Page 56 of Kiwi Sin

“Your hand being injured isn’t ideal,” he said, “but a foreman’s not just working with his hands. He’s working with his brain, and his judgment. Can I trust your judgment?”

“Yes,” I said. “And I’ll do everything I can with the hand, too.” Wanting to jump. Wanting to shout.

“It won’t be a rise in pay,” he said. “Gray wanted to pay you more. I said—not until he shows he can do it. Show us for the next couple of weeks, and then we’ll see about that rise in pay. My guess is that Gray will pay you the extra for the time before, so you won’t be hurting, not if you come up to standard. Thirty days to get it all done. Thirty-first of January. That’s the deadline.”

“I know the deadline.” My heart was beating like it wanted to jump out of my chest. “We’ll meet it.”

“Good,” he said. “Then I’ll take you back to get the ute. Unless you want to do anything first, since you don’t have two good hands. Shopping. Like that.”

He was willing to take meshopping?I wouldn’t have guessed he’d even know where the store was. “Well, uh … yeh. That’d be good.”

“Then let’s go,” he said, and stood up.

I put my dishes in the dishwasher first. He looked surprised. I told myself again,My choice.After that, I said, “I appreciate your trust in me, making me foreman. I won’t let you down.”

“I know,” he said. “That’s why I did it.”

22

THE KNICKERS BIT

Gabriel

I was at Gray’s again, and so was Oriana. I’d seen her as soon as I’d parked for the barbecue.

Well, of course she was here. Shelivedhere. At the moment, she was with the kids, helping the littlest ones play cricket. She’d stand behind them and help them swing the bat, then run with them afterward and pick them up if they fell. Making it not scary to try, and making it fun.

She wasn’t wearing shorts today like most of the women, or a long dress like the women from my family, except Glory and Patience, who were wearingalmostlong dresses. Oriana was in what they called a “sundress” instead. It had wide straps over the shoulders, big red buttons down the close-fitting front, and a full skirt that ended well below the knee, and it was patterned with strawberries. She had some kind of elaborate plaits in her hair, and she was pretty as a picture. I’d never seen her arms and legs and upper … chest revealed this much, and once again, I stared.

Pity she wasn’t staring back.

I was cooking steaks on the barbecue for Gray’s mum, Honor, during all this staring, because that was something I could do with one hand. I couldn’t carry tables—well, sheets of plywood on sawhorses—or set up sunshades, but I could cook steaks, and the fish I’d do next, too. Cooking on the barbecue was something men did Outside, for some reason, even if they didn’t cook anything else, and it was the only kind of cooking I was somewhat confident about. The flats had a barbecue, outside, and I’d been using it, as it felt marginally more sanitary than the cooker in the flat, and you could do vegies on it as well as meat. I’d taken to cooking for the others sometimes, too, as they were even worse than me. Hard to believe, but they were. There was microwaving as well, of course, but that didn’t really count. I wasn’t even sure you could actually call it “food.”

I saw Gray coming across the grass toward me, looking serious, and didn’t drop my gaze. I had to face this, and it wouldn’t get any easier.

Oh. What if it wasn’t just about the hand?

Then face it and be honest.

He got there at last and said, “Your dad says you injured yourself last night.” About the hand, then.

“Yeh,” I said. “Ten days at least, the doctor says. Stitches, eh.”

“All right?” he asked. “How are you managing for yourself?”

“I’m fine. No worries.”

“A cooking accident, your dad said,” was the next comment. “Reckon that’s tough, learning how. Knife slipped, eh.”

“No. I did it opening a can.”

He grinned. “Nah. Seriously? Embarrassing, eh.”

It was so unexpected, I found myself grinning back. “Embarrassing, yeh.” And then, for some reason, went on, “Especially as Oriana had to give me a lift to hospital. I went to see Matiu for the stitching, but I didn’t realize they’d all go out for the holiday, and …” I explained the rest as best I could. “Should’ve gone straight to Emergency, I reckon. Oriana was working.”

Gray stood there a minute in silence, one hand in his pocket, looking over the fruit trees and the garden, then up the hill to where Oriana was still playing cricket, and said, “She’s your cousin.” Neutrally, but not.

“My step-cousin. Aaron’s my stepdad. My dad died when I was a baby.”