Page 68 of Jump Start

Checking the time on my phone, I realised it was the early hours of the morning. I silently crawled over Thomas to open the screen and rolled out of the swag.

The sound of cracking bones greeted me as I straightened up, indicating that I was not made for that type of mattress. I couldn’t help but smile, though. It was fun.

My eyes caught the reflection of the sun rising over the pool, another beautiful morning.

Crisp, green, and lovely. Trudging off to our bedroom to have a hot shower and go back to bed—a real bed—I felt a sense of gratefulness. For myself, for Thomas. Grateful that I was assigned the story on him, that we fell in love, and certainly grateful that I ended up working at Echidna Racing. My life was changed forever in the best way possible.

The hot water fell on my sore shoulders and calmed my muscles, the sound of the water hitting the tiles at my feet was music to my ears. I couldn’t wait to fall back into bed and sleep away the rest of the day, hopefully, at some point, with Thomas by my side. What else were holidays for?

***

One non-eventful night a few days later, as I was walking through our closet, trying to decide if I wanted to get into my pyjamas or not, Thomas appeared, leaning on the door frame.

“Let’s go for a drive tonight,” he said, looking me up and down as I started to put a hoodie over the top of my bra.

“Umm…I guess? Where did you have in mind?” I stopped getting changed into my comfies in case I needed to put some actual clothes on.

“Let’s do the city.” His eyes were wide with excitement.

“That’s like an hour’s drive?”

“Did you have something more pressing on?”

“No, it’s a Friday night?”

“Why are you answering everything with a question?”

“I don’t know?”

“Fantastic, now get changed and let me take both my girls out.” He turned around and walked out of our closet.

I heard him collect his keys and walk out to the garage, no doubt to start his ‘baby.’ I had to admit, it had been a while since we last went out in his Monaro, and I really enjoyed it now. It was loud and fun, two things I was apparently into. Usually, Thomas would warm the car up for a while, so I took my time slowly turning lights in the house off, leaving the outside and hallway on for when we got home later.

I locked the front door and made my way to the garage, where the car was already out. Thomas was sitting in the driver’s seat, one leg hanging out of the car, writing in his logbook.

I paused for a moment to watch him. His brows furrowed together, the slight curl on the top of his head from finally growing his hair out a little, and my favourite part of his face, his freckles that were spotted across his cheeks and nose.

He looked up, caught my eyes, and smiled.

“Come on then!” he said, waving me towards the car.

I was looking forward to doing something so seemingly normal with him, even if a car was still involved. It was just for us and no one else.

I walked to the passenger side and hopped in. He leaned over and kissed me briefly on the lips.

“Love you,” he said as he shut his door and fastened his seat belt.

“Love you too.”

Thirty-three

Thomas

Having Harper living with me felt surreal. She had come in and made my house feel more like a home than ever before, something I was never quite able to do. A few girlfriends had tried to make it feel less like a bachelor pad, but Harper made it somewhere cosy for us both.

As we rolled down the driveway in my baby, the little solar lights lining the road were sparkling. I noticed a smile on Harper’s face as we exited our property.

I hoped that she was happy here, and with me.

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