Aussie Rules

Chapter 16

The day was busy. Mel couldn’t believe it but planes came in and out, they fueled up, and Danny had all the work he could want.

At the end of her shift, she and Dimi together looked at the schedule on the computer, and smiled tiredly.

“Like old times,” Dimi said. “The advertising you’ve done has helped.”

Some of Mel’s smile faded at that, and she slowly shook her head. “It’s not the advertising, Dimi.”

Dimi’s smile faded, too. “Yes, it is.”

“No. It’s Bo. He’s brought in customers. He’s got contacts we don’t, and connections. He’s doing for the airport what Sally used to do with such ease.”

Give it life.

She’d tried like hell, but the truth was, all she wanted to do was fly. This day-to-day managing, the handling of the employees, being the end all to everyone, the peacemaker, the mom, the shrink…She’d never really even admitted it to herself, but it was getting old. “He’s done all this. We should acknowledge that.”

“Bite your tongue.”

“It’s true. And…It’s a good thing. No matter what we think of him, he’s better at this than I am.”

“No, he’s not! No one’s better than you-”

“No. And I just hope he’s enjoying it so he keeps at it rather than selling.”

Dimi stared at her, eyes bright. “Listen, I’ve got to get out of here.”

Of course she did. She didn’t want to talk about this. “Hot date?” Mel asked.

“Nah. I’m tired of hot dates.”

Mel laughed.

“I’m serious,” she said, and because she actually did sound serious, Mel studied her more closely.

Dimi was dressed today in snug Bermuda shorts and a lace tank top, with a denim jacket open over the ensemble. She looked pretty, but not her usual over-the-top sexy, something Mel should have picked up on earlier. “What’s wrong?”

“Can’t a woman just be bored with men?”

“Well, you’d think.”

Dimi sighed. “I’ve dated four guys this week and every single one of them had a major flaw.”

“Such as they’re penis-carrying humans?”

“You’re too young to be so cynical.”

“It’s not cynicism, it’s realism,” Mel insisted. “Men are fun but they’re not everything.”

“And planes are?”

Mel winced.

“Sorry,” Dimi said quietly. “I didn’t mean-”

“It’s okay.” Mel shut down the computer. “Listen, why don’t we do something tonight-”

“You on babysitting duty?”

“Come on, you know you have a tendency to self-destruct when you get stressed-”

“I’m not stressed.”

“We’re both stressed.”

“Okay, I’m stressed,” Dimi admitted. “But not self-destructing.”

Mel met Dimi’s gaze and found nothing assuring. “Dimi-”

“Look, you want me less stressed? Get Bo Black the hell out of here. Make things go back to the way they were.”

“Which is what exactly?”

“Easy.”

“Honey, nothing about this life has ever been easy.”

“Then tell me why the hell we’re doing it.”

Mel shook her head. “Because we’ve always loved it.”

“You mean because you’ve always loved it.”

Mel absorbed that unexpected punch. “Wow,” she said, sitting back.

“Damn.” Dimi shook her head. “Clearly I need to go to a corner and have a time out.” She grabbed her purse. “On second thought, I think my bed, alone, will work wonders.”

Mel grabbed Dimi’s hand. She loved Dimi, she loved her with all her heart, she loved all of them, but she couldn’t go on doing this, keeping secrets, walking on eggshells, wondering when it was all going to come crashing down on her. “I’m going to tell him, Deem. I’m going to tell Bo the truth.”

Dimi stared at Mel.

“I’m going to tell him we don’t know where Sally is. That we’ve never known.”

“Why?”

“I can’t hide it anymore.”

“You’ve been stronger than steel all these years, what’s changed?”

“He’s been honest. I want to do the same.”

“It’s too late for honesty, it was too late from the moment all those years ago when we decided to take over and run this place in Sally’s name. I mean, my God, Mel, you’re going to hand over our power, our very livelihood, and all for what? A hard cock?”

Mel slowly stood up. “That’s not exactly fair.”

“Really? Why not?”

“Because first of all, I’m not sleeping with him.”

“But you want to be.”

Damn it, that was true enough. “And second of all,” she said, ignoring that because she wasn’t quite ready to face it. “And this is the biggie. He has the deed. He has a right to know everything.”

Dimi let out a rough sound that perfectly conveyed her opinion on that. “Eddie forced Sally to give it up.”

“Maybe. But Sally won’t call me back, so we don’t know that.”

“Oh, my God. He put his hands on you, and now you believe everything he says, you believe him over Sally.”

“Sally hasn’t said a word! Don’t you get it? We’re on our own! We’ve always been on our own!”

“You’re not on your own, you’re with Bo.”

“Dimi.”

“No.” Dimi moved to the door. “I don’t want to talk about this.”

“He brought me some bank statements,” Mel called out to her. “Early statements from North Beach.”

Dimi turned back.

“They show how much money Sally had over a period of five years, starting the year before Bo and Eddie came to town.”

“So? Sally was broke.”

“See, that’s the thing.” Mel didn’t know how to do this gently. “She wasn’t broke. She had a million dollars in the bank when she vanished.”

Dimi’s mouth fell open. “What the hell? We’ve never had anywhere close to that much money. We never had any money at all.”

“I know,” Mel said grimly. “But it’s there in black and white.”

“Oh, my God.”

“I’m going to find out what’s going on, and to do that, I’m going to ask Bo to help me-”

“Mel-”

“He brought me the information, Dimi. He didn’t have to do that.”

Dimi was shaking her head. “I’m against this. His motive in coming here was to hurt us.”

“Sally, maybe. Not us.”

“Same thing.”

“Why did she have all that money, Deem? She let us think she didn’t have any-”

“Are you listening to yourself doubt her? You are truly on his side in this!”

“No, I-”

Dimi pointed at her. “When you get home tonight, look in the mirror. Because I swear to you, it’s all over your face.”

“Dimi-”

Dimi shook her head. “I can’t do this with you, not now.” And she walked out.

Mel let out a breath and checked her e-mail before closing down. She was still going over the conversation with Dimi in her mind so the unexpected e-mail hit her like a blow to the belly, from You’reNotLeavingItAlone.