Chapter 11
Eleven
Kenzie was glancing at the man in the front seat of the dual-cab ute, in deep conversation about cattle with her stepfather.
She listened in from the back, baffled that this was the same man she’d met at the wedding venue appointment.
That Ewan had been a confident, professional executive dressed in an expensive suit, who’d seemed perfectly at home in the life of a wealthy businessman.
This Ewan was different, and much more like the down-to-earth guy she’d briefly met five years ago.
‘That’s Lucy and that’s Fluffy,’ Poppy said, pointing to two of the cows after they’d pulled up and climbed out of the ute. ‘And that one is Rose,’ she joyfully informed Ewan from the fence post Jack had lifted her onto. They looked out over the paddock at the herd of Angus lazily grazing.
‘How can you tell them apart? They’re all black,’ Ewan said.
‘I just can,’ she told him seriously.
‘That one’s Rose?’ Jack asked, scratching his head. ‘I thought her name was T-bone?’
‘No, silly,’ the little girl said, rolling her eyes dramatically.
Kenzie loved the way Jack and Poppy interacted.
He’d been such an important role model for her daughter.
Her glance shifted to Ewan, who stood on the other side of the pair, and wondered what kind of role model he might turn out to be.
In the short time she’d known the man, he did appear to have a number of things going for him.
He was a man of his word, at least so far.
He was polite and seemed to value honesty—even to his own detriment, since it had caused the breakdown of his pending marriage.
And she had to admit he wasn’t too hard on the eyes …
She pulled herself up sharply. Not that that had anything to do with … well, anything.
She listened to the men talking farming, Ewan asking questions about the farm and various technical terms that she assumed had something to do with what Jack grew for feed and managing paddocks, but then she stopped listening and decided to just look at the countryside around her.
It was certainly a beautiful spot, lush and green, and she could hear the trickle of water nearby in the creek that ran through the property.
‘It must have been nice growing up here.’ Ewan’s voice sounded from close beside her, making her jump a little.
She hadn’t realised Jack had taken Poppy through the fence to go and pat a cow.
She trusted Jack indubitably, but the cattle were huge, the bull even more so, and part of her wanted to call out to be careful, despite Jack being the most careful person she knew.
‘I didn’t really grow up here. I only spent school holidays visiting. Mum grew up here though. And Jack.’
‘Poppy seems right at home on the farm,’ he commented as they watched her giggle at something Jack said while they stroked the neck of an enormous cow.
‘Yeah, she loves it here. Loves animals and getting outside and getting dirty. I always wondered where that came from,’ she said dryly. ‘I was blaming my mother, but maybe it’s from you.’
He looked a little stunned by her comment, until he relaxed and gave a slight chuckle.
‘I would never have had you pegged as a country boy.’
He shifted uncomfortably. ‘I guess all that work Sasha did paid off then,’ he said with a small grimace. ‘Although it was my country charm that caught her eye, it eventually wore off for her. She decided I needed a makeover, to assimilate to fit in her social group.’
‘I see.’ She really didn’t see. From the few interactions she’d had with Ewan, he didn’t seem at all like the type of man who’d allow himself to be browbeaten into changing who he was. Although Sasha Delsanto had been quite the force to be reckoned with.
‘I used to think the way Sasha’s father pandered to her was kind of ridiculous,’ he said. ‘I didn’t really see that I’d become just as bad.’
‘She certainly seems to know what she wants,’ Kenzie said diplomatically.
‘She does. It’s just a shame that she doesn’t let everyone else see the other side of herself. She’s incredibly loyal and funny and generous. Once she gets her teeth into a cause, she’s all in.’ ‘I’m sorry everything went wrong.’
‘That’s life,’ he said, then looked down at her. ‘I’m guessing you’ve survived the odd unexpected plot twist in life,’ he said with a wry grin.
She snorted. ‘You could say that,’ she said, looking over at the little girl laughing nearby. ‘But sometimes, it works out for the best.’
‘Well, hopefully mine does too.’
When they arrived back at the house, her mother had the table set and lunch ready to serve. ‘Hope you’re all hungry,’ Sam said, handing out plates.
‘Looks great,’ Jack said, kissing his wife’s cheek and taking a seat. ‘Come on, Ewan, dig in,’ he said, glancing up to see the younger man, hanging back slightly.
As Kenzie settled Poppy into a seat and placed her plate in front of her, she couldn’t help a grin when she noticed both father and daughter had swapped the cutlery to the other hand. ‘You’re left-handed,’ Kenzie said.
Ewan looked up, then over at the little girl holding the fork in her right hand and did a double-take. ‘Yeah. My brother was too.’
‘How many siblings do you have?’ Sam asked as she sliced up the cold chicken on her plate.
‘It’s just my sister and I now. My brother died in an accident.’ ‘Oh. I’m sorry to hear that. That must have been horrible.’ ‘It was a while back. Kenzie mentioned she had three siblings?’
Kenzie suspected he was desperate to redirect the questions away from his brother and jumped in. ‘I have a sister, Brooklyn, and two stepsisters, Jack’s daughters, Bianca and Tasmin.’
‘You’re severely outnumbered around here, then,’ Ewan said, looking across at Jack, who smiled amicably back.
‘I just keep my head down and do as I’m told.’
‘Which translates to, when everyone’s home, he spends most of his time with his cattle and working in his shed,’ Sam said dryly.
‘Yet, strangely, even when everyone’s home, I still don’t get too many volunteers for any of the cattle work,’ he added.
‘I offered to help tomorrow,’ Kenzie said.
‘And I’m happy to accept. I can use all the hands I can get.’
‘Sometimes, Grandad can’t remember the names of the cows,’ Poppy put in happily, kicking her legs under the table. ‘Last time, he called Annabelle an old bi—’
‘She was being a bit naughty that day,’ Jack interrupted.
‘And Grandad always gets grumpy when we help him. Doesn’t he, Nanny?’ she said, looking to Sam for confirmation.
Biting back a smile, Sam sent her husband an amused glance before answering. ‘Well, sometimes, there’s a lot going on.’
It had been an eye-opening experience when Kenzie and Brook had first started coming home to lend a hand during some of the busier times of the year.
Having never had anything to do with cattle work, they soon learned the hard way to grow a thick skin around the cattle yards.
Well, Kenzie did, at least—Brook had stormed off back to the house after the first time and vowed never to help again.
It was now a family running joke, so much so that Brook found a T-shirt with Sorry for what I said when we were doing cattle work written across the front, and bought it for their mother, adding a sign-off in Sharpie: love, Jack.
‘I can give you a hand tomorrow, if you like?’ Ewan offered.
‘Yeah?’ Jack replied, looking across at him. ‘Thought you were on your way home?’
‘I don’t have anything to get back for. A couple of days won’t make any difference.’
‘Well, if you’re sure, that would be great.’
‘Then you’ll stay here tonight,’ Sam said.
Kenzie inhaled part of the mouthful she’d been chewing, coughing loudly.
‘Smaller bites, Mummy!’ Poppy admonished as Kenzie hurriedly sipped some water.
‘I can get a room in town,’ Ewan said, sending a quick glance across at Kenzie.
‘Nonsense,’ Sam answered for her. ‘We’ve got plenty of room.’
Kenzie lowered her gaze to her plate and silently counted to ten. What the hell was her mother doing? They didn’t even know this guy and she was inviting him to spend the night?
Well, technically you slept with him and didn’t even know him, an unhelpful little voice reminded her.
After lunch, as Kenzie was stacking the dishwasher, Ewan stepped into the kitchen, depositing a stack of plates on the bench beside her. ‘Look, about earlier—your mum inviting me to stay—I really don’t have to. I was planning on staying in town. I don’t want to put you in an awkward position.’
Kenzie forced a smile to her face as she glanced up at him. ‘It’s fine,’ she said. ‘You’re doing Jack a huge favour.’
The clink of plates and rattle of cutlery filled in the silence between them as they worked side by side, stacking the dishwasher.
‘She’s pretty awesome,’ Ewan finally said. ‘Poppy,’ he added when she looked over at him. ‘You’ve done a great job with her.’
‘She is awesome. I had lots of help.’ She nodded towards the sound of voices outside.
‘It’s great your family are so close.’
She hesitated before replying, ‘I get the feeling yours isn’t?’
‘We are, mostly. Mum’s the ultimate matriarch. She lives for her children and grandchildren, and my sister is a modern-day version of Mum. It’s just … me and my old man. That’s still a bit frosty.’
‘Why’s that?’ When he didn’t rush to immediately answer, she added, ‘Sorry, none of my business.’
‘No, it’s fine, there’s just not one, simple answer, that’s all. And I guess it is your business—in a way—seeing as it’s also Poppy’s family.’ He paused, and she waited. ‘I guess it’s because, in his eyes, the wrong son died,’ he said. He grimaced, as though to make light of the statement.
Kenzie stared at him, her hand poised above the next plate she’d been about to load into the dishwasher. ‘That’s a terrible thing to say.’
Ewan shrugged. ‘Arran was supposed to inherit the property. He was always the one who’d planned to follow in Dad’s footsteps.’
‘That’s a shame. Do you think you’ll ever reconnect?’
‘Stranger things have happened, I guess,’ he said, sounding unconvinced. ‘Anyway, my mum and my sister are pretty awesome, and I have two nephews.’
‘Does your sister live close by?’
‘She and her husband live and work on the property too.’
‘That must be nice, having everyone together like that.’
‘It can be. It can also be a bit of a pain when you live and work together all the time, if you don’t have your own interests.’
She could understand that. ‘What’s your mum like?’
He smiled a little. ‘She looks like a prim and proper lady who loves pottering in her garden and getting involved in all the local charity organisations, but she can be as tough as the old man when it comes to running the business. She was his right-hand man for a long time.’
‘Maybe that’s where you got your business genes from,’ she said, trying to lighten the conversation.
‘Yeah, probably. It wasn’t something I thought I’d be getting into.’
‘So why did you?’
He leaned back against the kitchen bench and watched as she wiped down the countertop.
‘The Delsantos gave me an opportunity to try something different and I took it. It wasn’t exactly something I could have turned down, if I’m being honest about it.
I wasn’t the kind of man Leo wanted his daughter marrying, so it was his way of keeping an eye on me,’ he explained dryly.
‘But turned out, I liked it. Maybe not the lifestyle so much,’ he added with a small frown.
‘I’m not really into the whole socialite scene.
But the experience I gained working for him …
’ He shrugged ‘That’s given me experience I would never have got doing anything else.
Not that it’s going to do me any good right now.
I’m pretty sure he’s blacklisted me from every business on the entire east coast.’
‘He’d really do that?’
‘There was a rather unpleasant phone call that suggested the possibility,’ he said with a surprisingly unperturbed tone.
‘I’m so sorry, Ewan,’ she said, feeling a twinge of guilt for indirectly blowing up his life.
He shrugged. ‘It is what it is.’
How can he be so unperturbed? ‘What will you do?’ she asked.
‘Give it time to die down and see what the damage is after, I guess.’
The part of her that needed to have a back-up plan to her back-up plan was horrified.
She was trying to process how someone in that situation didn’t have a meltdown when her mother walked in and asked if anyone wanted a coffee.
Ewan smiled. ‘I’d love one.’