But he had a feeling it was a whole lot more than that.
She leaned back, closed her eyes. ‘My place is great but this house, Noah, is something to treasure.’ Her eyes opened again. ‘Did you know this was once the original signal box for the railway line that ran through the town?’
‘It’s been passed down through my family, a little slice of Whistlestop River history right here.’
‘Is that so?’
He nodded. ‘We actually came here a lot as kids, Cassie and me. I remember my grandad making kites with us. Cassie and I would run along the path next to the river when it wasn’t even windy, wondering why we couldn’t launch them into the air.’
‘That would’ve been heartbreaking for a kid.’
‘I do seem to remember it wasn’t only Cassie who looked like she might cry.’ He began to laugh. ‘And I can’t believe I admitted that.’
‘You must have loads of great memories with Cassie.’
‘I do.’ And he could probably spend a whole week talking about them and still not be able to share them all.
‘I didn’t know your sister but if she could see you right now, the way you’ve changed your life to bring up Eva, I think she’d be really proud.’
‘I hope so. That or she’d tell me, “Noah, you’re totally messing this up.”’
‘Siblings always have a way of telling it like it is.’
‘I don’t know what she’d think of my latest move.’
‘And what’s that?’
‘I’m not sure I’m the right person to be doing this and so I took steps to find Eva’s birth father.’
If she was shocked, she hid it well. ‘And how did that go?’
‘Crap at first. But then he tried to get in touch with Cassie. He wrote a letter which came to me, I called him and he’s been here to the house to meet Eva.’ When she stayed silent, he wondered what she was thinking. ‘It’s not that I want rid of Eva; I love her. But I’m her uncle, you know. Isn’t it better for her to be with her actual dad?’
‘Maybe… although that depends on why he wasn’t in her life in the first place.’
‘He left my sister and pretty much disappeared.’
‘So reliability isn’t his strong point.’
‘Maybe… although that depends on why he left.’
She smiled at his repetition of her own words. ‘I suppose. And if he’s her dad, he deserves a look in at least.’
‘I sense you want to say something else,’ he said, turning his body to face hers on the bench. He knew she was holding back.
‘Call it experience, but just because this guy is the biological father, it doesn’t mean to say he’ll be the best parent.’
‘But isn’t it his legal right?’
She shrugged. ‘I don’t know the ins and outs of custody. Cassie entrusted Eva to you. I don’t know what to advise apart from not to do anything rash.’
Both of them heard a grizzling coming from inside and Noah held his breath that it would stop, releasing it when the sound passed.
‘I won’t hand her over easily, you know.’
‘I know.’
For months, he’d thought that that was exactly what he’d do with a kiss goodbye and a ‘see you later’ from Uncle Noah, but now, with Eva a part of his life and his home, he already knew it wasn’t going to work like that. ‘She called me dadda earlier.’
