"Second date," Ollie reminded her, and grinned. "And no, I've never done it before. I'll let you know how it turns out."
Tiffany wheezed again. "You do that, yeah. Good grief. Right, I'm finishing my dinner now." She turned her attention to the burger, and tried to calm the wild fluttering of her heart. "You were, uh, you were telling me about the cousins?"
"Four of them. All as big as bears. Steve's almost the runt of the litter."
"Steve? Steve that I met today? Steve who could be mistaken for a wall if he held still for a minute? That Steve?"
"That Steve," Ollie agreed. "There's Bill, he's the oldest, and Jon and Laurie. And me, of course. The odd man out."
"You don't seem so odd to me," Tiffany said with a loyalty born from the same impulse that had nearly convinced her to agree to an impromptu marriage. "I'm the only child of only children, so it's just me out here in the wind all alone."
"How'd you get into construction work?" Ollie sounded like he was really curious, not just being polite.
"I always liked moving dirt around." Tiffany laughed at herself, but it was true. "I was a Tonka kid. Do you have Tonka in Australia?"
"Everywhere has Tonka," Ollie said with a nod.
"Right, so imagine me, six years old and about eighteen inches tall?—"
Ollie laughed out loud, leaving Tiffany grinning at him. "Okay, I wasn'tthatsmall, but I was pretty little. Even for a little kid. There was construction going on in the street and I was out in the yard copying everything the big machinery was doing. One of the scoop drivers got my Mom to let me drive my toy dump truck out to them, and he filled its bed with a big pile of dirt from the site. Imagine—for real—thishugescoop—" She spreadher arms, encompassing a full-sized scoop's dimensions, then shrank her hands down to indicate the size of her toy truck, "s—filling a truck this size, and me, like genuinely just this big?—"
Another gesture indicated she'd been maybe three and a half feet tall. She could still remember her awe, watching the delicacy the driver had worked with. "I fell in love with it completely right then. The next day the dozer driver let me and Mom get up into the cab so I could drive it for a minute. They'd totally have lost their job for doing that, these days. Honestly, they probably would have then, too, if anybody in charge had noticed. But it thrilled tiny Tiffany right down to her tiny toes. It was all I ever wanted to do since. By high school I was working part time for a local company, and I got a business degree and did an apprenticeship and boy I'm just talking a lot, aren't I?"
"Keep talking." Ollie's eyes were shining. He'd finished his salad and had put his arms on the table, leaning toward her a little as she spoke, like he didn't want to miss a single word. "Really. Please, keep going. It's fascinating. My idea of adventure as a kid was doing academic decathlon."
"Really? I literally only got a degree because it made it easier to start my own business. I'd have been happy never going to school again."
"And here I am, a bonafide nerd. Honestly, though, I'm serious, the idea of driving one of those things terrifies me. I'm genuinely in awe."
"Well, the idea of having to make all the numbers line up for a jillion different businesses terrifiesme, so I guess we're even. Look," Tiffany said with a regretful glance toward the time, "I'm going to have to be up with the sunrise to get that gazebo put back together tomorrow, so I really should probably pay up and head to bed. But I've had a strangely great day, so thank you for that."
Ollie laughed. "Strangely great, huh? I'll take it. Tell you what, text me your team's coffee needs and I'll deliver at tea time."
Tiffany's eyebrows rose. "I don't have your number."
He beamed. "I'm so glad you asked. I didn't want to be weird and just offer it."
She stared a moment, then threw her head back and laughed out loud. It took two more real bursts of laughter before she finally managed to contain herself enough to say, "Oh, that wassmooth. Oh my God. Yeah, okay, give me your number. Wow.Wow."
He actually had to get a piece of paper out of his wallet to give her the number, mumbling an apologetic, "It's a temporary American phone, I don't actuallyknowthe number," while she kept chortling and put it in her phone. They had a brief disagreement over who would pay for dinner until he reminded her that during the afternoon lemonade incident, she'd agreed to him paying next time, and Tiffany, still laughing, went to bed a lot happier than she'd have expected at the start of the day.
CHAPTER 10
The family group chat, which Ollie hadn't looked at all day, wasablazewith messages when he finally thought to glance at it on his way to bed. Most of it was panic, reassurance, and more panic over the state of the gazebo, and while he was sure texting late at night would set the whole thing on fire again, he sent a defiant,Tiffany will take care of the gazebo. Don't worry about it,to the group, and went to bed.
Come morning, there were an awful lot of 'oooh, TIFFANY will take care of it, oh, well, if TIFFANY is going to take care of it then I guess it's FINE' kinds of responses, followed bywho's tiffanyandwhy's Ollie on a first name basis with the construction crewandif she doesn't take care of it there's gonna be aproblem, the last of which made Ollie's koala growl ferociously.
And despite it being a six kilo, eighty centimeter herbivore with little more than a bad attitude going for it, the growl was pretty alarming. Ollie, trying not to overreact, textedchill, you lot,to the group chat.Tiffany's got it covered.
You've got a lot of confidence in a woman whose construction company made this mess,his cousin Bill wrote.
Lemme at him,Ollie's koala said, and Ollie, taking some deep breaths through his nose, told himself he wasn't tempted.
But you are!the koala said.You are, or you wouldn't tell yourself you weren't! Lemme at him! Lemme at him!
Aloud, because there was no one to hear him, Ollie murmured, "He's agrizzly, mate. He'd swat you into the next state."
Not if I get my teeth into him first!The koala gnashed and brandished its teeth, growling even louder inside Ollie's head as Ollie, trying to stay calm, texted the group chat withFirst off, it wasn't Eric's fault. The poor bastard got stung by a bee and went into anaphylactic shock. Second, Tiffanywillget it fixed. And I need you lot to stop laying into her.
