‘You like?’
‘Definitely, that one is perfect. I even like it with your boots,’ he commented.
Jaz hiked up the hem and showed them off. She felt giddy at the look in his eyes. There was heat simmering in the deep depths before he blinked it away and said quickly, ‘Come on, grab that one and let’s get going. I’ve had more than my quota of dresses.’
Jaz almost squealed with delight, almost. With a smile she went and got changed. After paying for the dress, she looped her hand through Ryan’s arm. ‘Not a bad day’s recon, and a dress and a jacket for our troubles.’
Ryan looked across at her and raised that funny eyebrow. ‘Yeah, it wasn’t too painful.’
‘Thanks Ryan, today was great,’ she said meaningfully. ‘Can we do this again tomorrow?’ she asked.
‘Not on your life!’ he laughed.
Chapter 18
At eleven o’clock that night, Jaz jumped out of bed and stuffed it with pillows. She threw a jumper on over her singlet and stepped into her warm Ugg boots, tucking in her black pyjama pants. Quietly she opened her window and crawled out onto the small roof below it. She left the window open just a fraction before walking carefully to the garage roof that met with the house. After scaling across the garage, she climbed down the lattice on the other side, dodging the rose bush at the bottom. Many times she’d had to get Anna to pick thorns buried into her hands, legs or backside after a failed escape.
She crept through the front of her neighbour’s yard to Anna’s house. Being only a house away was another reason they’d been friends since they were babies. The Johnsons had a bigger property and in their front yard were two big lilac trees amongst the landscaped gardens. Anna’s dad had always wanted a tree house as a little boy and even though they only had Anna, he still had one built. The girls had loved it; it had become their place and at least once a week they would sneak out at night and catch up in the tree house.
Jaz slid through the small front hedge, to the base of the biggest tree and climbed up the small wooden pegs stuck in its trunk.
‘Howdy, howdy neighbour. Was just lighting the burner,’ said Anna. She was in the corner of the square wooden tree house, next to the window that overlooked the whole street. Jaz crawled in and over to the other corner and sat on a pillow. Yes, they’d put a few creature comforts in here over the years, along with some goods. Once it was matches and cigarettes they’d stolen, when they went through a ‘trying to smoke’ stage, but now their possessions were a gas burner, a couple of sticks and a large packet of marshmallows, two pairs of binoculars and a portable DVD player with a small collection of their favourite movies. Jaz threw a sleeping bag over her legs to keep out the chill. Anna was already rugged up in her pink fluffy dressing gown.
This place had always been their haven, a place they were alone to talk or just watch a movie together during the week. Most times, it would be two o’clock before they’d creep back to their rooms, their bellies full of gooey marshmallows.
‘Here, check this out,’ said Anna as she passed a pair of binoculars over. ‘Looks like Mr Cooper is on the couch again. Do you think Mrs Cooper finally found out he’d been stopping three doors up for a little after work fun?’
‘Ha, quite possible.’ Jaz put the binoculars down, picked up her roasting stick, and poked on two marshmallows before putting them above the flame on the burner.
‘Mum’s taking me shopping tomorrow for a ball dress, do you wanna come with us and get yours?’ said Anna, pulling the outer cooked shell of her marshmallow off and popping it into her mouth.
‘Oh, I’ve already got mine,’ Jaz said and then realised she’d have to lie to her best friend.
Anna scoffed. ‘When!’
‘Today. I left the gym cos Bags was there and went for a look-see and found the coolest silver and blue dress.’ Jaz was rather scared at how easily the lie came out. If she took on the life of an agent, lying would be a huge part of the job.
‘No fair. You should have taken me! Now I’m going to have my mum trying to convince me to go for some virginal white dress that covers me from neck to toe.’
Jaz laughed and nearly choked on her marshmallow.
‘Sorry, do you want me to come with you anyway? I can pick out the really short slutty ones so your mum might come back to a half normal dress.’
‘Nah, don’t worry about it. Mum’s got dentist appointments for both of us. I’d hate you to have to sit through them and then have us spit all over you when we try to talk with numb lips.’ Anna put a pink marshmallow on her stick and then eyeballed Jaz. ‘Hey, what is it with that jumper? You must like it — you’re wearing it a lot.’