Well, that didn’t sound overly demanding or threatening. He’d be away for a while once she got back, so he obviously wasn’t planning on stepping into a hands-on daddy role immediately. ‘Sure. If you want.’
‘Text me the address. I’ll see you tomorrow.’
‘Okay.’Tomorrow?‘See you then.’ She congratulated herself on sounding so calm. Years of practice had honed her skills: the groom’s lost his wedding suit? No worries. The bride’s hyperventilating outside the church? I got this.
Then it hit her:He’s coming here tomorrow.
What would she say to Poppy? Was there time to prepare her? No, she thought frantically, not yet. She didn’t even know for sure he wanted anything to do with her. Maybe he was just being decent and wanted to tell her face to face that he hadno interest in being a father. No, she cautioned herself firmly. She’d just wait and see what happened once he got here.
Everything was fine, she thought, fighting back a nervous eye twitch and concentrating on breathing.
Ewan stared down the long stretch of highway, absently taking in the rows of cane growing in the fields as far as the eye could see, and tried to stop thinking about how nervous he was. He was meeting his daughter for the first time and he had no idea what he was going to say. He wished he’d thought to ask Kenzie how they were going to handle this situation, but he hadn’t been thinking straight. She’d thrown him when she’d said they weren’t in town.
Maybe this worked out better. He’d been busy packing up his belongings from the apartment he and Sasha had been living in, and collecting his things from the front desk of the office, as instructed by her father. He was now officially homeless and jobless.
He glanced at his fuel gauge and realised he’d need to fill up again soon. He missed the old highway, with its curves and corners, and all the small towns it used to meander through, places you could stop and break up the trip. Now it was all motorways and straight stretches of road with absolutely nothing of any interest to help pass the time. Ugly service centres that looked like carbon copies of each other had replaced the smaller, friendlier service stations in previously bustling coastal holiday towns. It was difficult to even getyour bearings because there were no longer any distinguishing landmarks to determine where you were.
A road trip back to South Australia seemed like the perfect time to process everything that had happened, but first he had to talk to Kenzie. He couldn’t leave without explaining that he needed to sort out his future before he wrapped his head around the whole fatherhood thing. She deserved that much.
His thoughts went once more to Poppy
He had a kid.
Kenzie tried not to look at the clock. The hands would have barely moved since last time her anxious gaze had flown to the wall to check, and yet surely it must have been ages …
Nope. Three minutes later than the last check. He’d texted her his estimated time of arrival to be forty minutes and that was forty-sevenminutes ago.
She let out a frustrated growl as she headed out onto the verandah to watch the two little figures in the distance spending some quality time with two very pretty horses. Her mum had offered to keep Poppy occupied to allow Kenzie and Ewan to talk alone for a bit before he met his daughter, but the waiting for his arrival was almost torture.
The sound of an engine and then crunching tyres on gravel sent even more butterflies through her. She drew in a deep breath and closed her eyes.It is going to be fine. Everythingisfine.
The four-wheel drive utility that was heading down the hill was not what she’d imagined Ewan turning up in. Last time she’d seen him, he’d been driving a sleek Mercedes sedan. The big, rugged-looking machine he was in today looked far more suited to a country boy than a businessman from the Gold Coast.
Kenzie walked out to wait for him as he parked his ute in front of a large silver farm shed and climbed out. There was very little of the company executive in the man who walked towards her, except maybe the short haircut. The business suit had been replaced with a pair of denim jeans, a pair of tan workboots and a light blue button-up shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows. As he came to a stop before her, her gaze lifted and she found that the smooth-shaven face now sported stubble that made him seem a little less like the confident businessman she’d been introduced to a few days earlier and a lot more like the younger version of himself that she now remembered with uncomfortable accuracy.
‘Hi,’ Ewan said, reminding her she hadn’t greeted him yet.
‘You found the place, okay?’
‘Yeah, no trouble. I haven’t been out this way before.’
‘Yeah. It’s a good spot. Close enough to the coast to go to the beach whenever you want and still have decent farmland.’
‘What do you run?’
‘Pardon?’ Kenzie replied blinking at him.
‘Stock wise,’ he added.
‘Oh. Uh … cows, mainly …’ She shrugged. ‘I don’t actually know any kind of farm terminology.’
His lips twitched slightly as he nodded. ‘Really? You could have fooled me, “cows, mainly” was pretty technical.’
‘Oh, right, sorry, Mr Executive. I suppose you have lots of experience with the whole agriculture thing,’ she shot back, lifting an eyebrow.
He shrugged lightly but his smile had vanished. ‘I know a bit. I’m not an executive. Never really was, to be honest.’
‘Oh.’
