Page 102 of Doc Rock
Shaking herself, she plastered a smile on her face.“Let’s go.”
She hefted her backpack over her shoulder and grabbed her handbag.
Ford picked up the Esky, then held his hand out to her.“Give me the bag,”he demanded.
Mai shook her head.“No, I can carry it.”
Ford huffed.“I had a look out the window. The fence is taller than you. I’ll need to boost you over. It’ll be easier without the bag. I’ll pass it to you once you’re over.”
“Fine.”Mai rolled her eyes and handed over the bag. Faltering for a moment when she realisedit wasprobably the first time ever that a man had offered to help her with a bag since she left Ford.
“Should we let Steveknowthat we’re about to appear over his fence?”
“Steve? You’re on first-name terms?”Mai pulled her phone out of her pocket. He was right, she should let her neighbourknow.
“Yeah. We had a chat when I arrived. He told me a reporter had come over.”
Mai glanced up sharply from her phone screen.“And you didn’t lead with that information, for what reason?”
Ford shrugged.“In hindsight, I should have, but he told me that he’d sent them on their way. I didn’t realiseit wasonly the advanced party and that reinforcements were close behind.”
Mai rolled her eyes. Ford might be used to reporters following him around, but she would have appreciated the heads-up.
“Yup. Anyway, let’sgetout of here.”Mai finished her message to Steve and gestured for Ford to go out into the garden first.
It wasdark in her small backyard, and she turned on her phone’s flashlight. Ford strode across and crouched down by the fence, putting his hands together to make a step for her.
When she put her hand on his shoulder to steady herself, she flushed and was very gladit wasdark to hide her burning cheeks.
“Are you ready?”Ford asked.
“Yeah.”
With her confirmation, he boosted her up. Mai grabbed hold of the top of the fence and inelegantly pulled herself up and over into Steve’s garden, landing like a sack of potatoes in the old man’s flower bed. She cringed. He wasn’t going to be happy about her damaging his beloved flowers.
Ford’s hand appeared over the fence, thrusting her rucksack, then handbag and finally the Esky at her.
“Thanks.”She took the bags and got her phone back out, groaning when shesawthe mess she'd made of Steve’s plants.
“Shit,” she whispered.
This was going to be another trip to the garden centre with Steve.It wasso dull, as Steve tended to examine every single plant, telling her the Latin name and then the merits of each one.
Ford made getting over the fence look a lot easier than she had, and he didn’t land like a sack of potatoes and also didn’t trample any of Steve’s flowers. It looked like the garden centre was all on her, as she couldn’t claim Ford had done the damage and make him take the old man.
Steve’s back door was thrown open, and a cry came out of it.“I have a weapon.Getout of my garden!”
Ford was by her side, then in front of her, gently pushing her back to protect her, but Mai put a hand on his arm and stepped around him, stifling a giggle when shesawthe old man brandishing his stick at them.
“Steve, did yougetmy text?”Mai enquired. But she was pretty sure that he hadn’t.
“No. It’s past eight, and no civilised person calls at this hour. I switched my phone off.”
This time, Mai did giggle.“We’ve discussed this before. Eight is not late. And if you think someone has broken into your garden, you need to call the police, not claim you’ve got a weapon and then wave your stick at them.”
“Why are you two climbing into my back garden at this time of night anyway?”
That stopped Mai’s giggle instantly.“We’ve got a little problem.”
