The Girl in Steel-Capped Boots (24 page)

‘Sorry, love. Just couldn’t resist.’

The endearment distracted Lena for a moment because it was so out of character. But in a second the moment was gone. Carl was up on his feet again, dragging Fish by the scruff of the neck back to the engine. After a bit more rummaging, he announced that he was going under and laid down on the side of the road beneath the car. When he finally emerged again, his shirt was covered in oil.

‘Er, think I’ve worked out what the problem is. The fuckin’ roo stuck its head in our radiator. Looks like we can’t fix it.’

Lena looked heavenwards. ‘You don’t say.’

Carl ignored her sarcasm, stood up and whipped a mobile phone from his pocket. ‘Better ring Mike; he might be able to come pick us up.’

Lena was so angry she saw spots. ‘You had that thing this whole time and you didn’t tell us!’

He blinked at her. ‘We didn’t need the mobile before. Fish and I were fixing the engine.’

A number of rude responses hovered on the tip of her tongue; only the fact that he was her boss held them there. As she calmed down, Carl got busy on his mobile.

She never thought that one day she’d be grateful to Mike or that she’d ever value his intelligence above Carl’s. But it looked like she was going to be wrong on both counts. She listened hopefully to Carl’s end of the conversation and was pleased to note that Mike was agreeing to come get them. In fact, the conversation seemed to be going quite smoothly until Carl went and ruined it.

‘Oh and just one more thing, Mike. Can you bring a carton? The boys have drunk all the piss and the Esky –’ He broke off and pulled the phone from his ear to look at it. ‘He fuckin’ hung up.’

‘He better still be coming, Carl,’ Lena warned. ‘’Cause if he’s not . . .’

‘He’s fired, that’s what he is,’ Carl finished for her, putting his phone back in his pocket. ‘Fancy hanging up on your boss, little prick.’

Lena sent up another prayer that Mike would come but without the carton. After that, there was nothing they could do but wait and hope it wasn’t in vain. They lapsed into a companionable silence that was broken once or twice by Fish trying to crack a funny joke or two to keep them amused.

Eventually, Lena heard the faint sound of a car approaching. She stood up and went to the roadside. There were headlights in the distance. Someone was definitely coming. Regardless of whether it was Mike or not, she had already decided to flag them down.

Radar and Leg remained in the van but the rest of the group stood on the side of the road, jumping up and down and waving their arms. The ute didn’t hesitate in pulling over beside them. It was Mike after all.

When he exited the vehicle, however, his expression was thunderous. A second later Lena found out why. The front passenger door opened. Blind drunk and waving a glass of bourbon in one hand, Gavin staggered out. She slapped a palm to her head.

‘You’ve got to be kidding me. Gav?’

‘I was in the bar when Carl called and he was there.’ Mike glared at Lena. ‘The dropkick insisted on coming. Short of knocking him out, couldn’t leave without him.’

‘You needed me,’ Gavin slurred. He stretched his arms wide, sloshing a bit of his whisky on the dirt. ‘They all need me.’

Oh brother.

‘Did you bring the carton?’ Carl demanded.

‘No.’ Gavin stumbled, almost dropping his glass. ‘Didn’t know you wanted one. But it doesn’t matter. I’m going to do you one better than that.’ He looked at Sharon and flicked his chin as though to say, ‘You’ll wish you hadn’t rejected me when you see this.’ He swung his arm at the mini-van, sweeping the entire vehicle with this unsteady but all-encompassing gesture. ‘I’m going to fix that engine for you.’

Sharon and Lena immediately barred his path. ‘No way!’

As it turned out, Mike had to do about three trips with his ute to get them all back to Karratha Resort. He also called a tow truck to get what was left of the van back there too. Lena thought he was about as furious as she had been half an hour earlier by the end of it. The difference was his rage wasn’t directed at the group but at only one person.

Her.

How the ruination of his entire evening was completely her fault was beyond her. Like she could have predicted they’d hit a kangaroo and get stranded on the side of the road. Hell,
if she had been able to do that, she would have cancelled the whole event before it even started.

By the time they got back to the hotel, it was two-thirty am and they were exhausted. The reward was well worth the pain though. Sharon and Lena were both looking forward to spending a night, company paid, in the most luxurious hotel in town. The modern decor, the shiny bathrooms, the scented towels. As soon as they entered their room, Lena breathed it all in with a shiver of delight.

‘Now this is more like it.’

The two of them fell into bed twenty minutes later and slept without interruption until the shrill sound of their telephone erupted in the silence.

Sharon groaned, pulling her covers over her head as Lena groped for the receiver.

‘Hello,’ she croaked into the mouthpiece.

‘Lena.’ The low baritone was unmistakable. ‘Are you okay?’

Lena’s eyes, which seconds ago had felt glued shut, flew open. ‘Dan?’

Like a meerkat suspecting danger, Sharon’s head popped out from behind her covers again.

‘Yeah, it’s me. I saw Carl in the lobby this morning trying to organise some cars for you guys and he told me what happened.’

‘Oh.’ Lena licked her lips.

‘It looks like you’ll be at the hotel for most of the day. There aren’t any cars until three this afternoon.’

Lena looked at her watch. It was only just past ten. Five more hours in this resort? Who was she to complain? ‘Sounds great.’

‘Just wondering if there’s anything I can do.’ Dan paused. ‘I mean, I do have a car here, so if you two want to get back to Wickham earlier . . .’

Lena glanced wryly at Sharon. ‘Somehow I think we’ll manage at the resort a little longer.’

‘Okay.’

There was an awkward silence and Lena clutched the phone like it was a lifeline – willing Dan to speak.

‘I guess I’ll leave you to it then,’ he finished finally.

‘Dan, wait,’ she rushed out, unable to bear it any longer. ‘I need to talk to you.’

‘About what?’

‘I don’t like the way we left things last night. You didn’t let me explain.’

There was a ragged sigh. ‘There’s nothing for you to explain.’

Lena glanced at Sharon, who was watching her with some concern. As much as she trusted her friend, she didn’t really want to have this conversation in front of her.

‘Can I see you this morning? How about breakfast?’

‘That’ll be difficult considering I just left Carl and your other two colleagues in the restaurant. You know what will happen if we’re seen together.’

Lena chewed thoughtfully on her lower lip. ‘Okay, what about the gym?’

‘Mike’s wife has a work-out there every morning. I know, because usually so do I.’

‘Down by the pool then?’

She could hear the frustration in Dan’s response. ‘It’s in complete view of the restaurant. Listen, Lena, I really don’t think –’

‘The spa isn’t.’ She interrupted him, holding her breath at the boldness of this move.

‘What?’

‘The spa is almost completely hidden by a ring of palms. No one will see us talking in there.’

Dan’s voice was gruff. ‘Now that’s
really
not a good idea.’

‘I only want a minute of your time.’ She glanced at the clock beside the phone. ‘I can be there in thirty minutes. What about you?’

‘Lena, there is nothing more to say.’

‘I think there is. Please be there.’ She hung up the phone before he could deny her again.

‘Lena.’ Sharon’s tone was distinctly disapproving. ‘What are you doing?’

I don’t know, I don’t know
,
Lena cried nervously in her head, though she made no reply.

‘Lena,’ Sharon repeated urgently, ‘talk to me.’

Lena threw off her covers and swung her legs out of bed. ‘I’m going for a swim.’

‘You’re going to meet Dan: that’s what you’re doing.’

‘Last night,’ Lena tried to explain, ‘we spoke about what happened but he did most of the talking. I never got to say much. I feel like it was unfinished.’

Sharon’s eyes widened. ‘Are you thinking about having a relationship with him?’

‘No!’

‘Then don’t you think maybe what you need is distance?’ Sharon also threw off her covers.

‘What I need,’ Lena stood up and walked into their bathroom, ‘is closure.’

‘But you don’t have any bathers,’ Sharon protested.

Lena grabbed one of the hotel toothbrushes above the sink. ‘I’ll buy some from the gift shop.’

Unfortunately, the hotel gift shop did not sell bathers but they directed her to a surf shop across the road that did. She bought a one piece and headed back to Karratha Resort.

Only a few people populated the pool area and they were all sunbaking rather than swimming. She headed for the palm trees and stepped into the shaded alcove nestled in their centre. The spa was big, deep and steaming. It was also empty.

Perfect.

Without further ado, she walked down the three steps into bubbling ecstasy. Warmth seeped into her bones as she sank up to her neck. The frothing jets gently massaged her body, easing some of her nerves.

Fifteen minutes later, however, Dan still had not showed up and she was beginning to suspect that he wasn’t coming. She shut her eyes. Should she really be that surprised? He had said he didn’t want to meet her.

Even as the thought pushed through her brain, she heard a slight splash and looked up.

It was Dan, but he didn’t look happy.

‘I wasn’t going to come,’ he said. ‘But I didn’t want you to think I didn’t care.’

‘Oh,’ she faltered, still trying to get over the first sight of him, naked to the waist, muscles shifting as he waded swiftly across the pool to sit opposite her.

‘Is this really worth the risk?’ he demanded as he turned and sat down. ‘Does your career mean so little to you?’

The question snapped back her attention like a mouse trap. ‘You’d be surprised how much my career means to me.’ She lifted her chin. ‘I know you’ve never had much faith in my ability but you can’t fault my willingness to give it a go.’

He looked startled. ‘I have never doubted your ability, Lena. Just your common sense.’

‘Well, gee, that makes all the difference.’ She glared at him. This meeting was definitely not going the way she’d envisaged.

‘I didn’t mean it like that,’ he groaned. ‘You’re just too impulsive sometimes. I worry about you.’

She didn’t know what was more enticing. The fact that he worried about her or the way the steam made his hair curl. In three steps, she could lay her head on his heart. Ironically what held her back was common sense, had he but known it.

‘I know I don’t always do things the way people think I should,’ Lena said softly. ‘But I get results, don’t I? And if I stuff up, I try again.’ Her voice shook. ‘If the men lack faith in me, then –’

‘But you’re wrong, Lena.’ Dan shook his head. ‘They don’t. Maybe they did at first but they have a lot of respect for you now. More than you know.’

‘Leg and Radar –’

‘I’m not talking about Leg and Radar,’ he said impatiently. ‘I’m talking about the skid team. I’m talking about Carl – the men in the yard. Some of those guys would go to hell and back for you if you asked them to.’

She looked at him derisively. ‘But not you.’

He muttered a curse under his breath, lifted his other hand out of the bubbles and rubbed his temple.

‘Damn it, Lena. You can’t go to a place you haven’t left.’

The jets must have been on a timer or something because quite suddenly they turned off and the water went still. The little pool seemed incredibly quiet now that the noise of the bubbles was gone and her body was no longer hidden by the froth. She shifted uncomfortably under his all-seeing gaze, shivering despite the temperature of the spa. With a determined breath, Dan lifted his eyes, his expression grim.

‘You better tell me what you wanted to say before someone catches us in here together.’

She leaned into the centre of the pool, feeling weird to be talking about something so personal from a couple of metres away. Even though just being this much closer to him was already playing havoc with her heartbeat. ‘That morning, in your donga: it doesn’t sit well with me that you think you somehow took advantage of my situation, because that wasn’t the case at all.’ She paused, allowing him time to take in her words. ‘Trust me, Dan. I was right there in the moment with you and I wouldn’t take any of it back.’

His eyes burned into hers. She was sure he could see her pulse leaping at the base of her neck, but he didn’t say anything so she continued.

‘The last relationship I was in taught me a few hard lessons. I guess that morning with you just brought it all to the forefront again. The long and the short of it is: I said what I did because I was thinking about my ex, not you.’

‘Wow.’ His voice was deadpan. ‘That’s telling me, isn’t it?’

Her eyes and nose screwed up as she waved her other hand in an erasing gesture. ‘No, no, that came out wrong. What I meant was for some reason I started to think about mistakes of the past. My defence mechanisms kicked in and I spoke without thinking.’

He nodded. ‘I’m sorry you had to go through that at all.’

She could tell by his tone that her words had made very little impact on him. He still fully blamed himself.

‘Dan,’ she said crossly. ‘I’m not some naive little schoolgirl who needs protecting all the time. I make my own decisions and take the consequences for them as well.’

The jets started up again and mist coiled around them like an invisible force pulling them together.

‘Yes, but I’m the one who should have known better.’ He refused to be persuaded. Her brows lifted in disbelief. Was there nothing she could say to get him off his martyr’s stake? Her resolve tightened.

‘So tell me then,’ she demanded, ‘whose fault is this?’ And in a move that was fuelled more by frustration than desire, she slid both arms around his neck and kissed him.