in the bin. Do you need to visit the conveniences before we get going again?’

  ‘Good idea.’ Handing him her wrapper, Charlie opened the ute’s door, finishing her final mouthful as she climbed out. Truth was she could eat another but if she did, she’d probably feel sick. She didn’t want to ruin a good thing. After freshening up in the less than fresh bathroom of the service station, she headed back to the ute to find Mitch leaning against the bonnet, basking in the mid-afternoon sun. His square jaw, roughened with dark stubble, glinted in the sunlight and he looked utterly gorgeous but she pushed aside the curl of heat that flickered in her belly. Most of the time she simply thought of Mitch as her oldest and closest friend, a bit like the brother she never had, but every once in a while she felt things she didn’t want to feel. Things that would complicate and potentially jeopardise her most important friendship. She probably just needed to find someone temporary to scratch her itch.

  She cleared her throat as she approached the ute. ‘Want me to drive for a bit?’

  He turned and raised his thick, dark eyebrows at her. ‘I don’t let just anyone drive my machine.’

  She snorted, darted forward and ripped the keys from his hand before he realised what she was doing. ‘Lucky I’m not just anyone then.’ Swinging said keys on her index finger, she walked around and climbed into the ute.

  Mitch chuckled but didn’t put up a fight, instead swaggering round to the passenger’s door and sliding in beside her. Charlie drove the next stint past Stirling, Hahndorf, Mount Barker and Murray Bridge and, although she assured him she could be trusted on the roads with his much-loved Ford F Truck and that he could get some rest too if he needed, he didn’t nod off once. Instead he kept her amused with anecdotes of his daredevil niece and nephews, whom he obviously adored, and she couldn’t help but think that one day he’d make an awesome dad.

  Of course to become one he needed a woman in his life. ‘Are you seeing anyone at the moment?’ she blurted, suddenly thinking that perhaps she should have checked this before accepting his offer to drive her across the country. Not that she planned on doing anything untoward, but women could be funny about their boyfriends spending time alone with other women. Lara Coates had taught her that much.

  ‘Nah.’ He shook his head as she glanced over. ‘The old dating thing is getting boring. You buy someone a drink, spend an evening making awkward conversation over dinner in the hope something will spark between you. Even if the spark is there, it never seems to last longer than a few months. I don’t know … Maybe I’m ready to settle down but—’

  ‘The right woman hasn’t come along yet?’

  He shrugged. ‘Something like that. Maybe I’m too fussy, or maybe the dating pool in Meadow Brook is too small, but I don’t want to go anywhere else. What about you? Anyone special back in Melbs?’

  ‘Nope.’ She didn’t mind being single but her lady bits hadn’t been exercised in quite some time and that was a little depressing. ‘Maybe we need to take drastic measures. Try something like online speed-dating.’

  ‘That’s a thing?’

  She laughed. ‘Probably. Interested?’

  ‘Hell no, it sounds worse than the in-person equivalent. I tried that once with a mate in Adelaide. It was the longest hour of my life. Besides, if I want to be set up, I only have to ask Mrs Willis at the Post Office.’

  Charlie made a face. ‘Isn’t she a little old for you? You don’t strike me as the toy boy type.’

  Mitch laughed so hard Charlie worried he might choke. Finally, when his hysterics had subsided, he rubbed his eyes and said, ‘She’s always offering to set me up with her daughter.’

  ‘Didn’t her daughter have a sex change?’

  ‘Yep. But Mrs Willis refuses to acknowledge it.’

  That set them both off and Charlie had to slow the vehicle a little until she got her laughter under control. Man, it felt good hanging out with Mitch. He was so easy to be with and she never laughed as much in anyone else’s company. He entertained her with more stories of potential set-ups and disastrous dates until they arrived at a truck stop just past Murray Bridge. She was quite happy to hold onto the wheel a little longer but Mitch insisted she pull over and let him drive.

  ‘You’re not a bad driver for a chick,’ he said, ‘but I’ll take it from here.’

  She glared and thumped him on the side of his arm. He feigned pain and she rolled her eyes, knowing he wasn’t a chauvinist in the slightest. He just liked to drive. When they took off again, Mitch chomped on some homemade chocolate cookies and Charlie snacked on grapes and strawberries. Conversation flowed with old memories and new stories so that the time passed quickly on the uninspiring stretch of road between Murray Bridge and Bordertown where Mitch pulled into the car park of the local pub.

  After locking his ute, they headed inside. Charlie was about to introduce herself to the middle-aged woman behind the counter and ask if they had any available rooms for the night, but Mitch spoke first. ‘Hi there. I’ve got a room booked under McDonald.’

  The woman looked down at a book on the desk. ‘There you are. Twin beds?’

  When Mitch nodded, she grabbed a key from a wall of hooks behind her and handed it to him. ‘Do you have a credit card to pay for the booking?’

  Charlie didn’t know Mitch had booked a room ahead of time and while she appreciated the effort, no way would she let him foot the bill.

  ‘I’m paying,’ she said, whipping her purse out of her shoulder bag. She was quick but so was Mitch—their credit cards landed on the counter with a harmonised thwack. The receptionist laughed.

  ‘In my day, we happily let the boys pay,’ she told Charlie, obviously assuming they were together.

  ‘Please.’ Charlie looked to Mitch. ‘I want to pay. You’ve already done so much.’

  ‘All right,’ he relented, ‘but only if you promise to let me shout dinner.’

  ‘Deal,’ she said, knowing that wherever they ate, the vegetarian option (if there was one) was often the cheapest thing on the menu.

  ‘We have a new chef and everyone in town is raving about him. Shall I reserve you a table?’ the woman asked as she swiped Charlie’s card through her machine.

  Charlie looked to Mitch and they had a quick conversation with their eyes. ‘Sounds good,’ they agreed.

  The woman gave them directions to their room, which they found to be clean and exactly what they needed for an overnight break. As the room was small with only the twin beds and minimal extra entertainment, they headed straight downstairs to the restaurant. Mitch ordered the beef and reef and Charlie a spinach and ricotta pasta, both of which they washed down with a few cold beers. Unlike the dates they’d recounted in the car, dinner wasn’t awkward at all.

  Charlie didn’t feel the need to force conversation because they both knew this wasn’t a precursor to sex or a relationship. This was an easy night between two old friends who knew each other as well, if not better, than they knew themselves. Although he professed to be so full he could burst, Mitch ordered dessert and Charlie stole the odd spoonful of his apple crumble when he pretended not to look. It was the most enjoyable night she’d had in a long while and despite agreeing they needed to turn in early
, they somehow stayed up playing cards until the small hours of the morning.

  When the alarm on Mitch’s phone beeped at 7.00 am, Charlie groaned. She wasn’t ready to wake up but it was another five and a half hours drive to Melbourne and she had a lot to get done in a short period of time once they arrived.

  Mitch, seemingly not at all affected by lack of sleep, laughed and sprang from his bed opposite Charlie’s. He was wearing nothing but a pair of black shorts and Charlie felt her body temperature skyrocket at the sight of him. She almost didn’t hear when he said, ‘I’ll take the first shower.’

  He took the few steps to the bathroom and the door clunked shut behind him. Seconds later Charlie heard water running. Images of Mitch—naked under the hot shards—flashed into her mind. She shook her head, bamboozled by the unexpected attack of lust that had hit her at the sight of his bare skin—the second of its kind in as many days. Not good. It wasn’t like she hadn’t seen him naked before. They’d skinny-dipped on the beach at Victor Harbor with a bunch of mates during Schoolies and had played strip poker with the same friends on another drunken occasion.

  But both those times were almost a decade ago and Mitch had matured into a man since then. A tall, broad-shouldered man with a nice smattering of dark hair across a tanned torso that arrowed down to … No. Stop!

  Overcome by these alien and unwelcome thoughts, Charlie threw back the sheet and leapt out of bed, throwing herself into the task of repacking the few things she’d used since they’d been here. The last thing she needed right now with the craziness of her dad and the motel was to complicate her life even more. And besides, even if she did feel something more than friendship for Mitch, even if he didn’t laugh in her face if she confessed—and these were both very big ifs—her stay in Meadow Brook was temporary.

  She loved Melbourne, had friends there, loved her seventies style flat in Brunswick, the different people she interacted with in her various jobs and their liberal ways of thinking. In contrast, Mitch loved Meadow Brook, where everyone knew everyone else’s business and if anyone dared to think a little out of the box they became the fodder for the gossipmongers at the post office.

  Mitch was traditional in many of the ways Charlie was not. He needed a woman who wanted to settle down, get married and have a family. While Charlie wasn’t opposed to the idea of children, she didn’t see the need for a piece of paper to prove two people’s love and commitment to each other. And then there was the food thing. His love affair with junk food would drive her insane if she had to live with it on a regular basis.

  No, she and Mitch were much better off being friends. In her experience, boyfriends and girlfriends came and went, but friends lasted forever. Her hormones would just have to get back in their box. No way would she ever jeopardise what they had for a quick roll in the hay. Likely it was stress, fatigue and maybe the few too many beers she’d had last night messing with her.

  ‘Damn, that was a good shower.’ Mitch emerged from the bathroom, rubbing a towel over his wet hair but thankfully now fully dressed in faded jeans, thongs and a t-shirt that exclaimed ‘Hug a Truckie Today’.

  Charlie raised an eyebrow and pointed to his chest. ‘That t-shirt work for you?’

  Mitch winked. ‘Now that would be telling.’

  Resisting the urge to pry, she picked up her wash bag and a change of clothes and headed into the shower, trying not to think about the fact that Mitch had been in the same spot only a few minutes earlier. But it didn’t work. Annoyed with herself, she turned the tap to cold, blasted her mischievous libido into submission and then got out.

  ‘That was speedy,’ Mitch said when she stepped, fully dressed, back into the bedroom. He was sitting on his bed, leaning back against the wall and playing some game on his phone.

  ‘I’ve got a lot to do once we get to Melbourne. Didn’t want to waste any time.’ To accentuate this point, she dumped her stuff back in her bag and then zipped it up. ‘You ready to hit the road?’

  ‘I was born ready.’ He grinned, stood up and slipped his phone into his pocket.

  Stopping only briefly to deposit their key in the box at reception, they headed outside to the ute. Charlie’s stomach rumbled and at the exact same moment Mitch suggested, ‘Shall we stop somewhere and grab some brekkie?’

  ‘I’m in support of that plan,’ she said, clicking her seatbelt into place.

  They stopped at a little café on the main street of Bordertown and sat down long enough to refuel—Mitch with bacon and eggs and Charlie with avocado on toast. They’d long ago ceased commenting on each other’s eating habits.

  ‘You look stressed,’ Mitch observed.

  ‘No shit, Sherlock,’ she said and then immediately regretted snapping. It wasn’t his fault her mind had gone on some weird bender.

  ‘What can I do to help?’ he asked and her heart melted.

  As if he wasn’t already doing enough. She shook her head and pushed aside the plate of food she’d been unable to finish. ‘I’m sorry. I’m just feeling a little overwhelmed at all I have to achieve the next couple of days.’

  She thought perhaps her annoyance with her sisters was starting to garner strength and as they weren’t here, she was taking it out on Mitch.

  ‘All we have to achieve.’ He reached out and placed his hand on top of hers and as warmth rushed through her at his touch, she wondered why some smart woman hadn’t snapped him up. He was hot, hardworking, funny, smart and had the kindest, most generous heart of anyone she knew.

  Before she said anything more, he took back his hand, retrieved his phone from his pocket and placed it in front of him. ‘Why don’t we make a checklist?’ he suggested, opening his notes app. ‘You hit me with everything that needs to be done before we leave Melbourne and I’ll get it all down.’

  Charlie swallowed, so grateful he was here to help her stay sane. ‘Well, I need to call my landlord and see what we can do about my lease. Maybe help her find a new tenant. I need to go see Dave at the café. I already called to resign and he was so understanding, but I want to go say thanks in person. Then there’s packing my stuff. I’ll need to get some boxes from somewhere. Redirect my mail … ‘

  Mitch’s long fingers flew over his phone screen, keeping up with her jumpy train of thought. And when she finally ran out of tasks, she felt a lot better.

  ‘Maybe you should make the phone calls during the next leg of our journey,’ he suggested as he downed the last dregs of his coffee, which thanks to her were probably now cold.

  ‘You know you’re not just a pretty face, Mitch McDonald.’ She smiled as she pushed back her chair. ‘Ready to hit the road?’

  ‘You betcha.’ They left the café and before they’d driven out of Bordertown, Charlie was on the phone to her landlord.

  They drove through Horsham and on to Ballarat, stopping only in Beaufort to use the public conveniences and raid Lucinda’s container of snacks. By the time Mitch parallel parked out the front of the old warehouse that contained her apartment, she felt as if everything she needed to achieve between now and when they drove back to Meadow Brook was doable.

  ‘Shall I go hunt down some lunch?’ Mitch asked as she let them into her apartment and immediately crossed the room to pull back the curtains and open a window. Having been shut up for five days it felt a little stuffy.

  ‘Do you think about anything but your stomach?’ she asked, turning back to look at him.

  He shrugged as if to ask, ‘What else is there?’ so she rolled her eyes and pointed to a pile of takeaway brochures on her hall side table. They were mostly from organic health food joints and likely wouldn’t offer enough meat or grease for Mitch’s liking, but she could do her bit to try and save his arteries. He walked over and flicked through them and she headed into the kitchen to put on the kettle.

  Mitch might need food but Charlie was in dire need of a soothing cup of tea. She’d retrieved her favourite cat mug and was rifling through her collection of herbal blends when Mitch entered the kitchen, a fro
wn on face and some A4 papers in his hands.

  ‘Says here you’re starting a course in February?’

  Damn, another call she’d have to make. That cancellation had totally slipped her mind. ‘Oh, I was,’ she said, selecting a bag of Jasmine green tea.

  Mitch stalked across the room and slammed the papers down on the bench beside her. She jumped.

  ‘Do your sisters know about this?’ he asked, firing another question before she had the chance to answer. ‘Do they know what you’re giving up to come home?’

  She swallowed. ‘I’m not giving up anything. I haven’t started yet. You can’t give up something you haven’t started. And besides, I’m postponing it. Dad won’t need me forever.’

  Disappointment flitted across Mitch’s face. ‘You should have told them. They walk all over you and you let them.’

  ‘I don’t!’

  He gave her a reproving look. ‘Did anyone else volunteer to move back to Meadow Brook? No, they just expected that you would. Did you put up a fight?’

  Charlie clenched her jaw. Mitch had no right to jump down her throat like this. ‘I’d decided to come home before any of them even mentioned it. I want to be there for Dad. I consider it a privilege.’ And that was true, she’d just have preferred it if her sisters had asked rather than assumed.

  ‘I’m sorry. I’m not angry at you. You’re doing a good thing, but they should know what you’re sacrificing.’ Mitch huffed out a breath and ran a hand through his scruffy dark hair.

  ‘No. I don’t want them to.’ Her plan had been to have her diploma certificate in her hand before she ever mentioned it to anyone. That way if she couldn’t handle the workload, no one would ever need to know she’d failed. Besides, it wasn’t like any of her sisters would rate a diploma in naturopathy. Her eyes prickled with ridiculous tears.

  Of course Mitch noticed. He reached out and grabbed her hand. Again a jolt of something hot and raw shot through to her core. ‘Hey, it’s okay. I promise I won’t say anything.’ Then he smiled. ‘But well done, I’m proud of you.’