Chapter 5
Five
Kenzie swore silently. This whole situation was impossible. Why couldn’t this guy have just remained some nameless, faceless stranger from her past? Why had he turned up now, stalking her while she worked?
He seemed nice enough, if clearly desperate to placate his bride-to-be, but they were still stuck in the same ridiculous position as before. She couldn’t work for him, but it seemed like she couldn’t not work for him either.
‘Can we go and have a coffee or something?’ he asked, surprising her. ‘I just feel like we got off on the wrong foot and if we had time to sit and get everything out in the open, it would clear the air and get us back on track.’
God, if he only knew how much more complicated his life would get if they got everything out in the open. Still, she reluctantly found herself agreeing.
They found a table inside a small cafe a few doors down, and Kenzie tried to ignore the bubble of anxiety-induced nausea in her stomach.
She took the opportunity to study him while he was ordering their drinks.
She’d thought she’d forgotten what he looked like, but she’d instantly recognised him the other day.
It was funny how the mind worked. Maybe she just hadn’t wanted to remember him?
The shock of a positive pregnancy test, and realising her carefully planned future had been completely turned upside down, hadn’t done much to endear him to her.
Looking at him now, memories of their night together flooded back.
Admittedly, much of it had been spent in the dark; the lights strobing in the nightclub had made it impossible to tell what colour his eyes were, but she’d still been able to see his strong features.
Those cheekbones and his strong chin were exactly the way she remembered, but in daylight, there were so many other things that she could instantly recognise, and knew by heart—because they were the traits she saw every day in her daughter.
She has his eyes. They were the same shape and the same colour exactly—that was probably the most striking similarity—but the way he had held his head when he was listening? She was sure Poppy did that exact same thing too.
As he took his seat across from her, she fought the urge to run.
‘I guess we should start with introductions,’ he said, making her jump a little as he broke the silence. ‘Ewan Campbell,’ he said, holding his hand out across the table.
Kenzie briefly closed her eyes in annoyance, but then remembered they were trying to be civil, and reluctantly shook his hand. ‘Mackenzie Knight,’ she said, trying not to clench her teeth.
‘Probably what we should have done years ago,’ he said, a tiny glint of amusement lighting up his eyes. ‘Or met earlier in the night, before we were both too inebriated to remember names.’ Kenzie really didn’t feel comfortable being reminded about her only night of stupid rebellion.
‘I really am sorry about all that,’ he said, and she saw genuine apology in his eyes. ‘That night was all about enjoying our last few days of a six-month working holiday, before we all went back to our everyday lives.’
‘What are you doing back here?’ she asked, finally voicing the question that had been plaguing her since she’d laid eyes upon him again. ‘You said you were flying home the next day.’ ‘I did. I went home to South Australia. I moved up to the Gold Coast four years ago.’
‘Wait.’ Kenzie frowned, interrupting his explanation. ‘South Australia? You lived in South Australia?’
‘Yeah,’ he acknowledged, returning her frown. ‘Why?’
‘You said you were a backpacker! I mean, you and your friends had been fruit-picking and you said you were flying back home …’
‘Ah.’ He nodded. ‘Technically, my friends were backpacking and flying back to Scotland. I can see where the confusion might have come from,’ he said.
‘I moved to Australia as a kid, with my family. The friends I was with that night were a bunch of old schoolmates I’d stayed in contact with and met up with when they came for a working holiday. ’
That accounted for his accent. Then a second thing occurred to her. He never left Australia. This whole time, he’d still been living in the same country as her.
‘I sometimes thought about that night over the years,’ he said, surprising her.
Kenzie tried not to squirm in her chair. ‘Yeah. It was a good night. It wasn’t something I did very often.’
‘I remember you saying.’ He grinned. ‘You were a workaholic, if I remember correctly.’
‘Well … I guess so.’
‘Still are by the looks of it,’ he added, thanking the waitress who delivered their coffees.
‘You have to be when you run your own business.’
‘You’ve done really well for yourself,’ he added. ‘I did a bit of research on you.’
His words stopped her as she was about to take a sip, and her eyes shot to his in alarm.
‘It’s okay,’ he chuckled. ‘It was all good. I didn’t find anything incriminating.’
‘Maybe I should do a bit of research about you,’ she said. She’d tried, actually. A Google search had brought up the basics—his employment and a LinkedIn account—but nothing much else.
‘Feel free to ask away now.’ He spread his hands. ‘I’m an open book.’
‘Your family,’ she asked, ‘are they in Adelaide?’ She’d made sure Poppy had a close relationship with her family, and it often crossed her mind that somewhere out there was another set of grandparents Poppy would never know. It had always made her a little sad.
‘South Australia, yeah. Near Burra. My parents own their own business, and I have a sister.’
Poppy had another aunt out there. Suddenly, it all became very real. For years, she’d only fleetingly thought of this man as some distant, unreal shadow, and now he had a face and a name and a family who shared her daughter’s DNA.
She felt torn. On one hand, she wanted Poppy to know she had other grandparents and relatives.
On the other hand, she didn’t want things to change.
She liked her life just the way it was. Everything was settled and happy.
She and Poppy had everything they ever needed, and now Ewan had come along and threatened to mess up her whole life. Again.
‘What about you?’ he was asking now. ‘Do you have family here?’
‘My parents are divorced,’ she eventually said, happy to try to delay making any decisions. ‘They’re both remarried now, and I have one sister and two stepsisters.’
‘You’re not married?’
‘No,’ she said abruptly.
‘Sorry,’ he muttered. ‘I just thought maybe you were upset about all this because you didn’t want to tell a husband or something.’
She took a steadying breath. ‘No, I’m not married and there’s no one I need to hide this from.
’ Except Poppy. Was she going to hide Poppy from him?
It had been her first reaction, and it would save a lot of unnecessary heartache, but deep down, she knew that she could never feel right living a lie. It would eat her alive.
And what would happen when Poppy was older and wanted to know the truth about her father?
She’d been preparing what she’d tell her since before she was even born, planning to be as honest as possible while secretly hoping the conversation wouldn’t have to happen until she was a bit older so she could maybe use it as a cautionary tale about what not to do …
although she suspected it had the potential to backfire.
She’d had a friend at uni who told her how her mother had warned her not to smoke for as long as she could remember, and still she went ahead and did it.
Kenzie didn’t even want to think about her daughter being old enough to make mistakes like the one Kenzie had made.
However, it was one thing to tell your child that you didn’t know who her father was when you honestly didn’t know.
It was another thing entirely to say it when you knew full well who he was, and even worse if you’d known for years.
She really had no choice.
‘Kenzie, I get the feeling there’s something more to this whole thing. I thought maybe you’d been in a relationship or something when we … well, back then,’ he amended quickly, ‘and maybe you felt guilty about it? But if it’s not that, is there something else?’
Oh God.
‘If it’s that you’re embarrassed by the whole thing,’ he continued, ‘I can assure you there’s nothing to be embarrassed about. I mean, hell, I was just as drunk.’
‘It’s not any of that,’ she said, cutting him off as she braced herself. There was no easy way of easing into it: she just had to say it. He looked at her expectantly, waiting. ‘Ewan …’
His phone rang.
She could tell he was annoyed by the interruption and did his best to ignore it, until she sent him a brief smile and told him he should get it.
He sent her an apologetic grimace as he took his phone from his pocket, glancing at the screen before pressing a button. The ringing stopped. ‘Sorry. You were going to say something?’
Kenzie licked her suddenly dry lips and glanced at the counter. It was a licensed premises. ‘Please feel free to take your call. I need a drink.’
She caught him glancing at his watch before frowning. ‘I’ll get it. What will you have? Not a tequila shot, I’m guessing?’ ‘Don’t even joke about it,’ she told him dryly, but couldn’t help the small smile that tugged at the corner of her mouth. ‘Just a white wine, please.’
She heard his quiet chuckle as he turned away and closed her eyes briefly, drawing the courage she needed to tell him what he needed to know.
He returned with two drinks, and she gratefully took a long sip of the cold wine.
‘I have to say, I’m a little bit worried that you needed to fortify yourself with a stiff drink,’ he said, eyeing her carefully.
She was momentarily distracted by his accent—although she wouldn’t say it was strong, it was definitely still very Scottish, and she inwardly sighed.
She’d never forgotten how easily she’d lost herself in that accent.
‘I never expected to see you again,’ she said as a lead-in to the most shocking news this man was ever likely to face.
He gave a nod and shrugged as he took a sip of the amber liquid in his own glass.
‘You have to understand,’ she said, holding his eyes steadily, ‘I was under the impression that you’d left the country. I couldn’t remember your name—I could barely remember my own that morning,’ she added, recalling the worst hangover of her life and that she had felt as though she were dying.
‘Aye,’ he said, watching her closely.
‘I had no way of finding you,’ she stressed.
‘Kenzie, you’re making me more than a little nervous, to be honest,’ he said, trying for a chuckle, but she could see that his expression was growing increasingly wary.
‘A few weeks later, I found out I was pregnant, and I … I had a baby.’