The Girl in the Hard Hat (32 page)

She jumped, not realising till now that she’d lapsed into her own thoughts again. ‘But what about the mail?’ she asked softly. ‘Don’t you want me to check with him about it? Tell him to contact you?’

‘No need to mention me at all.’ He waved his hand good-naturedly. ‘I’ll contact him. I was just accosting you because I was lazy . . . and could never resist a pretty face.’

She looked away sheepishly. ‘So you’ve got his number?’

‘Yes.’ The man straightened. ‘I got his number.’

Ten minutes later, Wendy pulled up outside her parents’ place. The front door was yanked open before she even knocked. Her mother stepped outside and closed the door, which seemed to indicate immediately that Wendy was not going to be admitted.

‘Hi, Mum.’

‘What did you say to him?’ Helen demanded without greeting or preamble.

She was shocked to see the pain in her mother’s eyes as the older woman looked up, tight-lipped and pale. It was the most animated and real she’d ever seen her proper English mother.

‘What? What do you mean?’ Wendy faltered.

‘You know exactly what I mean? Dragging up the past again! What is with you?’

‘Nothing is
with
me!’ Wendy tossed at her, fists clenched by her sides. ‘All I want is the truth. If you just told me, I wouldn’t need to, as you say,
drag it up again
.’

Her mother began to pace on the front porch. ‘I don’t know how to convince him that he’s seeing this all wrong. How can I make him stay?’

‘Stay?’ Wendy’s fingers loosened. ‘Parry’s leaving?’

‘He wants a divorce, thanks to you! I want to know exactly what you said about me.’

Wendy gasped. ‘Nothing. We hardly spoke about you at all. It was more about me – about what happened when I was sent away to boarding school.’

Helen Hopkins ran trembling fingers through her blonde hair. ‘He thinks I don’t love him.’

‘Well, you don’t,’ Wendy returned frankly. ‘At least not as much as . . . the one who got away.’

‘
You said that to him?
’ her mother cried.

‘I didn’t have to. He knew it already,’ Wendy snapped. ‘He’s just been putting up with it all these years because he loves you and loves me and hoped things would change . . .’

Helen deflated slightly. ‘But they have changed! They’ve been changed for years. How can I convince him? Why does he think I stayed with him?’

‘Well, considering you guys have kept me in the dark for most of my life I don’t know why you’re bothering to ask me now!’ Wendy said crossly. ‘He did say that you and Grandma always seemed to side with each other. Maybe he thinks you were pressured by the family.’

Helen snorted. ‘All this family has given me is grief. Made me feel like an outcast they can’t cast out. I can’t change a mistake I made so long ago.’

‘Well, all I’ve got from this family is indifference.’ Wendy glared at her. ‘Since the day I was born. Did you know I ran into Uncle Mike in Karratha? Just by chance, mind you, didn’t plan it. And he told me to get lost and go home. If that doesn’t just sum it all up, I don’t know what does.’

Her mother’s head jerked up. ‘Yes, well, he’s never . . .’ she faltered ‘. . . taken much of an interest in you.’

‘Well, I’ve ended up working on the same project as him. Not that he wants anyone to know we’re related.’ Wendy shook her head derisively, not realising the true depth of her hurt until now. ‘I told him he could rest easy on that score, considering we aren’t even biologically connected after all.’

Her mother’s hands stopped their wringing. ‘How did he react?’

Wendy thought back to that day at Karratha post office where she had accidentally run into Mike. He was paying a bill and she’d called in to ask about PO boxes for any men called Hector. Of which, of course, there were none.

She’d recognised him and gone over to say hi, just as a courtesy of course, because they were family. No surprises that he’d been distant and dismissive.

‘What are you doing here anyway?’ His grouchy expression seemed to cloud even further. ‘Last I heard, you were wasting money trekking across the globe.’

‘I’m looking for my father actually.’

‘You’re
what
?’

‘Oh, didn’t you know?’ she had uttered sweetly, glad to have finally taken the wind out of his sails and wiped that self-satisfied expression off his face. ‘I thought everybody except me knew. Parry Hopkins isn’t my father.’

He’d looked at her for a long time then. Eyebrows drawn together, dark eyes running over her as though taking in some detail he might have previously missed. ‘Who told you that?’

‘Mum. But she claims not to know where my real father is. So I’m off to find him myself.’

He snorted scornfully. ‘I think that’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard! What a colossal waste of time. More aimless and foolhardy than backpacking.’ He stabbed a finger at her. ‘What you need to do is get a job and stop gallivanting. Bring you back to earth a bit, I think.’

She glared at him. The very last thing she had expected was a lecture. After all, she wasn’t a child. Even her own parents didn’t comment on how she was living her life any more. They were just happy to be informed. She turned away, intending to leave. Uncle Mike clearly wasn’t even worth politeness. It was no wonder he was the black sheep of the family.

‘Hey, I’m talking to you.’

Her eyes drew together as she turned back to him. This time though she didn’t bother to mask her annoyance.

He took a breath. ‘Come to the Point Samson bar tonight. I think I know someone who knows someone who can offer you a job.’

She wished she could have thrown the suggestion back in his face. But the fact was, at the time, she had been looking to settle in the area and rebuild her funds. It would have been shooting herself in the foot to turn him down.

So that’s how she’d first connected with Bulldog and subsequently turned up for her first day at work. Her lips twisted at the humiliating memory.

‘Wendy, what is it?’ Her mother’s voice was weak and breathless, bringing her back to the present.

‘You asked me how he reacted, didn’t you?’ She shook her head, contempt lacing her tone. ‘He reacted by embroiling me in a blackmail scheme he had going. He’s a user. Just like the rest of you. You know that advice you gave me last year about no one doing anything for nothing? Well, it was spot on.’

Her mother paled. ‘I don’t know why you want to find a man who is not interested in you. Never has been. It’s just a recipe for heartbreak! Trust me, I know.’ She came over and grabbed her daughter by the shoulders but Wendy shook her off.

‘You can’t know that he’s not interested in me.’

‘He has never come back for you. He has never called me to talk about you. He has never asked for proof he is not your father. After I got pregnant he didn’t set foot in this city for two years. Doesn’t that tell you something?’

‘All it tells me is that you know more than you’re letting on,’ Wendy returned bitterly. ‘And if this is how you plan to hold onto Parry, with this half-baked honesty, then good bloody luck because I don’t think it’s going to work.’

Helen stepped back like Wendy had slapped her. And for the first time in the entire debacle, Wendy had to question whether she had gone too far.

Without a word, Helen spun on her heel and went back into the house. Wendy heard the key turning in the lock. Letting her know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that she would not be seeing her adoptive father again that day.

*

After the disastrous run-in with her mother, Wendy tried several times to waylay Parry at his pub but had no luck. It seemed he’d taken some time off work and was not coming back for an indefinite period. She had no idea whether he had moved out of the home he shared with her mother. Helen would not take her calls, nor answer the door to her any more. It seemed that the final cut from her family she had thought they were not capable of giving had finally come. She really was on her own.

It was almost therapeutic to get on the plane that Friday morning and get the hell out of town – leave all the angst behind her. Being subject to some ridicule and rumours at Cape Lambert seemed like a walk in the park compared with her emotional slap at home.

It was Lena who picked her up from the airport. The young engineer was positively beaming from ear to ear.

‘Wendy, I’m so glad you’re back. I need you for Operation AGM.’

Wendy blinked. ‘Operation AGM?’

‘Annabel George Management. I’m fixing her up with somebody else.’

Trepidation gripped Wendy.
Please don’t say it’s Gavin.
‘Er, who?’

‘I don’t know,
somebody
. That’s one of the technicalities I’m still working on. The point is, I’ve managed to persuade Sharon to persuade Carl to have another Barnes Inc/TCN public relations function at that pub in Point Samson, Friday after next. We’re going to tell Annabel about it and have Dan as bait.’ She clapped her hands gleefully. ‘She’ll come for sure.’

Wendy breathed a sigh of relief that was closely followed by a new kind of worry. ‘So if Dan’s the bait, how are you going to get her to meet other guys?’

‘We’ll introduce her round. Me, you and Sharon.’

I was afraid you were going to say that.

‘Annabel won’t know it, but she’ll be on a speed-dating adventure.’

‘Sounds foolproof,’ Wendy returned dryly.

‘I know, right?’

As they left the airport car park in Lena’s ute, Wendy noticed the pavement was wet and the red gravel off the side of the road seemed darker and richer. The air was heavy with smells of metals and earth.

‘Has it been raining?’

‘Yeah,’ Lena said. ‘The season is certainly turning.’

‘So how’s the project going?’

‘Good, actually.’ Lena smiled but kept her eyes on the road. ‘Gavin is really holding his own as the project manager. I think he’s surprised everyone, and unfortunately put poor Carl’s nose out of joint in the process.’

Wendy grimaced. ‘I take it the new driver’s licence hasn’t showed up?’

‘Not yet.’

‘I’ll have to see what I can do to move that along.’

‘Might not be a bad idea.’

‘So how’s Sharon?’

Lena swatted her hand. ‘Oh, she’s good. Fish has left town. Apparently, he’s lined up some great job at a coal terminal in Queensland. We won’t be seeing him for a while. So Sharon and Carl have been having
a lot
of quality time.’

‘And how about those wedding plans? Have they set a date?’

‘It’s in April next year,’ Lena confirmed brightly. ‘I’m going to be a bridesmaid.’

After everything Wendy had been through on R and R, Lena’s cheer was starting to get a little too glarey. So she was relieved when they lapsed into a comfortable silence for the rest of the journey to site.

As they were turning into the dirt road that led to the Cape Lambert wharf, Lena did mention one last thing. ‘You know, Gavin’s holding a meeting for all the engineers in about an hour. You should sit in on it – would get you up to speed real fast.’

Wendy couldn’t argue with this, so after a brief catch-up with Chub and a few others, she entered the meeting room to find the usual crew assembled around a speaker phone and Gavin sitting at the head of the table.

He looked up and took in her face with a slight curl of the lips.

‘Welcome back, Sarge.’

‘Thanks.’

For a second they were the only two people there, encased in a perfect, private, sound proof bubble. And then it popped.

He clapped his hands and she was back in the real world. She turned away red-faced as he addressed the group. ‘All right, guys, let’s settle down and get this show on the road. Do we have Carl on the line?’

‘Not yet.’ Craig grinned and stood up to dial. Carl picked up the phone after only two rings.

‘You’re fuckin’ late,’ he grumbled.

‘Your clock is fast, Carl,’ Gavin grinned. ‘We’re exactly on time.’ Everyone at the table quietened down and shuffled in their seats as though settling in for the long haul. ‘Okay, let’s start with progress reports. Who wants to go first?’

They went around the table and each engineer discussed the status of his section of the job. A man called Harry, the project planner, also added whether this was before or behind schedule. If it was behind, the group would discuss how any issues or problems that existed could be addressed.

It was efficient. It was all inclusive. And it was very, very effective.

It was Gavin.

Wendy had to hide her smile several times as Carl tried to butt in to exert his power. His efforts were futile and met with a good deal of humour rather than respect. The truth was, while Carl was a good project manager, a fair leader and a man who tended to tackle problems head on, Gavin’s more quiet, loyal and dedicated management style seemed to be just as successful. While Carl went hell for leather, Gavin seemed to hold the reins lightly, but was still more than ready to pull in hard should his horse wander off the track.

Wendy remembered the advice he had given her at the Point Samson Yacht Club.
With every set of hands, you get a free brain.
It was exactly his style and watching him in action deepened her admiration for him.

Unfortunately, Carl had not taken to this cavalier treatment. Wendy could feel his frustration building over the airways and knew his enforced exile was starting to get to him. It came round to Lena’s turn to speak and it was clear she had been having a few issues that week. None of them good.

‘We can’t afford to have what happened yesterday under the wharf happen again,’ Gavin said carefully. ‘I don’t think we should install any more trusses from the land.’

‘Now hang on a minute there,’ Carl interrupted, clearly sensing his moment to shine. ‘You can’t just fuckin’ stop one method of installation, it’ll send us further behind.’

Gavin sighed. ‘With all due respect, Carl, we started installing from the land to speed things up, but now it’s just getting too dangerous.’

‘I’ll be the fuckin’ judge of that.’

‘I’m sure you would be if you were here.’ Gavin frowned. ‘But you’re not so I have to make that call.’

‘I want a second opinion.’

‘What about mine?’ Wendy jumped in because she could feel a fight spoiling. ‘If it’s a safety issue, then I could be of some help.’