He was right, of course, but doing nothing had never been Kenzie’s strength. At least she had these two for a distraction. Her gaze fell on the two faces beside her and her heart swelled. She’d never really considered that she and Poppy were missing anything in their lives, until now. It seemed incredible that, in such a short time, Ewan had become such a large presence. Would it stay like this once they returned home? Or did the fact they were on neutral ground, away from the mundane parts of everyday life, make everything feel so much more romantic? What about when Ewan came home tired after a long day at work and Poppy was full of questions and chatting nonstop? Would he be so patient with her then? When work got crazy busy and he was left with an energetic, curious four-year-old all weekend, would he still enjoy spending all that time with Poppy? Or would he crave the single man’s life where he could sleep in or go out whenever he felt like it?
Why are you expecting him to be the ideal parent all the time?a little voice demanded.Are you so perfect?She knew she wasn’t, but she also could not imagine her life without Poppy. Could Ewan ever feel the same?
In her mind, she heard her mother’s voice too, wisely reminding her not to borrow trouble and just see how things played out. Which was good advice, but it didn’t stop her overthinking, overanalysing and pre-worrying.
Stop it! Just enjoy this time.
‘Look,’ Kenzie said, pointing up to the sky. ‘That one looks like a unicorn.’ She pushed the remaining thoughts aside and decided to focus on today. Whatever might happen after they left here, it wasn’t happening right this minute.
Thirty-four
The next morning, Floss arrived on the doorstep as they were sitting down for breakfast, grinning like a Cheshire cat. She opened her laptop and sat it in front of Kenzie and Ewan.
For a moment, Kenzie looked across at Floss uncertainly, then stared at the screen displaying the article they’d written, her eyes widening as she took in the newspaper name. A majornationalnewspaper, under the human-interest section.
‘How on earth did you manage to get that in there so fast?’ ‘I told him it was urgent. He had a space, we filled it.’ She shrugged.
Kenzie was beginning to suspect that Floss’s previous career had been much bigger than she’d let on.
‘Now we do a bit of appropriate placement and ta-da!’ she said with a flourish of her hand. ‘We’ve nipped any other version of the story in the bud.’
Kenzie turned her attention back to the article, and had to admit, it was a rather captivating headline.
From Stranger to Soulmate:
A Wedding Planner’s Unexpected Twist!
It starts out as a romcom movie opening scene: the groom, the wedding planner and their unfinished business. That was the surprise businessman Ewan Campbell got when he met the woman he’d let slip away years before in a Cinderella moment—without even knowing her name—never to see her again … until a chance meeting revealed her as hiswedding planner.
However, this is no Hollywood movie; this was the reality for wedding planner to the rich and famous: CEO of Events by Kenzie, Mackenzie Knight.
‘Neither of us had any idea who the other was until we arrived at the meeting,’ Knight explained over a delicious shiraz at the picturesque Swagman Creek vineyard.
Ewan stopped reading to look up at Floss with grin, clearly appreciating his sister’s opportunistic marketing.
‘We didn’t exchange surnames, so we could never track each other down,’ Campbell explained, despite both parties attempting to over the years. ‘As you can imagine, it was quite a shock to find ourselves sitting across the table from each other.’
However, there was another twist to this story: what Mr Campbell didn’t know at the time was that he’d fathered a child to Ms Knight all those years ago, and this added an extra dilemma.
‘I was under the impression he was a Scottish backpacker, due to return home after the night we met. Then, a month or so later, I discovered I was pregnant. I had no way of contacting him. I didn’t know his last name or where he came from, so I just got on with it. Becoming a mother has been the most challenging yet rewarding experience of my life,’ she continued.
However, faced with not only unexpectedly bumping into the man she’d never been able to forget, and then realising he was about to marry someone else, Knight was caught in the awkward predicament of whether or not to tell him about his child and risk ruining his wedding.
‘I immediately withdrew my services as their wedding planner after the meeting. It wasn’t appropriate to continue, seeing as Ewan and I had had a previous relationship, albeit a long time ago and with no contact since, but I’ve built my business on professionalism and honesty and, while I didn’t admit to the bride-to-be the real reason behind my withdrawal, it was purely because I wanted to avoid upsetting the relationship between herself and Ewan.
‘In all good faith, once I was aware of who he was, I felt he deserved to at least know he had a child, however, I made it clear to him I was in no way needing him to be a part of our life, and there were no ill feelings if he chose not to get to know her.’
‘It was a huge shock, to say the least,’ Campbell agreed. ‘But how could I not want to step up and take responsibility of a child I helped create? Kenzie has done a remarkable jobraising our child alone for four years, giving up a number of her own dreams in order to do so.
‘I felt terrible that I’d been oblivious to the whole thing, so naturally, I wanted to change that and be part of this child’s life. My fiancée was understandably upset by the news and, sadly, we couldn’t come to an agreement on my decision to want to be part of my child’s life moving forward, so we parted ways. Neither Kenzie nor I had intentionally set out to hurt anyone. Neither of us intended to be more than co-parents initially. It was all about getting to know my child and developing a relationship with her, and it’s only been during this process that our previous feelings for each other have had a chance to reappear. Neither of us went into this expecting to rekindle a romance. It was just something that developed.’
The article went on to disclaim any form of cheating or dishonesty, concentrating on the twist-of-fate surprise aspect of the whole event.
Floss had included other photos from the day at the vineyard with herself, as opposed to the original one she’d put up on social media of just Ewan and Kenzie, making it seem less like a romantic rendezvous and more like a relaxed family gathering, as well as mention of the vineyard and some pretty nice shots of the shop, cafe and vines.
‘I think it covers all the bases. Any negative spin she wants to try and put out there is only going to come off as exactlywhat it is—bitter jealousy. I mean, if she doesn’t go out anddeliberatelytry to ruin your business, most people will be quite sympathetic towards her.’
‘In all fairness, it was a really shitty thing to have happen,’ Kenzie said with a small wince.
