Headlong (Quinn Brothers Book 2) Read online

  Abby nodded, feeling too tired to say much. Her legs ached, and her knee ached worse. But she also felt good. For the first time since she had seen Jed’s engagement photo, she felt happy. “Thank you for taking me out here. You were right. It was totally worth the hike.”

  “The pleasure was all mine.” He grinned at her and put the truck into gear. “Let’s get you back home. It’s a tough enough walk without having a knee knocked that bad. It must be bloody sore, and you haven’t complained at all.”

  That night Abby was asleep the moment her head hit the pillow and she slept through the entire night, a deep dreamless sleep that mercifully was free of any dreams of Jed.

  In the morning she was full of energy, although her knee still throbbed, and her muscles were sorer than they had been in years. She headed down to the lab early, keen on making up for the day off but driven today not by guilt at having missed a day, but enthusiasm to make up for it. She had already decided to not let herself feel any guilt whatsoever about taking the day off.

  By lunchtime she had finished the section in her report that she’d been stuck on for the past couple weeks. Today the words flowed, and her notes seemed to make more sense—she could draw conclusions from her research that until now had just been a fuzzy idea in the back of her mind. Australia must be good for her brain, she decided.

  Her enthusiasm for the day was dampened slightly after she logged into Facebook to send a message to her parents. Their daily check-ins hadn’t bothered her before, when she had all the time in the world to reply to them, but on the few occasions when she didn’t reply within a day, they assumed the worst. She wouldn’t be surprised if they sent Interpol looking for her if she took more than a couple days to reply.

  The latest messages were increasingly antsy. She could only imagine they were regretting letting her travel overseas on her own.

  Honey, your father and I are worried about you. You haven’t called us in a week. Is everything okay there? Please reply to let us know you aren’t lost in the desert somewhere and dying of thirst.

  Abby typed her reply.

  I’m fine Mom. Stuck in the desert was the last time I didn’t reply.

  Her mother wouldn’t get the joke as Abby flat-out refused to let them know the real reason why she took two days to reply to them that time. She told them the internet had cut out. Which reminded her—she still needed to ask them for a loan to pay for fixing John’s truck.

  Very funny, young lady, came the reply. Your father and I were seriously worried. Has the internet cut out again?

  No Mom, I went out hiking yesterday. I took the day off. I was too tired to reply when I got back.

  Hiking? Why on earth were you hiking?

  Her mother didn’t like the outdoors unless it was under her microscope. She wore a full face of makeup every day, had her hair professionally colored every six weeks, and got her nails done every month without fail. To her, part of being successful was the way you presented yourself and she admonished Abby for it on the daily when she was at home, and thankfully slightly less often when Abby was overseas and couldn’t see Abby’s short, bitten fingernails or her makeup-free face.

  I just wanted to take a day off.

  There are no days off for the successful! came the reply.

  It was one of her parents’ favorite sayings.

  Usually she just accepted it, but today, for some reason, it got under her skin. Was all they cared about her publication list, and the prestige of the journals that accepted her work? She was their daughter, not their graduate student.

  It was a great hike, Mom. Thanks for asking.

  Her mother ignored her sarcasm.

  And how is your work going? You aren’t falling behind, are you? You know you must make the most of every opportunity you get. The right kind of job in academia isn’t easy to get, you know. You have to be at the top of your game, especially at the beginning of your career. Of course, once your name is well known, like mine and your father’s are, you can take it a bit easier and you can afford to rest on your laurels a bit more. Your father and I are even thinking of taking a few days off to go on a cruise next year. We never would have done that earlier in our careers, and have our mentors think we weren’t reliable, or weren’t dedicated enough. We would never have gotten to where we are today without sacrificing things like that.

  She swallowed hard. She’d always been so sure that she wanted a professorship at a university. In her mind, she had always pictured working in Colorado, in a lab next to Jed, going on field trips with him, writing papers with him, sharing her professional life with him. But now that he was going to be married? To another of his grad students? And become a father? He would be sharing his professional and personal life with Julia, now. There was no place for her in his life. Those dreams of hers seemed more like nightmares now.

  I’m not really sure that I want an academic job, she wrote slowly.

  She hadn’t thought about it all that much, but now that the words had formed in front of her, they seemed right.

  Don’t be ridiculous, her mother wrote back sharply. That’s all you have ever wanted. It’s all that your father and I have ever wanted for you.

  I’ve been having second thoughts.

  There was no point trying to argue with her mother. Her mother wouldn’t even register it as an argument—just as an error in her thinking that needed to be corrected.

  I think you need to stay out of the sun her mother replied. And spend more time in the lab doing what is really important. Then you wouldn’t waste your time on overthinking your career when it is abundantly clear what you need to do.

  Maybe she was overthinking things. Or maybe she was starting to think a little more clearly now.

  Had she been choosing a career because she was madly infatuated with her mentor? Or because it was the easiest road to travel and meant the least amount of conflict with her parents?

  She signed off the message exchange.

  Gotta go. Work to do.

  Work hard.

  Those were always her mother’s last words to her. Work hard. Not have fun, or look after yourself, or even I love you. Just work hard.

  In a moment of rebellion, she put away the work she was writing up and brought up her Internet browser to have a look at what sort of jobs were out there. If she really was serious about not getting an academic job, she would need a Plan B in her back pocket. She always felt better when she had a plan.

  Nothing in Colorado. A few jobs in the US, but nothing that really took her fancy in a place that she wanted to live.

  In a sudden burst of enthusiasm, she looked for jobs in Australia, and hit the jackpot almost right away. Three jobs in her area of expertise, and one advertisement in particular looked as though it had been written specifically with her in mind.

  With a growing sense of excitement, she read through all of them. One of them was mostly lab work for a mining company, and she reluctantly put that aside. If she had learned one thing since she was here in Australia, it was that she didn’t want to be stuck inside in a lab all day. She wanted to be outside, doing work on-site. She could take the heat and the sun and the poisonous spiders and scorpions and crocs, if it meant that she could work in the field.

  She examined the other two. Yes, they both looked terrific. Interesting work. One was for a consulting engineering firm who needed a geologist. One was with a university close by, a dual research and teaching role. Reasonable pay—enough to live on, and that was all that really mattered to her. She worked too much to have any expensive hobbies. And, what was most exciting of all, they both offered a chance to do important work that had the potential to make a difference in the lives of real people.

  Butterflies in her stomach with the excitement of doing something so out of the ordinary for her, she opened her CV and started to update it.

  Three hours later, she sat back in her chair with a sigh. She had applied for both jobs, sweating blood and tears on each application.

 
; Heavens knows what her parents would think if she told them. Or Jed. If he even cared. There wasn’t any point in asking for trouble by mentioning anything just yet. She might not even get an interview for either of them.

  She’d tell them if by chance she got an offer and decided to accept it, and not before. That way she could avoid days of lectures, and pressure to “do what is right”, aka, what her parents wanted her to do.

  As for Jed, she would be sorry to disappoint him, but no doubt he would be amply compensated by having Julia in his life. As his wife.

  She made a face to herself. Jed was nothing to her now.

  This was her life and her decision. She deserved to make the choice on her own.

  Before dinner, she showered, washed her hair, and dressed carefully in a pink sundress that fell just below her knee. Smarter than her usual linen shorts and shirt, it covered her purple, swollen knee well.

  It would be silly to wear a nice dress and not a lick of makeup, she decided, as she carefully applied some mascara and swiped on a touch of lip gloss. At least, that was what she told herself when she looked at herself in the mirror, examining her reflection carefully. It was nothing to do with wanting a certain helicopter pilot to see that she was more than just a nerdy scientist with no sense of balance. It was nothing to do with wanting him to look at her again the way he had looked at her at the rock pool.

  Satisfied with how she looked, she put on a pair of flat sandals and limped over to the cafeteria.

  “You’re hurt,” Myra exclaimed, as she made her way over to the table to join her colleagues. They were all there before her: Myra, John, Aaron, Adam and, of course, Noah. She had grown used to thinking of him like another colleague. He was always there, hanging out with them, just being one of the bunch. She envied his ease and his confidence. He’d just turned up, certain of his welcome. And everyone liked him, so he was welcome.

  “I slipped and banged my knee up on some rocks yesterday,” she explained, between mouthfuls of food. She was extra hungry today after her long walk the day before. Her long hike. That sounded way more fun and adventurous. “It’s still pretty stiff and sore.”

  Somehow, Noah had managed to slide in to sit next to her. “Let’s have a look at it.”

  She slid her dress up just past her knee, exposing the expanse of purple.

  John whistled. Aaron turned slightly green. Adam looked impressed.

  Myra opened her eyes wide. “Ouch. That must’ve hurt. I hope you didn’t have to walk far on it?”

  Noah touched it with gentle fingers. “All the way back from the rock pool up the gorge. She slipped on the wet rocks.”

  “I could’ve called a helicopter to bring me out, I guess,” Abby said with a smile, as she pushed her dress back over her knee. “But that would mean waiting for Noah to walk out by himself and then fly out to get me. It didn’t seem worth the effort. Besides, it looks worse than it feels. It’s just a bit stiff and sore. It’ll be fine in a day or so.”

  Aaron shook his head. “Bleuch. Stuff like that makes me feel sick. I hope the hike was worth it.”

  Abby beamed. “It really was. It was quite magical. Interesting rock formations that I wouldn’t mind taking a closer look at some time. I even saw rock wallabies.”

  Myra eyed her closely. “I’m glad you had fun. You’ll have to get out a bit and explore some more of the country while you are here. After all, you can’t work all the time.”

  “My parents would disagree with you there,” Abby said with a laugh. None of the others laughed with her. “In fact, I got a lecture from Mom this morning about taking a day off.”

  John raised an eyebrow. “You’re joking, right?”

  She shook her head while she finished her mouthful. “I wish I was. They don’t approve of taking vacation days when I should be focusing on my career.”

  Her colleagues looked at her as if she had gone mad.

  “That’s ridiculous. You do know how ridiculous that is, don’t you?”

  “Even on a weekend?”

  “Are they even human? Or robots in disguise?”

  Noah straddled his chair and waved his arms in the air to stop the discussion. “Right, that settles it. From now on, my mission in life will be to get Abby to do as many things that her parents would disapprove of as possible.”

  The others all laughed and started to come up with suggestions of their own.

  “Take her hiking again.”

  “And don’t let her look at a single rock all day.”

  “Go out on the boat for the day. There wouldn’t even be any rocks for her to look at.”

  “Make her read a novel. A really trashy one. With no literary merit whatsoever.”

  “Take her surfing. Only beach bums like you go surfing.”

  “Get her a tattoo. On her lower back. A tramp stamp.”

  “And then give her a beer to drink.”

  “A warm beer. In a can. No glass.”

  They were all roaring with laughter as they came up with more and more ridiculous suggestions of what might annoy her parents. Abby laughed along with them. The funniest part of it all was that everything they mentioned would horrify them. In fact, the whole conversation would utterly horrify them. They would never see the humor in it at all.

  “You’ll turn me into a fun and adventurous person yet,” she said, when the suggestions ground to a halt. “Though I’m not sure about the tattoo. I’ve heard they hurt.”

  “In all seriousness, though, let’s go camping next weekend,” Myra said. “We can have a cookout on the beach. Swim in the ocean at dusk. Have a bit of downtime.”

  “I’m in.”

  “Sounds good.”

  “Me too. I’m sure Amy and the kids would be keen, too.”

  “Love to.”

  Abby hesitated. Should she really take off another day so soon? She wouldn’t want anyone to think that she was there to play tourist instead of working hard.

  Noah winked at Abby. “Go on. Live dangerously. Go camping. Just think how much your parents would disapprove.”

  The thought of that decided her. “I’d love to come camping with you all.”

  Noah grinned. “Excellent. We’re on.”

  Chapter Five

  Abby packed her bag with warm clothes as per Noah’s instructions, even though at seven a.m. she could already feel beads of sweat forming on her forehead. For a moment she considered not packing a sweater at all but then she remembered the cold nights she spent sleeping in the truck when she was stranded and instead packed extra. In her bag already were the running shoes she had last worn on the hike with Noah, a pair of Aaron’s socks (he had lent her a pair again) and various long-sleeved shirts to keep the sun off. She carefully packed her face cleanser, moisturizing creams, a ton of sunblock and she was ready, albeit maybe not mentally prepared, to spend another night away from the hostel.

  She returned to the living area and placed her bulging bag next to the pile of backpacks placed there by the others before joining Myra outside to start loading up the vehicles with various pieces of camping equipment.

  “Here, put these in the back seats if you can.” Myra handed her a heavy bag and Abby struggled to lift it into the truck. She heaved it in, panting slightly and turned back to help Myra finish packing.

  “What was in that?” She wheezed. Myra laughed a little.

  “Sorry love, it’s quite a big tent that one. I forget you’re such a wee thing it would be a bit heavy for you.” She handed Abby a smaller bag to put in the truck.

  “It felt like a gazebo big enough for a hundred people,” Abby said.

  “You’re pretty much right, it’s a tent with room for all of us to sleep. Saves putting up a few different tents.”

  Abby paused. “We are all—sleeping in that together?”

  “Of course. There’s plenty of room, the tent has three different rooms to it.”

  Abby gulped. She wasn’t sure how comfortable she felt about sharing a tent with a group of people sh
e didn’t know all that well still.

  Myra looked at her and seemingly sensed her unease. “Don’t worry Abby, you and I can share one of the rooms and the boys will sleep together.”

  She was going to be brave. This was, after all, about getting out of her comfort zone. Doing something new for a change. She nodded.

  “Thanks Myra.” She hoped that Myra was right, and the tent was big enough. Myra wasn’t a small woman, and as much as she would rather share a room with her than any of the others, she would still prefer enough room to stretch out full length, and to turn over in the night without being squashed up against the sides.

  The boys all arrived a few minutes later. All her colleagues seemed to have hit it off well with each other, and with Noah, and were joking with each other as they loaded in the food and drinks for the day. John took off after helping pack the vehicles, promising to meet them at the campsite as soon as he and Amy could rouse his kids and get them organized to come.

  There was a feeling of excitement in the air as they all finally piled into Noah’s truck and an old rundown van. It belonged to one of the cleaning staff, and Myra had sweet-talked him into renting it to them for the weekend. Myra climbed into the driver’s seat in the van and Paul, Adam and Aaron joined her, leaving Abby to get into the truck with Noah. His backseat was packed to the ceiling with sleeping mats, pillows, blankets and food.

  The first few minutes of the drive were silent as they followed behind Myra in the van. She had picked the camping spot, a local favorite of many of the town’s residents.

  Abby clutched the edge of her seat as they bumped over the lumpy ground. She twisted in her seat to look over her shoulder to try and catch a glimpse of the accommodation building, but the truck was too full for her to see out of the back window.