She sent him a small smile, and he found that he liked it. There hadn’t been too many smiles since meeting her again—shock had been the standard expression for them so far. He hoped this trip might help to change that, and give them some kind of basis for a normal co-parenting relationship.
He really wasn’t in a hurry to get home. His thoughts turned to his father, and the familiar uneasiness churned in the pit of his stomach once more. There’d been a time when gaining his father’s respect had been all he’d lived for—in school, on the property, in life in general—and yet, for some reason, nothing he did was ever good enough. Arran had been the eldest son and could do no wrong. It hadn’t mattered what they did, it was always Arran who got the praise and Ewan who copped the lecture.
His father’s anger was connected to the accident Ewan and Arran had been in, the one that should have killed them both, but that he’d walked away from without a scratch while his brother had ended up needing an emergency splenectomy to remove a ruptured spleen. Ewan had been driving the side-by-side too fast, being an idiot, which had resulted in them rolling it and his brother getting flown out to hospital.
Arran was always the quieter one, focused and ambitious like their father. He was the one who had been trained to follow in their father’s footsteps and run the family estate whenthe time came. It was tradition, set in stone. The eldest son always inherited the property. That’s the way it had been in the Campbell family for centuries, back in Scotland. When Callum’s father had remarried after his wife’s death, then suddenly died only a year later, his widow had done the unthinkable and sold the estate and lands, leaving Callum, the eldest son, with nothing. So Callum had packed up his family and moved to Australia to start his own dynasty, eventually buying a property in South Australia.
The last time Ewan had been back home, he and his father had ended up in a huge argument. So, really, he was happy to take their time getting there. And maybe, just maybe, bringing home Poppy might help mend some of those bridges they’d burned. Maybe having a distraction—an heir, even, to add to the Campbell bloodline—would give them something to bond over, something to look forward to in the future.
Kenzie stared out the window of the car, watching the scenery pass. She’d lost count of how many times it had changed—from the lush coastal grazing pastures full of fat, happy-looking dairy cattle to the higher altitude areas with views of voluptuous mountains dwarfing tiny houses that looked down over enormous valleys, then the wide open plains that lost the lushness, replaced by paddocks of yellow and blond-coloured grasses with wild bushland scattered between them.
They’d stopped a number of times for toilet breaks and to break the trip up for an easily bored four-year-old, and Kenziewas impressed by the way Ewan had adapted to the more frequent stops. She’d worried he’d get annoyed, despite the fact she’d warned him that it would be a slow trip with a small child, but he’d been great, playing I Spy and counting coloured cars like a seasoned parent.
The only downside had been that her phone had been going off. She could handle the majority of the messages with a quick reply, mainly last-minute changes that she hadn’t covered before leaving in such a hurry. The messages from Mercedes, however, were more difficult. She wasn’t overly thrilled with being put through to Tara when she called, but Kenzie had promised Mercedes she’d handle the latest round of changes personally as soon as she had access to her laptop, and that had seemed to pacify the anxious bride-to-be.
Kenzie glanced back and saw Poppy had finally fallen asleep, Mr Percival firmly in the crook of her arm.
‘You mentioned the name of your family’s property yesterday, but I’ve forgotten what it was called, sorry,’ she said to break the sudden quiet.
‘Laire-Mor,’ he said.
‘What does that mean? Is it Scottish?’
‘It was named after my grandmother. Her name was Laire. Mór roughly translates to “big” or “of great size”, which was the land.’
‘That’s kind of cool,’ Kenzie said.
‘Yeah.’
‘I’ve been wondering, what exactly did you tell your parents about … everything?’ she asked. She hadn’t been comfortablebringing the subject up, but her need to be prepared by the time she met them had overcome her discomfort.
‘I called my mum to tell her that Sasha and I broke up, and told her why.’
Kenzie grimaced a little. She still felt partly responsible for the whole disaster, even if deep down she thought it was probably a dodged bullet for Ewan.
‘And they know I’m coming?’
‘Of course,’ he said lightly.
‘And they’re okay with that?’ she pressed.
‘Yes.’
‘Is it weird that you’re bringing home a stranger that you only really knew the one time? I mean … won’t they think that’s strange?’
‘I don’t think they’ve really given it much thought. They’re too excited about meeting Poppy. But they’ll be okay with it.’
Would they, though?She suspected he wasn’t revealing the entire conversation he’d had with his family about Poppy’s existence. What shewaspositive about was that this would be a big shock for anyone, and maybe he was trying to put on a bright face to cover up the fact he’d more than likely floored his family with his bombshell.
Kenzie bit down on the side of her lip. ‘But whatexactlydid you tell them … about me?’ she persisted.
He sent her a brief sideways glance before returning his gaze back to the road. ‘Oh,’ he said, comprehension finallydawning. ‘They know we had a brief relationship a few years ago and that we’d only accidentally bumped into each other recently.’
Kenzie stared at him.A relationship?‘We bumped into each other?’ she repeated slowly.
‘What?’ he asked, sending her another look.
‘They’re going to think I purposely hid the pregnancy from you.’
