Page 71 of The Reality of Us
Owen chose that moment to poke his head out of the office’s rear door. “What’s with the truck? It’s blocking the driveway.”
“There’s an issue with my delivery.” Alice tried to keep it together, but her voice wobbled. She blinked furiously. How could she have been so stupid?
“Chin up, Al.” Teddy looped an arm around her shoulders. “These things happen. Any other day, I’d happily skip uni, but I can’t miss this morning.” He was lying about skipping university, but Alice appreciated Teddy’s attempt to brighten her spirits.
“Here.” Owen pulled his keys out of his pocket and lobbed them to Teddy. “Take the Jeep. I’m parked out front. I’ll swap them this afternoon.”
Teddy squeezed Alice’s shoulder. “See. You can always count on Owen to save the day.”
Great. She didn’t want him to even see her messes. Having him help her clean it up was too much.
The final pallet hit the gravel.
“Sign here,” the delivery man said, thrusting a clipboard at her. She scrawled a barely legible version of her signature.
“I’m so sorry, Teddy. I hope you’re not late,” she said as he passed his keys to Owen.
“Don’t stress.” He waved before disappearing inside the office.
Once Teddy was out of sight, Owen crossed the car park to stand next to her. “You okay?” he asked softly, his hand settling into the small of her back.
Alice nodded twice before her face crumpled. Her voice broke. “I ordered too many candle jars and put down the wrong address.”
So, help her God if he called her honey right now, she’d go to pieces.
“That’s all candle jars?”
“I’m such an idiot,” Alice muttered. She doubted he’d even heard her over the rumble of the truck’s engine as it started.
Owen’s hand slipped to her hip, and she leant into him automatically, but the clean scent of his aftershave was immediately swallowed up by the fumes from the truck’s exhaust.
“Call Mum and ask if you can borrow her van for the shop. We’ll load as many of these into it as we can and take them to the shearers’ shed this afternoon. I should be back around three o’clock. And I’ve got a few hours before footy training. What doesn’t fit can go into my storeroom until we can ferry them across.”
Alice swiped at her eyes. He made it sound so simple. “But what am I going to do with them all? It’ll take me forever to sell these.” She didn’t have enough supplies to make a third of these candles.
Owen spun around, wrapping her up in his arms. Alice wanted to collapse against him, but her body was stiff. All her old wounds were reopening. She’d been waiting for something to go wrong. And a mistake like this had the power to undo all her good work.
“It’ll be okay,” he said. “We can sort it out.”
She knew he didn’t mean it that way—the way that implied she couldn’t fix it by herself, the way so many people had said it to her over the years—but Alice couldn’t stop the words from escaping. “We don’t have to do anything, Owen. I’ll fix it.”
She heard the office door bang open, and Owen’s body tensed. Alice pushed away from him, putting some distance between them. Still, it hurt when he frowned at her, so she turned around and stared at the bugs stuck in the grill of Teddy’s ute.
“Owen?” Frankie called, curiosity heavy in her voice. “Jessica’s here and so is Camille. What’s all this?”
Alice held her breath. Great. Not only was Frankie getting a front-row seat to this train crash but now Owen’s ex was back. Again.
“I’ll be there in a minute, Frankie.”
“I put a fresh coffee on your desk, and there are some of those all-bran muffins you like in the kitchen if you’re hungry. Should I call someone about this?” Frankie asked.
Alice buried her face in her hands. When she was little, and she’d play hide and seek with Dougie, she’d believed if she couldn’t see him, he couldn’t see her.
“No need, Frankie.” Owen’s tone was firm, definitive.
“It’s no problem. You know I’d do anything to help my favourite boss. I could ring my brother …” Her flirty tone rankled Alice. But really, what claim did she have to Owen? She wasn’t even able to tell him about her ever-increasing feelings for him, let alone everyone else.
Frankie’s voice was louder; she must’ve stepped around the pallets. “Oh, sorry! I didn’t realise you were out here with Alice.” All the flirtiness was gone, replaced with something Alice recognised immediately: jealousy.
