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‘Hello, Mr Rankin.’ She smiled.
‘Call me Will. And this is Martin Cooper.’
‘Hello.’ She smiled at him, too.
Were the girls that pretty and confident in their day?
‘We found a place to rent. Dad. It’s a bit rundown, but we can fix it up. We can move in next weekend.’
‘Great news, son.’ Will managed to keep his cheery countenance
‘You’ll miss him,’ Martin said when the two young people left.
‘Yeah, but it’ll do him good. May appreciate what a good wicket he’s had. All I’ve done for him all these years.’
But once Will had left Martin with the promise to meet him at the beach on the following Monday, it suddenly hit him. With Owen gone, he’d be on his own. He’d never lived on his own before. How would he cope?
Three
The café was busy all morning. Cleo had two female staff who doubled as kitchen helpers and waitresses, and a young guy who worked part-time, dividing his hours between the café and the IT business he was setting up. It wasn’t till things eased up after the lunch rush that she had time to fully consider Hannah’s dilemma, even though it had been niggling away at the back of her mind.
Who was this Kerri-Ann who had messaged Han and why did she claim to be her sister?It must be some sort of scam, someone looking for money, or identity theft. It was the only explanation Cleo could think of. Han said she’d tried to check her out, but her Facebook profile was private. It all seemed pretty suss.
She grabbed a salad wrap and a watermelon, apple and carrot juice and took them to the table closest to the kitchen, the one she liked to reserve for Bev and herself. Bev was already there. Cleo dropped into one of the wicker chairs with a sigh.
‘Been busy?’ Bev asked with a grin.
‘No more than usual. I should be used to it.’ Cleo took a sip of her drink, loving the way the flavours blended together. It was one of her favourites.
‘Something else bothering you, then?’
‘Where do I start?’
‘Try me.’
‘Okay.’ Bev was always a good sounding board. When Cleo first arrived, Bev was the only person she trusted with her past, preferring to keep her personal life private. ‘Well…’ Cleo started enumerating by counting off on her fingers. ‘First, Hannah tells me she’s moving out – to share with two boys!’
Bev grinned.
‘Don’t! One of them is Nate McNeil.’
‘He’s a good kid. He’s been living in the caravan park since he moved out of the backpackers. Ailsa said he was looking for something more permanent, but I hadn’t heard about this move. I suppose the other one’s Owen Rankin. The pair seem to be joined at the hip.’
‘You’ve guessed it. I don’t have anything against the boysper se, but I’d prefer – if she’s to move out at all – for her to share with other girls.’
‘So that’s number one. What else?’
Cleo took a deep breath. ‘She got this message from a girl claiming to be her sister. It’s weird.’
‘Your husband…he never…?’
‘Played away? Absolutely not! We lived in a small community. There was no opportunity… I’d have known… everyone would have known. Besides, Stan wasn’t the type.’
‘What about before you got together?’
Cleo stared at Bev. ‘When we met, he had just arrived in Australia. He never said much about his life before he came here. His parents are dead. He has one older sister. Pat’s a nice woman. We keep in touch, but we’re not close. She came out for a short visit when Hannah was little, and Han spent three weeks with her after Christmas this year.’ Cleo thought back. She didn’t think Stan had been deliberately vague about his life before coming to Australia. It had never seemed important. She’d never asked. It was as if their life began when they met, and she’d never questioned it.Could this girl really be his daughter? A girl who was conceived before he left the States? What did that make him?
‘No, I can’t believe it. It would make this girl…’ she tried to work it out, ‘…in her mid to late twenties.’
