The Mountain Girl Ch. 01

"Welcome home, she's um, in the kitchen. I'm staying for dinner."

Zoe was just putting a baking dish in the oven and she glanced over her shoulder at Heidi.

"You're just in time," she closed the door, "I thought I'd try meatballs and vegetables in cooking sauce, hope you're hungry."

"I am," she glanced at the laptop on the bench, "shit, shit, shit, I forgot to give you the password for the router."

"It's all right," she threaded the oven gloves around the oven handle, "I can do without broadband for a day, it's actually been quite peaceful but now you're here," she tapped a few keys on the laptop, "you can give it to me and I can download the recent logs from the server."

"I'll just change out of my uniform," she wrote down the user name and password on a piece of paper, "is there anything you need a hand with?"

"I'm done here, but you can get the cutlery and plates if you want."

She returned to her laptop as Heidi backed out.

Heidi changed into a tee shirt, flannelette shirt and jeans. This was certainly different, she'd already cooked the dinner in her mind by the time she was halfway home only to find her new housemate had beaten her to the punch. She glanced quickly at the other bedroom on the way back through but decided not to check it.

"So, you fancy a wine?"

"Yeah, a wine would go down well. I didn't want to touch your wine, it's a personal thing with some people."

"It's wine," she shrugged, "we share food here."

"My kind of woman," she winked at her, "oh, I left the money on the table through there."

"Thanks," she managed, "so, many emails?"

"They're log files, everything looks good from here though," she straightened up and stretched.

"So, let's eat."

It was one of the most enjoyable nights she'd had in months. Even when Raelene was there it was never like this, although there was history between Heidi and Peter. He didn't leave until eleven and at the front door he thanked her again for putting his cousin up.

"It's not a problem, it's going to work out."

"I might drop around during the week some time," he looked at her.

"Peter," she folded her arms, "despite what happened between us in the past you're still welcome here and besides, your cousin is here so you're doubly welcome."

"Okay," he nodded, "see ya round like a rissole."

"Likewise," she grinned.

She returned to the living room to find Zoe gathering up the empty cups and glasses.

"I'll give you a hand with them."

"Thanks, I've only got two hands."

It was only then that Heidi remembered Jodie as she filled the sink with water.

"Oh, Jodie dropped in at the counter today," she took out the dish washing liquid, "when I told her you'd moved in she invited us for dinner some time."

"Oh okay," she propped against another bench, "I'm kind of busy next week but perhaps a Saturday or Sunday."

"That's cool," she squirted the liquid into the sink.

"Yeah that's cool," she dug her hands into the pockets of her jeans, "and on now that we're on the subject I'm curious. What is the deal between you and my cousin? If it's not too personal."

"There is no deal," she replaced the cap, "we were dating for a couple of months about five years ago, I wanted more physical stuff but because of his Christian beliefs it never went anywhere but we're still friends."

"Well he's calmed down a bit from his holy roller days, I think that's age though. In his younger years he used to get on my goat now and then."

"You guys are pretty close though," she commented a minute later.

"Yeah we are," she picked up a glass Heidi had put in the drainer, "I'm gay and he's Christian and we have each other's backs. Peter has been coming around just about every weekend just to see how I'm getting on and when I was with Maggie he was there once a month. His dad is my uncle Kevin, and although he's my uncle he's still an arsehole of a man."

"I remember him saying something about trying not to be like his old man," Heidi frowned, "I didn't know much about him though because he never spoke much about it."

"Uncle Kevin was a long distance truckie," she put the glass on the other side of the drainer and picked up another one. "He used to do regular runs between Melbourne and Brisbane so he'd be gone for days at a time and we know he had a woman up in Brisbane and probably another between here and Brisbane," she finished drying the glass and picked up another one.

"He liked to put on the façade of being a likeable rogue but behind closed doors he was a violent bastard, I don't know how he treated his mistress but he certainly gave his wife, my auntie Ella a few hidings. Peter's way of coping was to take drugs but when he was sixteen he stumbled into a Christian coffee shop in Ringwood and his life turned around," she frowned.

"It didn't go well at home though. Having his oldest son turn into a bible basher was too much for uncle Kev. I used to stick up for Peter. He used to crash over at our place on the weekends just to keep away from uncle Kev's fists," she put the glass down and picked up a cup.

"In the end my mum just called the cops and had him charged. Uncle Kev got out on bail and came roaring into our drive ready to batter his sister in law and there was Peter, cool as a cucumber with a cricket bat in his hand and a strange smile on his face. His old man took one look at his son and got back in the car and pissed off."

She put the cup down and picked up another cup.

"Peter never forgot what we did and when I came out and started getting shit put on me by certain other members of our family he was the first one to jump to my defence. He doesn't agree with homosexuality but he agrees with my right to love whoever I want, blood is blood."

"I never knew that about his old man, he never spoke about it."

"Well don't take that personally," she replied, "I'm his cousin and he never told me much about it either, but that boy saw things no kid should ever see, and the fact he's managed to live a normal life is a bloody miracle."

"I wish I'd known that before," she put the last two cups in the drainer, "I've told him he'd better be here more often but I can't go down that road with him. I'm still working through stuff."

"Yeah, me too, a lot of stuff is still in bloody storage too."

"Well that's gotta be tough," she pulled the plug, "my stuff is all up in my head."

"I'm here if you need a sounding board," she replied, "a problem shared is a problem halved."

"I know," she wiped her hands on another towel, "I'm kind of curious but still not willing to dip my toes in the pool yet. I haven't gone out with a guy for yonks, and it's not like I'm looking for a woman I'm just at that point where I'm nearly thirty and I feel like I should be different somehow. More together, it's like the connection between my brain and my mouth isn't working, I may have a job as manager but this time last year I was a regional manager. I stepped down and took less money because I couldn't take the bloody pressure."

"Maybe you're in the wrong job."

"Sometimes I feel like I'm in the wrong life," she looked at her, "I'm glad you're here though, you bring security to the house."

"Thanks," she nudged her gently, "it's so nice being allowed into the kitchen again. My ex would never allow me into the kitchen. It was her zone and I had my zone," she smirked.

"It's your house too, equal shares in everything."

She headed off to bed shortly after that but Zoe stayed up to watch something on television and Heidi drifted off to sleep pretty quickly. She woke up with a start to hear a door closing before she realised it was Zoe and instead of being asleep for hours it had only been an hour. Zoe was in the next room and she heard the dull clunk as her belt buckle hit the floor and not long afterwards she heard the bedsprings squeaking bedsprings. She turned to the wall and tried to picture her naked and then winced.

Don't even go there with her, she chided herself.