Myra and Abby were left alone in the room.
“I wouldn’t be too sure,” Myra said. “I think that bridge can be rebuilt.”
“I don’t know.” Abby rested her chin on her hands. “I was pretty horrible to him. I was so mad at him because he was the first person to tell me how ridiculous I was being around Jed.”
“He was jealous, you silly thing. Mind you, he could have gone about it in a less confrontational way.” She shrugged. “Men aren’t always the most sensible creatures when it comes to the woman they love.”
“Jealous? Of me spending time with Jed?” Abby looked up at Myra. Could that really be the case? “But I was just working.”
Myra patted her knee. “You young folk can’t see true love even if it bonks you on the nose.” She stood up and dusted off her clothes. “I better go get some work done while I can before I have to chase that professor out of the building.”
In the end, Jed didn’t need chasing out. He had his bags packed and had snuck out of his room well before the group, led by an indignant Myra, turned up to his room. They saw him through the bedroom windows waiting outside the compound in the morning sun with his suitcase and laptop, and when his taxi arrived at ten on the dot, he leapt inside without looking back, leaving the taxi driver to heave his baggage into the trunk.
“Good riddance,” Myra said.
“I almost feel like we need to cheer. Or pop a bottle of champagne,” Aaron replied.
“There’s beers in the kitchen fridge,” John remarked.
A second later everyone made the unanimous decision that ten a.m. on a weekday was indeed the perfect time for a cold beer and they all made a beeline for the kitchen.
A couple hours later, they were all sitting at lunch. Abby was feeling slightly buzzed, partly from the beer and partly from her newfound sense of freedom. She was free of Jed, of his lies and sleaze and manipulation. A little bit of sadness crept in every now and then, but it was mourning for the person that she had thought Jed was, the professor she had admired and loved for so many years without seeing what he was really like behind the professorial facade. It was a mourning for her lost ideals.
“Has anyone told Noah the good news?” she asked. She had hoped to see him at lunch, but he was nowhere to be found.
They all shook their heads.
“I haven’t seen him today.”
“I heard there was a crash on the highway. He’s probably down there helping out.”
“I guess we won’t be seeing him until dinner.”
“He’ll be happy that Jed has gone. He couldn’t stand the guy.”
“He wasn’t the only one, believe me.”
“He’ll be sad he missed the show.”
“Yeah, Abby, I really didn’t think you had it in you. I was so impressed.”
She grinned at the table of smiling faces that surrounded her. “I hope he’s learned his lesson this time.”
“I intend to make sure he learns it,” Myra said, her face serious. “I will be laying an official complaint with his college today for what he did to Mia.”
It was on the tip of Abby’s tongue to ask whether that was really necessary. Jed had gone out of their lives now and wouldn’t be coming back. They had won. They could afford to be generous.
Then she thought of Mia and her heart hardened. Myra was not laying the complaint for revenge, but for protection—protection for all the other Mias out there who didn’t have colleagues to believe in them or to make sure they weren’t harmed. “Good,” she said. “Add my name to the complaint as well,” she added quietly so only Myra could hear. It was wrong for her to hide in the shadows and let the burden of complaining fall on Mia and Myra. She needed to stand up and say what had happened to her as well.
Myra opened her eyes wide. “I can’t say I’m surprised. Come by my office after lunch and tell me about it.”
After her discussion with Myra, Abby didn’t feel like going back to the lab to do any work, so she headed back to her room for a quiet rest. She hadn’t slept very well, and the thought of having to front up to Noah had made her quite nervous.
Far more nervous than she had been about confronting Jed. The difference there was that she no longer cared about what Jed thought about her.
She was lying on her bed reading when a phone call came through on her cell.
A number she didn’t know. Not her parents.
She answered it hesitantly, hoping it wasn’t Jed. Or Julia. Not that Julia would know her number.
Not Jed.
Not Julia.
An offer for a job interview at the role that she had particularly wanted.
She disconnected the call with a sense of unreality. A job interview. In Australia.
Maybe she wouldn’t have to leave after all and go back to her sterile life of all work and no play under the watchful eyes of her parents.
Maybe she could stay.
Which reminded her, she had better call her parents and update them on the situation with Jed, before he could. If she told her side of the story before he had the chance to poison them with lies, she had a much better chance of being believed.
With a sinking feeling in her chest, she dialed them on FaceTime.
“We’ve booked you a flight home,” were the first words out of her father’s mouth. Before even “hello” or “how are you”. “You leave on Wednesday.”
“What? But that’s in a few days from now. I can’t possibly finish up everything I need to do here before then.” And it was before the job interview she had just set up. There was no way in the world that she was going to leave before that.
“We don’t think your time in Australia is helping your career. We’d had quite a concerning report from Professor Bowron about your work ethic while you have been away. Late with a paper you promised him, taking time off to go sightseeing, and all the rest.”
“You know we only agreed to it because you promised to make the most of the opportunity,” her mother cut in. “And we really don’t feel that you are keeping up your end of the bargain. It’s time you came home and regained your focus.”
Abby could barely see for the rage that filled her. “Jed told you that? I guess it figures that he lied about that as well.”
“Abby,” her father said in a warning tone.
“No, Dad, you listen to me for a change. I haven’t been late with one thing for Jed, never in my whole time at college have I been late returning a paper. I have been sightseeing, yes, but this was after all deadlines had been met.”
“That’s not what we have been informed,” her mother answered primly, her father still staring at her through the screen, looking confused that she had dared to disagree with him.
Abby sighed. “It makes no difference now anyway. He won’t be my supervisor for much longer.”
Her parents balked at that. “What on earth? What’s happened?”
“I disagreed with his personal ethics.” That was one way of putting it anyway.
“Please explain, darling. We are thoroughly confused why you would let such a fantastic supervisor go.”
Abby chose her words carefully. “He made inappropriate and unwelcome sexual advances to a student while he was engaged to someone else. It doesn’t sit well with me.”
Her parents seemed to relax. “Oh, for heaven’s sake Abby, you can’t let a supervisor like Jed go just because of a momentary lapse of judgement. He’s only a man after all,” her father said.
“I would certainly hope that this momentary lapse in judgement won’t negatively impact his career,” her mother added.
It would make sense that her parents would brush this off, having grown up in a different world where the #Me Too movement was years away. Still, Abby wished her parents, and her mother in particular, had a different response.
“No, Mom, it’s not okay.” Abby ran her fingers through her hair distractedly. “It’s not just the one student, either. There is a girl who works here, she’s still at high school. He approa
ched her, actually he assaulted her. He was very aggressive and had to be dragged off her by a passing staff member. She was seventeen.”
A moment of shocked silence.
“He’s just been kicked out of the facility here. And they—we—are writing a formal complaint to the university,” Abby continued. “An investigation will probably be started, and I’d be surprised if he still had a job once it is completed.”
Her parents spluttered. “There must be some mistake,” her mother said, shaking her head. “It must be a misunderstanding.”
“There were witnesses.”
Another silence. Her parents looked at each other, eyes wide, properly affronted now at the idea the supervisor of their golden child was not who they had thought him to be.
“The university must be made aware,” her father stated, as if it was indeed his own idea. “We can’t have actions like this reflecting badly on the prestige of your college.”
Her mother nodded enthusiastically in agreement. “We can’t have you impacted by this. We must arrange a new supervisor immediately. One who will not tar you with the same brush.”
“I shall email the head of department now,” her father continued. “Let it be known that we took action from the forefront. We do not stand for this behavior in the academic world.”
Abby wanted to roll her eyes. Typical that they would be worried about how it would reflect on the college they had chosen for her, and by association reflect on themselves and their own academic careers. But at least they were on the same page. And in their own funny way it was their way of showing they cared about her, by caring about her academic achievements.
Her parents were now discussing amongst themselves how disappointed they were with Jed. She could hear her father stating he “always knew there was something funny about the man, even though he held a 4.0 GPA and completed his doctorate a year before his peers.”
Abby let them talk for a minute. Her mind was whirring. If she could talk them into letting her stay for another week, she could make it to her job interview. Maybe, just maybe, now that they were listening to her, they would agree.
“Mom, Dad,” she interrupted. “I still have some things to finish up here. And it’s not because I have been slacking off. To be honest, Jed being here has slowed a lot of things down, especially with the recent drama. I appreciate you booking my flight home, but I do need three or four more weeks here.”
Her parents considered this. “Just one more week then,” her father replied gruffly. “That will have to do. We expect you to make the most of it. And we transferred the money for your colleague’s car this morning, too, so you can square that away before you come home.”
Abby nodded, barely containing her relief. “Thank you,” she said, and meant it.
They said their goodbyes and her father stalked off the screen, back into his office no doubt.
Her mother paused. “We do miss you terribly,” she finally said. “We are looking forward to seeing you soon.”
“I miss you too, Mom,” she answered.
Her mother disconnected the call and Abby sat staring at the black screen for a minute. She did actually miss them. The thought took her by surprise. She missed them and their fussy, old-fashioned, academic views of the world. She didn’t miss them dictating her every move of course. But that wouldn’t be for too much longer. Whether she got this job in Australia, or whether she went home and secured a job in her hometown, or another state entirely, she would soon be financially independent, and they wouldn’t have the ability to dictate what she did with her finances.
The thought gave her a warm feeling in her chest. Independence. Something she had never really had before. Even in her first year at university in her dorm, where she felt the first sliver of freedom she had in her life—even there she was reliant on her parents’ funding, and her dorm had been chosen by them. She was grateful for it, certainly. She’d been given opportunities that many others didn’t have. But soon, with her master’s degree completed and once she got her first job, she would be free to make any choices she wanted, and she felt immensely, overwhelmingly excited at the prospect.
The next day was spent tidying her conclusion and she closed her laptop midafternoon with her thesis completely finished. It might need a few tweaks here and there, but it was done, and finished early. She had nearly a week to prep for her first ever job interview and travel the five hundred miles to where her interview was. That was going to take some planning, especially as she had dwindling funds and would have to fly or rent a car. All these issues seemed tiny though compared with the thought of finding Noah and telling him she was sorry.
Sorry and goodbye.
Noah was not at dinner.
He’d apparently turned up briefly that afternoon, heard the news about Jed with a stony face, and then told Adam that he was going off camping for a few days.
She muttered a few choice swear words to herself. Only a week before she had to leave to go back to Colorado, and at least a couple days of that would be taken up with getting to and from her job interview. And he had to go camping?
What if he didn’t come back before she had to leave?
She couldn’t leave the country without speaking to him. It was not right. Thank heavens her parents had finally loaned her the money to pay John for the damage to his truck, which she had immediately passed on to him.
Taking a deep breath, she plucked up all her courage. “John, can I borrow your truck again?”
He grinned at her. “I wondered when you were going to ask. Yes, of course you can. Just bring it back in one piece this time. If you can.”
“No more kangaroos,” Abby promised. “And thanks. I really appreciate it.”
“No worries, mate.”
Adam gave her directions to the spot where Noah had said he was camping out.
She filled John’s truck with all the essentials: bottled water, oil, sunblock, a sleeping bag, and a dozen packets of granola bars. At the last minute she threw in a hastily prepared picnic dinner and a bottle of wine, so she didn’t turn up empty-handed and eat all his food.
The road out to the camping spot was bumpy, but at least it was well-marked and there was no danger of her getting lost.
The day was drawing to a close by the time she reached the ocean and found his truck parked close to the water’s edge. She parked up next to him, relieved that he was here, and that she didn’t have to spend the night in the open by herself. If he hadn’t been at this spot, she would have had to stay the night on her own before resuming her search again tomorrow. He wasn’t in his truck. She looked up and down the beach and couldn’t see him. Then—a splash in the sea caught her eye.
He was swimming.
The setting sun warmed the ocean with the last of its rays, sending sparkles of light skittering over the waves.
His dark head bobbed in the water as he cut through it with powerful strokes.
Knowing he was camping by the water, she’d come prepared with her favorite bikini on under her shorts. It was pink, a bright, happy color that she’d liked in the store and been too self-conscious to wear in front of people, with the bright pink attracting gazes. But with Noah she felt comfortable in it. She tossed off her outer layers and walked down to join him. She waded out, feeling his eyes on her, feeling his gaze on her exposed skin and the absurdly bright bikini. She wanted to wrap her arms around herself for a second, then threw the thought away. He liked her body just how it was, she didn’t need to hide herself. She walked out until her feet couldn’t touch the ground and slowly swam towards him.
He hesitated, then moved. A few strokes and he was by her side. “Abby.” He sounded surprised, but not unpleasantly so. “What are you doing here?”
She drank in the sight of him: long hair, tattoos and all. How had she ever thought that a fancy degree was the most important quality in a man? Compared with the honesty and kindness that Noah had shown her, nothing else mattered. “Looking for you.”
He loo
ked cautiously optimistic but didn’t make a move any closer towards her. “I heard what happened with Jed this morning.”
Abby shrugged. She didn’t intend to give Jed any more headspace. He’d had enough of that from her over the years. “He deserved it. He’d been an ass to me already for years and I hadn’t realized until now. And then he assaulted Mia.”
“You believed me about Mia? The way you reacted, I’d assumed you thought I was lying.”
“Of course I believed you. I was just so angry with him already.”
They floated in silence. She needed to explain to him. “He’s engaged to a woman back home. It was clear he thought he could come out here and have a quickie affair with lovelorn Abby as a pleasant break from his fiancé.” It was embarrassing to admit.
He grimaced. “Ouch.”
“Yeah, ouch all right. He couldn’t believe it when I turned him down. He was angry. I think he was expecting the old Abby, the one who wouldn’t ever say no to him.”
Noah shrugged. “I’m glad it’s over between you and Jed. He didn’t deserve you.”
“There never was a me and Jed,” she looked at him earnestly. A water droplet trickled off his hair and onto his face and he flicked his head, sending small, sparkling droplets spraying from his hair. “I maybe wanted there to be a me and Jed, before I came here. I was head over heels for the person I thought he was. But that changed. I think it changed a while ago.”
Noah continued as though he hadn’t heard her. His voice was expressionless, and his gaze was unfocused, looking out over her shoulder. “I’m sure not all professors are like him, though. You’re bound to find another one who suits you better. Hopefully one with a slightly nicer personality and less of a stick up his ass.”
“What if I don’t want a professor?” Abby asked, her voice tentative. Noah looked at her, his eyes dark. There was a wall behind those eyes and Abby knew she was the one who had laid the final stone in his defenses. “What if I want a long-haired, tattooed, university dropout, helicopter pilot instead?”
“I would say you’re making a mistake.” He turned from her.
“I’m not making a mistake.” She reached out and grabbed his shoulder, forcing him to face her. “You gave me so much. You’ve pushed me out of my comfort zone so far that I don’t even know what my comfort zone is any more. I feel like I can do anything when I’m with you.”
Headlong (Quinn Brothers Book 2) Page 14