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‘Yeah, it’s time to go. See you, Mandy,’ James said, leaning in to kiss her on the cheek. Though he kept his eyes on Siena the whole time, his brow furrowing as she twitched and switched feet and bit at her inner lip. ‘Thanks for calling.’
‘No worries.’ Mandy got down on to her haunches so that she was on eye level with Kane, her slim arms resting neatly atop her knees. ‘Feeling better now, kiddo?’
Kane nodded and gave a great dramatic sniffle.
‘Well, you take care this weekend as Monday is project day and you don’t want to miss that, do you?’
Kane thought about it for a second before nodding just once. Smart kid was keeping his options open too. Ha! It seemed the kid had some pretty strong similarities to her too if she went looking for them. But, unlike James, she had no reason to go looking for them. No reason at all.
She was a fly-by-the-seat-of-her-pants gal. She’d winged it her whole adult life, living day by day on ambition and gut instinct. Attachments were for those who had others in their life who needed to be considered in the mix. And she had nobody.
James rubbed a hand over Kane’s head and joined Siena. There was no holding hands this time and she wasn’t sure if he was reading her signals or if, after his time with Kane, he was sending her some pretty strong ones of his own.
CHAPTER EIGHT
THE drive home was quiet.
James could have kicked himself for dragging Siena into such a domestic scene.
Siena was a jetsetter, a big city girl; she had been offered a dream job living in Rome, for goodness’ sake, and there he was showing off the great bits of his life—Coronas in the sun, afternoon barbecues, the kind of relaxed suburban lifestyle that could be found nowhere else like they did it in the tropics.
And, in his extended selfishness of not wanting to let her out of his sight, he had gone and dragged her into … well, real life.
When they reached the house Matt’s little red car was still outside but the others had gone. Kane was out of the car and in the house using the spare key from his backpack before James had even closed his car door.
Siena exited the car slowly as well. She shot him a straight smile.
‘Why don’t you come in and show Kane his new bike?’ he suggested before she had the chance to speak.
‘You show him,’ she said, flapping a hand across her face.
He reached out and took her by the hand, having no intention of leaving their great day together on such an awkward note. ‘Nope,’ he said. ‘Uh-uh. It’s your gift. You have to give it to him.’
Her hand curled inside his until it moulded into a perfect fit. She blinked up at him and he wondered if she thought it was too. Whatever she was thinking, behind her ocean-green eyes she smiled and with a short nod gave into his tug and followed him inside.
‘Kane, afternoon tea’s on now if you want it. Reheated barbecue sausages,’ he called once they were inside. ‘Reheated anything is his favourite meal so if he doesn’t come down within thirty seconds then I’ll know for sure he’s really ill.’
He waved through the kitchen window to Matt, who was scooping leaves out of the pool.
‘You think he might be faking it?’ Siena asked, delicately extricating her hand from his so she could head around to the safe side of the kitchen island. She leant her chin on her upturned palms and stared decidedly at some spot on the granite bench top.
Yep, she had definitely moved away from him again. Dammit.
She had held up her end, chatting with Mandy, knowing when to leave him alone, and reintroducing herself to his son. But they had let her down. He and Kane and the melancholic schtick they’d had going on for so long he couldn’t remember what life was like before.
Well, he would just have to reel her back in and fast. He reached in the fridge for a plate of sausages he knew Matt would have left for them. He put them in the microwave, pressed the reheat button—every single dad’s favourite technological advance—and pulled up a barstool.
‘I don’t rightly know,’ he admitted. ‘He pulls stunts like this all the time, and I’ve let him. But today it just felt wrong, like I was giving into him rather than parenting him, and I told him as much at the school, hence the huff upstairs.’
Siena smiled though it didn’t reach her eyes. Of course it didn’t. This woman was happiest spending her days with pilots and businessmen and first class travellers, not sick kids and their clueless fathers.
‘Were you a huffer?’ he asked, doing his best to include her, to remind her that they were at least of the same species even if not of the same life experience.
‘As a kid?’ she asked. And, when he nodded, ‘Sure. World class. I was born twelve years after Rick, so it was inevitable that I become a pampered princess or a huffer. There was no way on God’s green earth that Rick would have allowed the former, and Dad was so busy working, as he thought that was the best way to provide for us after Mum was gone, to sway the balance.’
‘Sounds like they both deserved all they got.’
James had meant it as a joke, but the second the words left his mouth Siena’s face turned pale as paper. Then he remembered that her father had died when she was a teenager. Something in the way she had talked about it made him sure she thought herself to blame.
