‘I don’t wear this all the time!’ Jaz said defensively.
‘Jaz, I’ve seen you in it four times in the last week. Normally you wear your black one.’
‘Well this one is nice and big and warm, is that okay?’ said Jaz, lifting up the grey hoodie over her head as if to show its warmth. The jumper was always at the end of her bed and it was just the first one she picked up. That’s all, she told herself. It had nothing to do with Ryan. It didn’t even smell like him anymore.
‘Oooh, touchy,’ said Anna as she turned off the burner. Five marshmallows was their usual limit. ‘So shall we watch a movie? The battery is fully charged; or you wanna talk and do the neighbourhood watch?’
Anna liked to call it that instead of spying. When they were fourteen they saw an unknown van pull into Mr Cooper’s place while he was on holidays. It looked suss, so Anna called the police on her mobile and they watched as the police arrived and caught the burglars carrying out the big plasma TV. Ever since then Anna feels vindicated for the spying they did. Really, it was quite entertaining. Ryan’s words of ‘don’t just look…see’ came to her. This was sort of like that. They noticed when things were different or unusual in their street. Like the time they caught Jessica, a fifteen-year-old who lives across the street, sneaking out of her house and getting into her boyfriend’s ute. They’d also seen Mrs Bovell sculling liquid from a bottle when her husband wasn’t looking. They soon found out that she was at sent to a rehab clinic for alcohol addiction.
Anna reckoned it was their own fault. If people wanted stuff private, they should shut their blinds at night.
Either way it had given them plenty of entertainment over the years.
‘How about we watch a movie. What shall we have tonight?’ Jaz asked.
Anna flipped through the collection in the DVD folder. ‘Sweet Home Alabama? The Ugly Truth? Avatar?’
‘How about SALT?’
‘Okey dokey, SALT it is.’ While Anna put the disc in the player, Jaz stretched her legs out under the sleeping bag and propped herself up against the wall of the tree house. Anna brought over her pillow for their backs and snuggled under the sleeping bag before putting the player on their legs.
‘Lights please?’
Anna reached up and drew a curtain across their window so the streetlights wouldn’t shine in and their light wouldn’t shine out.
‘Cool, I love the action in this movie.’
Jaz nodded and wondered if she could pick up spy tips from the movie. She figured they had to base it on something, who’s to say it wouldn’t work in real life. As the movie played out, Jaz found her mind wandering to Ryan and their day in the city, and by the end of the movie she’d accumulated another stream of questions for him. What other weapons has he used? Has he killed anyone? Or seen someone die? How many agents were there in Australia? God, so many questions. But she figured a lot of them she wouldn’t get answers for until she was sworn in as an agent. She was thinking about this stuff an awful lot lately. Did that mean that she wanted to do it? Jaz searched her mind, hoping for an answer, but nothing came to her. She just wasn’t sure.
Chapter 19
‘Are you ready for me, Thomas?’
‘Bring it on, Fletcher!’
Jaz moved, shifting her weight from left to right, trying to pre-empt his attack.
‘No holding back today,’ she said. ‘I’m not injured anymore.’
‘Alright, just remember you asked for it.’ Ryan smiled like the devil.
‘Just not my face, okay. I have a ball coming up. I don’t need to be looking like the bride of Frankenstein.’
‘Got it, no head shots…or groin shots for that matter,’ Ryan added.
Jaz laughed and threw a punch, trying to catch him off guard.
‘Oooh, she’s quick today. Someone came to win!’
‘I always come to win.’ Jaz laughed as she narrowly missed taking a hit to her stomach. Damn that was close. Pay attention, Thomas, she scolded herself. It didn’t help that Ryan had taken his shirt of to fight. It was hard enough to concentrate without his perfect chest and arms on display. Ryan’s fist got her in the stomach, wind exploding from mouth with the force. Jaz could handle the pain, just not the humiliation. Concentrate, she scolded herself.
They’d been ducking and diving, punching and attacking with such force that after ten minutes Jaz was sweating so much she stripped off her shirt down to her small crop top. Hell, if he can fight shirtless so could she…well, nearly shirtless. Her dad’s necklace hung just above her breasts.
She saw his eyes flick to her chest and used this distraction to kick his feet out from under him. He landed with a thud on the mat and she quickly jumped on top to hold him down. ‘That’s a trick you taught me, distract and hit. Did you like it?’