Page 101 of Doc Rock
“I…”Mai stuttered again, and a wave of panic washed over her. Her heart began to race, and her breathing sped up.“I…”Shit, she had done so much therapy to help her in situations like this, and now she was speechless. Panic rolled up her body, a panic that she couldn’t control.
Her mind spiralled, and she was frozen to the spot.
A warm hand landed on her shoulder and squeezed it reassuringly.
“Hi, guys. Good toseeyou again, Josh,”Ford addressed the reporter whose questions had been flung at her.“I didn’tknowyou ever left Sydney. I thought you were a city boy, through and through.”
Ford spoke to them with such ease, not letting the situation faze him. It gave her time to utilise the techniques her therapist had taught her to deal with her panic attacks. She used his touch to ground herself and pulled her whirling thoughts back into line, slowing her breathing and letting her heart settle.
“I go where the story is. Youknowme, I’ve got a nose for a story,”the reporter said with a laugh.
“You really do.”Ford chuckled along with him.
To most people,it wouldseem that Ford was being friendly, but there was tension in his hand where it touched Mai, and shecouldstill read his voice andhearthe slight bite to it.
“What’s your statement then? Is this Sie?”
“Josh. It’s eight in the evening. We’re about to have dinner. How about we continue this chat at a more civilised time?”Again, Ford’s tone was very reasonable, but Maicouldhearthe irritation.
“Nah, mate. This is a big story.”Josh gestured over his shoulder at the other reporters behind him, all trying to take pictures of Ford and Mai.“We’ll talk now.”
Mai finally found her voice.“No, we won’t. Ford already told you we were about to have dinner. My front porch is private property, and I would kindly ask you all to remove yourselves from my property.”
Josh laughed at her.“I don’t think so, sweetheart.”
And that was it, her fear vanished, replaced by simmering anger.How dare he laugh at her and call her sweetheart?She had worked too hard to be patronised by smug arseholes like the one standing in front of her.
She was very aware of the cameras all pointing at her andknewshe couldn’t give them ammunition, so instead she stepped back into Ford’s warm body, smiled sweetly, and said,“The law disagrees with you.”Then she closed the door.
Mai sagged when the door separated her and Ford from the reporters, but the wood was thin, and shecouldstillhearthem shouting questions at her.
“Fuck,”she muttered and leaned further onto Ford. His arm snaked around her waist to support her, and Mai remembered who she was leaning on. She debated pulling away, but stuff it, she didn’t want to.
“Are you okay?”His voice growled so close to her ear that goosebumps rose on her skin everywhere his breath touched.
“Yeah. I knew it was coming. I didn’t quite expect that. But I did know it was coming.”
“What do you want to do?”
Mai wanted to turn in his arms and press her lips to his, but instead she said,“Let’s eat dinner. Then we can work out a plan.”She should step away from him. She shouldn’t be standing, breathing him in toseeif thesmellof him, that she still remembered so clearly, was the same.
Reluctantly, she slid out of his grip and was slightly disappointed when he didn’t object. Leading the way back to the kitchen, she cursed. Shecouldstillhearthe noise of the reporters calling for her outside. She couldn’t eat and listen to them yelling at her.
“Right. We need to plan an escape.”She grabbed a couple of glass Tupperware containers from the cupboard above her sink.“The Esky is in the cupboard by the door.”Mai pointed for Ford to go andgetit.
“We’re taking a picnic out through the reporters?”
“Nope.”Mai already had a plan that didn’t involve having to give an official statement tonight.“We’re going over my backfence into Steve’s garden. He’s got a car, but he never drives it. I’m the only one who ever does as he insists we take it when we run his errands. We’ll borrow it.”
“Won’t they see us when we get in the car?”
Mai thought about it for a moment, then a broad grin split her face.“Yeah. But we bung a couple of hoodies on with the hood up and tie cushions to our middles so we look huge.”
Ford snorted with laughter.“Brilliant. Totally insane as well. But I love it!”
They quickly packed up the food, then Mai dashed upstairs to grab an overnight bag of clothes, as she wouldn’t be able to come back to her house tonight. She would have to go and stay at Creekside Lodge. She shuddered at the thought, as the hotel didn’t have the best reputation.
When she walked back downstairs, her breath caught toseeFord sitting at her dining room table, waiting for her.It wassuch a domestic scene that it made her grieve for the years they’d lost, where theycouldhave been doing this.
