Page 9 of Untroubled Heart

“We’d still need to replace their position and then we’d be right back to where we are now.” I blow out a breath and drop my head to the table as the door to the meeting room bursts open. The unmistakable clicking of my sister’s heels shortly follows. Even her stride means business.

“So what exactly are you interviewing for again? The next housewife of Heart City?” She and Steven crack up, and I hate them both. I’m calling my lawyer to write them out of my will.

“You both suck!” I stand up in a huff, snatching my phone off the table before I go. We don’t have any more interviews scheduled for the day, and I need a break from thinking about this hopeless endeavour for a while.

Before I make it out the door, my phone lights up with an incoming call from my friend, Lee.

“Hey, mate.” I hold the phone between my shoulder and ear as I open the conference room door and walk back to my office.

“Hey, how’s it goin’?” His light, easy drawl filters through the speaker.

I sigh. “I’m so over interviews, but other than that, can’t complain. You?” I drop into my chair, shaking my computer mouse and navigating to my calendar.

“No luck with the new assistant then?” he asks instead.

“Nah.” My mood deflates further as I see how busy the rest of my week is. How am I supposed to fit in more interviews? I didn’t think it would be this hard.

“Good. I think I have someone who could help.”

Chapter five

“Hey, Cas.” I smile at my brother through the phone. It looks like he’s sitting on the back patio of our mum’s place.

“How’s my favourite sister doing?” He smiles, but he’s not looking at me, he’s waving at my daughter.

His messy, dark hair is tamed under a backwards ballcap, the long ends flicking up at his nape. His eyes look particularly blue when his hair’s off his face. You’d think it would soften his look, but it only makes his cheekbones look that much sharper, and his nose ring glimmers under the setting sun shining on one side of his face.

“I’m your only sister, but I’m doing good.” I laugh. “How are you? How’s work?”

He nods, bringing a beer to his lips and taking a sip. “Not as fun without you around.”

“Liar.” I laugh as I bounce Navie on my lap.

“Seriously. It’s weird not having you around.” This is the longest I’ve ever been away from Caspian. We’ve always got along. We never had those moments growing up where we bickered or pissed each other off. Not with any amount of seriousness. Cas has been someone I could always depend on. He’s not just my big brother, but my best friend.

“You could always come up to the city and visit more often.” I grin.

Like me, Cas has spent his whole life in Trevally Falls. He’s a small-town guy, and he’s not a big people person.

“I might have to if this one keeps growing so fast.” He gestures to Navie with the tip of his beer bottle. Cas rode up a few times in the first few weeks after Navie’s birth. After my labour failed to progress and Navie grew distressed, I had an emergency C-section, so I wasn’t able to drive, but once I was in the clear, I tried to go back home at least once a fortnight. I hoped Mum would enjoy seeing her granddaughter, but she didn’t seem to bond with her like Caspian and Westley did. The conversation would always turn back to asking if we’d heard from our dad.

The sound of a door closing comes through the speaker, and Caspian looks off to the side. “Hey, Mum. I’m talking to Cal and Navie. Do you wanna—” Cas pauses, finishing with a sigh before looking back at the camera.

“Let me guess, Dad still hasn’t come home?”

“She hasn’t heard from him in almost two months.” Caspian takes another pull of his beer. “It’s never been this long. He should have at least called her if he wasn’t coming home.”

“Is she still turning up at work?” I ask. “I can send some money if the bills are falling behind?”

Caspian shakes his head. He hasn’t let me help in the last year, not since my ex left my accounts drained. “No. You just worry about Navie. I’ve got everything under control here.”

“She’s my mum too. I can help.”

“Bobby’s changed her hours for the next few weeks, so it’s all good. I’ll stay with her for a few nights, but she seems different from other times.”

Thankfully, the pub where Mum works is managed by one of Dad’s friends, Bobby, who knows what our dad’s like, what my parents’ relationship is like. This isn’t the first time he’s had to cut back her hours or shift her from the bar to out the back, where she doesn’t have to deal with customers until a few weeks pass and she somewhat returns to herself again.

I just wish she would realise there’s no point waiting for Dad to love her like she loves him. She’s a pit stop to him. He’s spent more years out of her life than in it. Years of witnessing their relationship was what ultimately led me to the decisions I made when I found out I was pregnant.