‘Tomorrow?’ his mother asked, looking sad. ‘So soon?’
‘I think it’s better that I go.’
Vera turned on her husband furiously. ‘Are you happy now? You’ve driven him away again.’
‘I never drove him away. He chose to go, just like now. I don’t know why you thought he’d changed.’
‘Like father like son, I guess,’ Ewan muttered.
Thirty-eight
Ewan knocked on the door of his sister’s house, and Joe came out.
‘I heard about what happened,’ Joe said sympathetically. ‘What a mess.’
‘I need to speak with Kenzie,’ Ewan said.
‘Sorry, mate. She’s not here.’
‘What?’
‘There was a late flight . Floss offered to drive her.’
Ewan felt a punch of betrayal. ‘Why would she do that?’
Joe shrugged a large shoulder. ‘Kenzie was pretty upset.’
‘Floss should have told me.’
‘There wasn’t really time. Besides, Kenzie wouldn’t be talked out of it. Maybe giving things a bit of space wouldn’t hurt.’
Ewan ran his hand through his hair and let out a frustrated curse. He’d wanted to talk all this over with Kenzie, try andunderstand what happened. He should have just told her that he believed her, even if he wasn’t sure how a DNA test could be wrong. Instead, he was still in shock and there’d been too many questions and emotions running through his head that he hadn’t been able to get the right words out when she’d clearly been needing him to say them.
‘Floss’ll be back in a couple of hours. Why don’t you come in and have a beer while you wait for her?’
He had nothing better to do. He sure as hell wasn’t going back over to the main house with his old man still in there. He reluctantly followed Joe inside, suddenly feeling years older and a whole lot wearier.
‘Bloody idiots,’ Jack stormed late the next evening, when he, Sam and Kenzie were seated at the dining table. It had been a long day of waiting in airports and connecting flights to return to Burrumba to pick up her car. ‘How could they even think she wasn’t his kid? Blind Freddy could see the resemblance.’
‘The report said otherwise.’ Kenzie sighed, wishing she was already in bed, but knowing, despite her fatigue, she probably wouldn’t be able to sleep. There were too many things swirling around in her head.
‘There’s no point in going over it all now,’ her mother said gently. ‘It’s been a long day. A good night’s sleep will do everyone the world of good.’
She smiled faintly at her mother and nodded. The moment she walked into her parents’ home, she’d felt all the pastthirty-odd hours drain away as she’d been wrapped up tightly in a warm, comforting hug, feeling exactly like she was six years old and coming home from a bad day at school. Home made everything feel better.
Poppy had been put in bed hours ago, clutching Mr Percival, and Kenzie stood under the hot spray of water from the shower, letting it ease the tight knots in her shoulders and neck. It seemed surreal, everything that had unfolded, like the froth in a glass of beer, rising too fast to contain it and overflowing without end.
She’d turned her phone off after notifying her mother she was on her way home. She didn’t want to talk to anyone. There had been a few missed calls from Ewan, which she ignored—there was nothing else to say. He didn’t believe her and she was too exhausted and heartbroken to bother defending herself.
She fought off fresh tears when she thought about how she was going to explain to Poppy why Ewan was suddenly not around. How could she tell her Ewan no longer believed he was her daddy?
This was worse than if he’d decided not to be part of Poppy’s life—and exactly what she’d been afraid of: getting to know him only to lose him. She wasn’t even sure she was talking about Poppy anymore … her own heart was shattered as well.
Tomorrow, she planned on heading back to the Gold Coast. They’d already been gone too long. What they needed was some familiar routine, just the two of them, back to what they were used to before Ewan bloody Campbell had come crashing into their lives.
The next morning, Ewan woke up on the lounge to the sound of cartoons playing quietly on the TV and cracked open one eye to see his two nephews seated on the opposite lounge, eating toast as they watched their shows.
‘Uncle Ewan’s awake,’ Angus called, as he took a bite of his toast before looking back at the screen.
