Read Online The Goodbye Ride by Lily Malone - Free Book Online Page B

interested, aren’t
we, Mark?” Aunt Margaret had a big voice for a woman whose feet didn’t touch
the floor.
    Mark held his palm up and called to Owen:
“Mum will want to do a reading next, see what Olivia’s shine lines say.”
    Margaret slapped at Mark’s moon boot with
her Soduku book.
    “Thanks to you carrying on about Vanessa
being my girlfriend this arvo, I was lucky Liv even let me in her door.”
    “Ah. Sorry ’bout that, mate.” Mark didn’t
look sorry at all.
    Aunt Margaret, playing peacemaker, changed
the subject. “So how is Granddad? Is Nance coming up to see him?”
    Owen shrugged. “Mum said if she came up
every time a nurse said Granddad had a turn, she’d be up and down from
Mount Gambier like a yo-yo. You know how she is.”
    Even when he’d had to come up to Adelaide
for the mediation session with the Parker family, Grace Carson cited the
four-hour drive as two hours too far. His father hadn’t come either. Mack
Carson didn’t think Owen had anything to apologise for. You shoulda hit the
little shit harder. Broke the other elbow. Make sure as hell he never got up.
    “At least she’s consistent,” Margaret said,
with a twist to her lip. “Least with my big sister you always know where you
stand. I’ll go in to see him tomorrow morning. I rang a few hours ago and they
said he’s settled now.”
    “Did Granddad like the bike?” Mark asked.
    “It was too late by the time I got there. I
can show him the Duke when he’s feeling better.”
    “Not if you sell it to your little bit of
fluff and go spend another season humping polar bears in the snow.”
    “Polar bears live in the Arctic, genius,”
Owen said.
    “Penguins then.”
    Owen picked his glove out of his helmet and
threw it at his cousin.
    “Steady on you two. You’ll break
something.” Aunt Margaret crossed her legs in the chair, yoga style.
    Owen knew that look. His aunt had something
weighing on her mind and it was about to be unloaded.
    “So the two of you got a lot done today,
Owen?”
    “I guess so. Liv has one of those
electronic pruners and she knows her way round with it.”
    “And you’re sure she doesn’t expect
me to pay her for her time?”
    Mark interjected: “She is getting
paid for her time, Mum. Owen’s giving her the bike, remember?”
    “Not giving it. She’s buying it,” Owen
said.
    “For fifteen hundred bucks less than you
paid.”
    “I don’t want people thinking I’m taking
advantage,” his aunt said.
    “You’re not the one they’ll think is taking
advantage,” Mark said, already ducking for cover.
    Owen threw the second leather glove harder
and had the satisfaction of seeing it whack Mark in the back of the head.
“Dickhead.”
    He pushed off the door frame and strode
down the hall.
    “Owen?” Aunt Margaret called after him.
    He stopped. “Yeah?”
    “That human resource fellow from the
employment agency rang again.”
    “Do I have to call him back?”
    “He said to tell you he needs an answer.
They don’t have many places left.”
    “Okay. Ta.”
    He was sweating. Right now, a dose of ice
and snow would feel good; Arctic, Antarctic, or otherwise. Owen dumped his
jacket in the spare bedroom, stripped off his jeans, and headed for the shower.
    Under the water, questions filled his head.
    Am I taking advantage of Olivia?
    He ruled that out pretty quick.
    Should I do another season at Wilson?
    That was harder to answer.
    Last year the Parker family wanted him out
of Mount Gambier. They said their son didn’t need to be reminded of the past
every time he saw Owen at the supermarket, in the pub, or crossing the street.
    “Jayden wants to turn a new leaf,” Mrs
Parker promised Owen at mediation, clutching a cup of black tea so forcefully,
the skin under her arms trembled.
    “He’s a good kid. He never meant to hurt
Old Pop Carson—he was tripping out. He’d been hanging out with the wrong
crowd…”
    Owen turned and let water rain on his back.
He’d heard all those