Killer Ute by Rosanne Hawke Page A

bring a line down tomorrow night , I think.
    Mei and I surface within a circle of rocks, with the swell rising and slapping against them. We pull off our masks and snorkels. ‘This is magic,’ she whispers. She lifts her face up to mine. I love her upturned nose, the way her eyes crinkle when she smiles. I kiss the tip of her nose.
    That’s when we hear the growl. We jump apart in the water. ‘What was that?’ Mei’s eyes aren’t crinkly any more. I’m not sure what it can be; it’s almost dark so visibility isn’t the best. Mei and I wade over to the northern rocks. The sound had come from there.
    â€˜Be careful, Joel,’ Mei says and then sucks in her breath. ‘Wow. Look at that.’
    On the rock is a sea lion. Not fully grown either. It doesn’t slide away as we edge closer, so something’s wrong. I stop. ‘It’s injured, I reckon.’
    â€˜What’ll we do? Report it?’
    â€˜How can we? We’re meant to be hiding.’ Worry makes me sharp with Mei but I don’t want to be. I put my arm around her. ‘We should ask Felicity – she’ll know.’
    I leave Mei watching the sea lion and race back to get Felicity. She isn’t in her tent. I hear the murmur of voices and see her silhouette in the tent I share with Dev. I stop for a second, breathing fast – what’s she doing in our tent? When I walk through the flap, Dev has his arm around her shoulders and she’s blowing her nose. It looks real cosy and I can see my future dissolving like white froth on breakers. I’m getting better at not shouting or losing it but my face must be showing how annoyed I am because Dev frowns and drops his arm. ‘Something wrong, mate?’ he asks.
    â€˜Yeah.’ I manage to resist the urge to say Felicity being in our tent is wrong.
    Mei cuts in; she’s followed me up. ‘Down on the rocks . . .’ she’s puffing, ‘. . . there’s a hurt sea lion.’ She looks at Felicity. ‘Do you know what to do?’
    Felicity nods. Whatever they were doing – kissing, I expect – she’s over it and standing up. Her eyes look a bit red but I can’t afford any sympathy for Felicity. If Dev falls in love with her, he’ll leave Gran and me. Felicity won’t want to live with us; she’d never leave her home.
    â€˜Show me,’ Felicity says and Mei takes her hand.
    The sea lion pup is still on the rock. Felicity takes off her shoes and wades in with us. It growls but doesn’t move when Felicity comes close. Turns out the sea lion’s flipper is damaged. ‘Maybe he was in a fight or got caught in a net,’ Felicity murmurs. ‘A family of them visits the coast here. This might be one of the pups. He’s probably only eight months old.’
    â€˜Should I feed him?’ I say. That’s something I can do at least.
    Felicity looks at me with her eyebrows raised, like how am I going to do that?
    â€˜I can drop in a line, catch a few.’
    She thinks before she answers. ‘That would be great, Joel. Normally we shouldn’t feed a sea lion – they come out of the water for a reason and go back when they’re healthy, but right now he can’t swim well enough to feed.’ She turns back to the sea lion. ‘I think his flipper will get better by itself as long as he can keep his strength up.’ Felicity smiles and it slips right into my middle. Sometimes I wish she wasn’t so nice. It’s hard to keep my guard up. I leave Mei with Felicity and rush up to get my fishing gear. Dev’s outside the tent. ‘You okay, mate?’
    â€˜Sure, the sea lion will be fine.’
    He considers me a bit longer, then he says, ‘Felice is okay, mate. Give her a chance.’
    I stiffen. Felice. ‘Sure.’ I know Felicity is okay but hearing Dev use Max’s nickname for her is like the end of our life together. How can