Kenzie had caught the flash of hurt across her mother’s face. Her father had already gone back to his phone.
‘I’ll learn,’ Sam had said quietly, before Brook had cut in and prattled on with name suggestions for the store, and the moment was forgotten. It wasn’t long after that her parentssplit up, and it was revealed that her father had been having an affair with a woman who was only five years older than Kenzie.
Her motherhadlearned how to run a business, and she was very good at it. Her boutique thrived. But by the time Brook left home, two years after Kenzie had gone off to university, Sam seemed to have lost a bit of her former spark. She’d come down to Burrumba to help her parents take care of their property and rekindled an old love affair with her high school boyfriend. Not long after, she’d decided to sell up and move down here permanently.
It had been a shock at the time, her mum starting up a new life, but it was probably the best thing that had ever happened to her. She was happy again—so much happier than Kenzie could recall her being before—and Jack loved her.Reallyloved her. Kenzie noticed all of the little things Jack did for Sam. If she was going on a trip, he checked the tyres and the oil. He kissed her hello and goodbye every time he walked out the door. He looked at her when she spoke—reallylooked at her, in a way that Kenzie had never seen her father do, not even whenshetalked to him.
Jack was like this with everyone, really. He had a way of making you feel like what you had to say was important, no matter what you were talking about.
The thing that always made her smile the most were the flowers. Jack would always leave Sam a flower. Sometimes it would be randomly left on the kitchen bench or the seat of her car. She’d watch her mother’s face light up as she picked them up. It didn’t matter that they were often just pluckedfrom the garden instead of a bunch of hot-house roses that cost a fortune. What mattered was the way her mother smiled each time.
Kenzie wanted that. She’d never say it out loud, but she wanted a man who loved her like she was the only woman in the world. But she didn’t believe she’d ever find it. She didn’t have time, for starters, a single mother running a business. She didn’t have time to find a man like that—or any other kind, for that matter.
She was jaded when it came to relationships. She hadn’t meant for it to happen but that one lapse in judgement had altered her life and changed everything. She’d sworn off ever putting herself in that same situation again.
Her mother was at the gate and opening the back door before she’d even had a chance to turn off the car.
‘There’s my precious girl.’ She smiled, unbuckling Poppy’s seatbelt and scooping her grandbaby up into her arms. ‘I’ve missed you so much!’
‘Oh, hi, Kenzie, you’re here too?’ Kenzie said dryly as she climbed out of the car.
‘And I’ve missed you too,’ Sam added, rolling her eyes.
‘Hi, Kenzie,’ Jack said, heading towards her with open arms.
‘Grandad!’ Poppy yelled excitedly, wriggling to be put down so she could run across to Jack.
‘Hey!’ her mother called after her indignantly. ‘Nan’s just as fun as Grandad.’
‘Welcome to my life,’ Kenzie quipped, hugging her mother tightly.
‘How’re you doing?’ Sam asked, holding her daughter’s face between her hands.
‘I’m fine.’ She smiled. ‘Better now I’m home.’
‘Let’s go and put the jug on,’ Sam said, tucking Kenzie under her arm and leading the way to the house.
A little while later, Kenzie settled on the verandah with a coffee and a plate of scones, the tension from the last few days slowly beginning to drain from her shoulders.
‘Any word from this fella yet?’ Jack asked when the conversation eventually turned to the huge elephant in the room.
‘No.’ Kenzie shook her head.
Jack made a low grunt and took a sip of his coffee. ‘Not much of a bloke if he hasn’t stepped up.’
‘In all fairness,’ Sam said, looking up from buttering Poppy a scone, ‘it must have come as a bit of a shock.’
‘Maybe he’s just decided it’s not worth the hassle,’ Kenzie said with a shrug.
‘Pretty sure it’s not as much as you had going on whenyoufound out the news,’ Jack pointed out dryly. Kenzie thought back to those horrible few weeks when she’d tried to digest the fact she was pregnant and her entire life had to be suddenly rearranged, and had to agree.
‘Either way, we’ll be fine,’ she said with a determined smile. ‘I’m just happy to forget all the other stuff for a few days, and have a nice relaxing visit.’
‘This is not relaxing,’ Kenzie said, blowing a strand of hair out of her face as she glared at the stupid, grey-speckled guinea fowl hysterically running back and forth in front of the open gate.
Her mother muttered a few unladylike words under her breath that suggested she agreed with Kenzie before she stalked back towards the birds to force them forward. Somehow, the gate to her gran’s chook pen had blown open and her garden had been invaded by birdlife—namely chooks and guinea fowl and the odd white duck. The chooks and the ducks had been relatively easy to lure back with food. The guinea fowl, on the other hand, were a whole other story.
‘I can’t believe how stupid they are,’ Kenzie said, watching as they ran right past the open gate. ‘It’s open!’ she shouted, throwing her arms in the air.
