An Endless Summer(14)

He pointed. I followed his line of vision.

“The beam’s rotten. No wonder it caved.”

I squinted up to the broken, damp-stained beam. “I dare say you have a downpipe overflowing somewhere it shouldn’t be.” Sean walked along the verandah. He touched the posts, and strained his neck to inspect every single inch.

“I’ll have a look around, but hopefully by the look of things it’s just an isolated section.” Sean scratched the stubble on his chin in deep thought, lost in the throes of his profession. He had been a builder for as long as I could remember, but had gone on his own a few years ago and made a name for himself; apart from being a womanising footy player, he was also a skilled tradesman. At least that was what I had heard before I’d left Onslow; no doubt the footy playing and womanising were also still favourite extracurricular activities.

I leaned against the door and inspected a chipped nail I had earned from a day devoted to cleaning.

“Well, that’s a relief,” I said unenthusiastically.

Sean flipped out his mobile. “What’s your dad’s number? I’ll give him a quote if he wants.”

My head snapped up. “No!” I yelled, reaching out to grab his wrist. Sean froze, an amused quirk to his lips as he looked down at my hand. I pulled it away.

“Um, I just mean that … he’s probably busy and …”

Sean broke into a broad grin as he pocketed his phone. “You haven’t told him.”

I straightened. “I tried, but, like I said, he’s busy.”

“O-oh! You broke the hotel!”

“Pfft,” I said darkly. “I think it was pretty broken before I got here.” My eyes rested on the pile of rubbish that blocked the path to the main door.

“Yeah, what’s with that?” Sean took in the overgrown surroundings, his smile sobering into a grim line.

I didn’t want to get into that; I didn’t even want Sean looking around like he did, judging, just like the rest of the town probably was.

“Hey, um, sorry about slamming the door in your face before,” I said.

Sean turned with interest, his brows raised.

I felt like I wanted to squirm under his smug scrutiny, but I held my ground. Sort of. “I just, um, forgot to, um …”

“Construct coherent sentences?”

I glowered. “Shut up!” I moved to snatch up a garbage bag for the skip around the back.

Always the smart-arse.

“What I meant to say is thanks. Thanks for helping me today.”

“Why, Amy Henderson, you’re making me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.” Sean grabbed one of the other garbage bags and slung it over his shoulder, following me.

“Yeah, we’ll call it a momentary lapse of sanity.”

We carried our clinking bags of rubbish off the verandah down the uneven, cracked path that ran around towards the back entrance where the large skip was kept. Slinging my cargo into the grubby recess, I dusted my hands off and went to thank Sean for his help, but thought better of it as we turned to head back around the front.

“You know, I was serious, I can give you a quote if you want.”

I had only been at the Onslow for one day and already I had seriously damaged the property, alienated the only staff member and shut down the pub for the first time in its history. A big part of the reason I had vehemently objected was if Dad had found out I had shut down the pub a mere hours after my arrival, nineteen or not, I would be banished from the Onslow quick smart. Regardless of the damage Dad’s neglect had caused, I was not mistaken to believe I would be in serious trouble.

“I can’t pay you to fix it.”

Sean looked troubled. “Why would you pay? I’d be quoting for your dad.”

I stopped dead in my tracks. “Dad can’t know. If he finds out what happened today I would be …” I was blabbering, and the last thing I needed was to reveal too much about how, even at nineteen, I really didn’t want to get in trouble with Mum and Dad. Especially now that they were a combined force and on the ‘same page’ when it came to me.

I had heard it all; they were worried about me, what was I going to do with my life? When was I going back to uni? In a nutshell, my life was going nowhere fast and after nineteen years of not worrying too much, now that Dad was home and he had undergone such a life-changing journey, all of a sudden he was determined that I make something of my life and Mum was his biggest fan. What a joke!

“You’re serious?” he asked.

“Yes.”

We stepped up onto the verandah again, closing the distance towards the garbage bags.

“Well, call it a momentary lapse of sanity but …” He looked up. “There is a gaping hole in your balcony. He’s going to find out.”