Night Prowler

Chapter 31

Reece still hadn't spoken to Tracey about what he intended on telling her. He did end up staying the night, sharing the bed with her; but that was it. He had kissed her forehead, but there was no other type of 'kisses'. By the time the morning had rolled in, Reece was gone and Tracey had woken up to an empty bed. Again, she had Luke's entire house to herself, and she was bored out of her brains. She attempted to go on the iPad, but it had a passcode which Luke had forgotten to tell her about. So that idea was useless, and she couldn't do anything until he came home from work. So as she wandered around the house, bored; Tracey contemplated about going out and doing something. She thought about going down and having a look at the shops, but then thought there was no point. If she needed something or wanted to get something, she couldn't. She then thought about going and seeing Dale, since she had a fair idea where he lived. But she also knew that Powelltown was a bit of a walk from Yarra Junction. Easily a couple of hours walk. That was incredibly annoying, because that meant she was stuck in the house.

After finding things she could do in Luke's house, such as putting on washing, her own clothes and Luke's and emptying the dishwasher, Tracey came across a note on the bench that was hidden under Luke's car keys. She didn't notice it there all morning. Picking the note out from under the keys, she read what was written:

Trace, feel free to use the ute. I'll see you when I get home.

Tracey adored Luke's generosity. She really appreciated that he had offered her his ute to drive, but she was a little hesitant to drive it. For one, she didn't have a license on her, and it wasn't her car to drive. But as the time ticked by, ever so slowly; the idea bothered her more and more. Until she gave in and grabbed his car keys and locked his house up, before getting into the driver's seat of Luke's Ford Ranger Raptor. Closing the door and pulling on her seat belt; Tracey had to adjust Luke's seat slightly, as she felt like she was miles away from the steering wheel. Then when she felt like she was comfortable, she looked at Luke's keys to see that he did not have an actual 'key' to start his ute. Frowning, she looked around the steering wheel to see if she could find the key slot, instead she found a button start. She had never driven a car that was button start and it already felt foreign to her. Was she fond of it, not entirely. It took her a few minutes to work out how to start the engine, but when she did – realising she had to put her foot on the brake and push the button once. Once that was going, she adjusted the mirrors so she could see and then she looked at the head unit of the ute; seeing that it had a google maps option. Clicking it, she viewed where she was situated and what street she was on, then she worked out how she would get back onto the main road and head to Dale's. That took a couple of minutes and then Tracey was off.

The ute was incredibly easy to drive and very smooth on the road, compared to her little yaris. But the ute also had an automatic transmission, compared to manual, what Tracey was used to. She didn't particularly like that it was an auto, nor did she like that it beeped and carried on over the lines on the road, or braked automatically when another car was in front of her. Those 'senses', she thought were annoying and slightly dangerous. But overall, the ute was nice to drive.

Getting to Dale's about twenty minutes later, Tracey took it easy down his gravel driveway and stopped by the house. While she was taking her seatbelt off, she noticed that Dale was coming up behind the vehicle with a suspicious look on his face. Pocketing Luke's keys, she opened the door and hopped out. Closing the door, she turned to face Dale, whose expression changed dramatically.

"Hey Dale." She greeted him with a smile.

"Blue Eyes!" Dale grinned. "Thought you were Reid for a bit!" He chuckled.

"Yeah, I saw that look on your face." Tracey simply looked up at Dale, seeing how he was looking back at her. He looked pleased to see her.

"I was actually gonna pop by and see you, thought you might be bored shitless on your own." Dale tugged his packet of cigarettes and pulled out a single one. Slotting it into his mouth, he then snatched his lighter and lit it up.