Predominantly Concerned with Sex

About that time two beefy looking blokes arrive and pull Janey off.

"The cops came and well, she was trying to blue the bouncers by then." Melissa laughs. "I think they were a bit worried."

"That Kerry thing wanted to press charges. Would you even credit it?" Sadie says, "I showed the police my phone when they were locking missy up. They were going to charge Jane with assault, but they convinced Kerry that she'd end up on sexual assault and domestic violence charges. All a spot of bother, really but that's our Miss Jane."

"So, she just walked away?" I ask incredulously. "Kerry just walked away. After grabbing my Janey and... that's fucked up."

"She fucking limped." A grumpy looking thing that vaguely resembles Janey says behind me. "Missing some hair and covered in bruises. Get me coffee and you all shut-up."

She straddles me and tucks her head on my shoulders and her arms around me and slumps on me like a needy toddler.

"Should we tell him why we had to come home, meany pants?" Sadie laughs and ruffles Janey's hair as she stands.

"You should make me a damn coffee and shut-up you pommy prick."

"Heather Jane," Mary warns as she tries not to laugh.

"Hahaha. I neeeeed my Robert." Melissa mimics a crying baby. "I want my Robby."

"Wouldn't stop crying the big babby." Sadie plonked a coffee down in front of us for her. "Oh Robby, where's my Robby? Blerrcck in the gutter."

"I hate you all."

"Here, bub." Mary hands her some pills and a glass of Berocca.

"Do you still love me, Robert? I didn't want her to touch me. I wasn't..." Then Janey crashes against me and sobs and shivers and the girls and her Mum give us some space.

"I wasn't trying to get with her. You have to believe me. She wanted to apologise and I thought what's the harm and then... We were just dancing. Please trust me." She manages to get out in wrenched mouthfuls. "She hurt me, too. Touched me down... That's yours. Mine and yours. No-one..."

"Shh..." I tell her over and over until she's cried it all away.

"Do you need a doctor, darlin?" I ask her heavy head on my shoulder. I wish she'd look at me.

"Nope."

"Do you hurt anywhere?"

"A little. Not enough for doctors. My head hurts where she punched me. My... bits are ok. Just... I don't want to talk now. So damn embarrassed and then I made the girls... God, I am just not even talking to myself right now. Such a damn drama queen."

"Get some coffee into you. Have a shower. Trust me on the shower. T hen when you're a bit fresher and with it, we'll go for a walk in the rose garden hey?"

"I love you."

"I know, Janey. I love you too."

Sweet rose scent wafts on the hot afternoon breeze as we hold hands and wander through the garden. Mostly she's been silent since she emerged from the shower looking and smelling like a human again. Her eyes still weren't rising quite to mine and that hurt me a little for her. She'd steal a glance at my eyes now and then as if testing to see if my words and emotions matched up.

"Do you trust me, Robert?" She eventually asks timidly.

"Implicitly, sweet Jane."

"Even after last night."

"Especially after last night. I feel a bit sorry for anyone who tries it on in the future. Kinda glad you weren't hold anything sharp."

"Haha, dickhead."

"Ooh. It laughs."

"I love you."

"You mentioned that."

"Are we ok?"

"Hmmm..." I tease.

"What?" She stops and finally holds my eyes. "What, please what?"

"So, I have three questions." We've reached the little iron garden seat from months ago. T he one where we first made love.

"Anything, Robert. Just ask me. I promise I..." Her lip is quivering and I feel like a heel.

"Firstly, exactly 'what' is a swamp donkey?"

"Haw! You... I'll..." She laughs and her wild eyes threaten violence.

"Seriously, though. What's a swamp donkey. I've never-"

"A bush pig. A scrubber. An ugly girl."

"Oh... Okay then. Although... If I'm going to be honest, Kerry wasn't an ugly woman. I admire your taste in women. Well... their appearances at least."

"Hmmph." She bops me with her shoulder and a smile twists on her face. "Only on the outside, Robert."

"And... Um... Exactly how many is a metric shit-ton? Just thinking logistics... you know..."

"Oh, I'm gonna... Hmmph... Well, technically a shit-ton is two or three, but I said 'fuck-ton' so we'll just have to see." She blushes and pushes me back against the seat until my knees give and she straddles me smiling. "You remember?"

"Very well. Why do you think I suggested here?"

"Oh, you're bad. That's two questions. You said three." She eyed me sideways, "Spit it out, funny man."

"Can I kiss it better for you, sweet Janey?"

"Kiss what? Oh my... Oh..."

A few minutes later with her legs clapping like retarded seal against my ears, I was fairly certain she'd put the silly incident behind her. The girls, Sadie and Mel were still sleeping when her parents and us sat down for dinner that night. It was simple stuff. Glen had slow cooked a stew over some coals in a camp oven for us all.

After dinner, I helped Mary with her March taxes and Glen and Janey played bad country music and drank beer downstairs. When we were done, Janey practically begged Glen to take us both out chasing pigs and by three in the morning when we dropped two small boars and a particularly nasty hundred kilo dressed sow off at the cold box Janey was back to her herself.

She fell asleep on me in the cab and Glen and I spoke of cotton crops and diesel toys and life was good. We smelled of blood and sweat and life. We smelled of mud and guts and family.

We fumbled tiredly in the shower; playfully but practically and collapsed into her bed. Where she tucked her tired pretty head against my chest and told me, "Home now. Again, for good soon."

~* *~

I'd only told Mary about my money. A long time ago I'd been saving to buy a house and with nothing to spend money on, my thirteen thousand cotton cheque joined the sixty I'd saved. Then Glen and Mary never let me pay for anything except my own groceries and entertainment while I drove scrapers for them. So now it sits around ninety thousand.

And that's without the business's income.

When I told Mary I could afford to start my own business, she asked me privately to let Glen feel good about helping . So, I did.

"Where are you going, dickhead?" Janey laughed at me as I turned onto Victoria street, heading toward Roma and not toward Cunnamulla.

"I just wanted to show you something." Our reunion at the airport had been really teary. We'd caught up only once in the month since that Kerry thing and it was so good to touch each other again.

"Are you kidnapping me, mister? There's supposed to be lollies or at least a puppy."

"Trust me, darlin?"

"Most of the time... Well not in the bedroom but... Oops- wrong hole again."

"Clown. Shh... It's a little surprise."

Just out of town I turned into the driveway and she looked suspiciously sideways at me. "I've missed you but we're not doing it on the riverbank."

"What is this place?" She asked as the lowset modern brick place came into view.

"Home."

"Fuck off."

"Seriously." I parked on the circular drive near the front door and handed her a set of keys. "Welcome home, Janey."

"Fucking how? You're kidding me? Ours? God Robert, it's gorgeous." It looked like she couldn't decide whether to punch me, kiss me or go exploring.

It turned out that she did all three.

"Oh, my fucking God. Mum? Dad?" Her parents are down on the little deck near the boat ramp. Glen is cooking barbecue and Mary is photographing birds.

"Come here, arsehole." Public displays of affection are frequent but don't involve hundred-year-old rose gardens all the time anymore. Janey pulls me into a toe-curler of a kiss. "How can we fucking afford this? I don't even have work yet."

"Oh..." Mary waved her excitement away. "Did he ever tell you he had a house deposit saved up?"

"No." She frowned and searched my face for answers. "Did you?"

Mary laughs at Janey's confusion. "Ninety-eight thousand dollars. That dusty looking scraper driver that moped about the place. Who'd have thought? And the business is going well for him. Hired a receptionist and has an office in town now. Still mobile, but another accountant as well."

"So, we 'can' afford this?" Janey nods at me.

"Oh, I wouldn't worry about that." Glen laughs. The rest of the house was a wedding present from your mum and me.

"What the fuck?" She turns around to find me kneeling with two gifts held out for her. A rose bush and a little ring box.

"Heather Janey Bowen, would you like to start your own rose garden with me?"

"Get up here, dickhead. I never want you on your knees. Oh, except maybe for... I'll show you later."

~* *~

"Your Mum would be proud of you, Bobby." Dad wiped a tear away and hugged me briefly before taking his place beside Andrew and Charley. The old Ford rumbled to a stop near the cast iron gates and a princess opened the door.

She looked like every Disney movie except for her work boots. Alongside her Melissa and Sadie smiled at me down the long path through the rose garden. Family and friends stood among the roses that were full with spring buds and sparse new blooms.

My vision tunnelled until all that existed for me was her smiling brown eyes and those bow tie lips. The celebrant said things. We said things and people laughed when we realised we had to stop holding hands desperately to exchange rings.

"It all seems like so very long ago now but I can picture it all so clearly still, baby."

"I bet you were pretty Mumma."

"Pfff... Like a big puffy toilet roll doll." Janey laughs beside us on the tailgate. "There's one."

"Where."

"Up over the house see..." Janey points at a satellite sliding brightly through the starry sky.

"I see it! I can see it! Um... fourteen."

"Well, it's bath time Nelly."

"Aw Mumma." She grumps and holds her arms up to be picked up. "How come Daddy gets to stay?"

"I'm just gonna feed the dogs, baby. Just you and me tonight. Mumma's got night shift. Reckon we should stay up late and watch Paw Patrol?"

"You two!" Janey shakes her head as she carries Nelly inside. "Bed before nine! That's an order."

"Yes Nurse."

"I mean it, Robert. Or I'll take your temperature the old fashioned way, mister."

I watch the stars a moment or two longer and wonder if Mum ever found Nelly and how much the pair of them had to do with the winding road that brought me to this moment. I owe a lot of who I am now to both of them.

But not as much as I owe Janey for giving me someone to try to deserve.

I'm still trying.

~* *~