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‘I’m actually glad I had an excuse to come over tonight.’
‘You are?’ She casually cleared her throat to remove the frog that had surreptitiously made itself at home there.
‘I wanted to thank you,’ he said. ‘It has been a long time since I have seen Kane smile like he did today. You see, Kane recently lost his mother.’
At the word recently, her heart squeezed tightly in her chest. She knew from reading James’s blog that it had been more than twelve months since Dinah’s death, but for the guy before her it must feel as raw as the day it happened.
‘I’m so sorry,’ she said.
He shrugged off her platitude. No doubt he’d heard a thousand just the same. ‘You no doubt figured out by Kane’s little outburst that I married his mum when he was around five years old. Thankfully, before Dinah died, we had completed the process of Kane’s adoption or he could have ended up in the clutches of his father.’
So she’d been right. James wasn’t even Kane’s natural father. Oh, help! Siena’s heart squeezed so tight she could no longer remember how to breathe.
‘A drummer,’ James continued as though he had no idea that Siena was fast becoming a juddering mess at his side. ‘On the road a great deal. Bad news. I just thought you ought to know. To understand.’
She suddenly wanted to know everything, but not enough to ask. Her natural born inclination to run was far too strong, far too ingrained, far too well-heeled. And, though James Dillon may be some kind of catch, for that reason alone she could not think of him as casual friendship material.
‘These past months have been tough,’ he continued as though now the floodgates were open he couldn’t stop. ‘And tougher on him, I am sure. But with you, at home, for both of us today was unexpectedly … fun.’
He said the word as though he hadn’t known what it meant until that moment. He didn’t smile. He didn’t even flicker a dimple. But still Siena was moved beyond the capacity she thought possible.
With a deep breath she moved in and placed a hand over his, fighting against the zing that ran up her arm, and said, ‘It was fun for me too. Who would have guessed that a scare like the one I gave the lot of us would lead to that? Sometimes it simply takes a change of scene to show you what you are missing.’
It occurred to her that she had seen a million new scenes since the day she’d left home, yet was she really as fulfilled and satisfied with her life as she could have been? The insidious thought took hold and grew roots and again she cursed herself for ever coming back to this town.
She pulled herself together and moved back to a safe distance, her hand sliding over James’s fingers and on to the cool of the metal window runner and away.
‘Thanks for bringing this back,’ she said, waving her PDA at him as she stepped backwards, further and further away.
‘Thanks for the fun. And for listening.’
‘Consider us even.’
He watched her leave, his face moving further into the shadows as he slid his arm back into the dark car. ‘Goodnight, Siena,’ he said. ‘Goodbye, James.’
She turned and jogged back along the gravel driveway and into the house without looking back, though she heard the soft sound of his car pulling out on to the road behind her.
She made it into the kitchen just in time for Rick to arrive with one chubby sniffling twin in his arms and the other following behind grinning, both in matching blue denim overalls. If he noticed her pink cheeks and extra humidity-induced curls he didn’t say anything.
Siena was all but knocked over by the grinning twin—Leo?—as he bundled up to her, arms raised. ‘Auntie ‘Enna, up!’
She rested a hand on the kid’s head, letting it stay there a moment when she realised how nice the silky soft hair felt between her fingers. Such a cute kid. A cute kid with two loving parents, and as yet no tragedy to temper that cute smile. Nothing yet standing in the way of oodles of future fun.
‘Rick, just promise you won’t ever tell your kids they’re hopeless,’ she said out of the blue, shooting first and asking questions later as she always had.
‘Excuse me?’
‘It might feel like a throwaway line to you, but I promise they won’t ever forget it. And, on that note, I’m going to head up to bed. I have a big day tomorrow.’
Rick looked at her so hard, as though if he let her eye contact swerve, she might fly away.
‘Right,’ he said, drawing his hard eyes from hers to look softly down at his son. ‘I think we could all do with a good night’s sleep.’
Siena slipped her hand away from Leo’s soft head and tucked it in the back of her jeans. ‘Great. I’ll see you in the morning.’
And then she grabbed her PDA and jogged—no, she ran—up the stairs.
It was barely eight o’clock when James shut the door to Kane’s bedroom, but Kane had been out for the count for fifteen minutes already.
