Total pages in book: 108
Estimated words: 104869 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 524(@200wpm)___ 419(@250wpm)___ 350(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 104869 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 524(@200wpm)___ 419(@250wpm)___ 350(@300wpm)
“I’m famished, I’ll have everything and then some,” Fern told him with a wide, dimpled smile. He stared for a second, looking a little dazed, before returning the gesture with a hesitant smile of his own.
“Okay, I’ll be right back.” He squeezed her shoulder gently before striding back into the house with a distracted nod at Kenny.
“Thank you,” Kenny said and Fern nodded.
“Not a problem,” she said, still smiling. “He’s become a little protective recently.”
A little?
Fern’s gaze turned inward and her smile dimmed somewhat.
“Although I’m not quite sure what to make of that.” The words were spoken quietly, almost to herself. Kenny frowned, uncertain if it required a response. And not entirely sure what her response should be if it did.
But Fern had been so kind, Kenny felt it only fair to offer some kind of reciprocal insight.
“I think he likes you,” she said, then winced. Wishing she had something less insipid to offer.
Still, Fern’s eyes shone with something close to hope as she stared up at Kenny.
“You do?”
“Yes. Very much, actually. Also, I think you’re good for him. Thank you.”
Fern looked a little mystified.
“For what?”
“Bringing Cade back to us.”
“I’m not sure…”
“He had become so distant. Uninvolved. And I think it had a lot to do with his name?” Fern nodded at the question in Kenny’s statement. “But since marrying you…he’s more like the big brother I knew growing up. I don’t think any of us even realized how very distant he’d become until you.”
Kenny knew that she was so wrapped up in her own emotional stuff in the years following their mother’s death that she hadn’t had time to notice what was going on with her brothers. It felt like one day she’d come up for air and Gideon was estranged, Nox was out of control, and Cade was gone. Emotionally switched off. There but not. Yet always so quietly steadfast and reliable that it had been easy to overlook what was going on with him in favor of Gideon and Nox’s more obvious issues.
Then again, Kenny wasn’t exactly the poster child for mental and emotional health in this family. But like Cade, her own unraveling was quieter. More private. With Smith as its only casualty.
Smith.
She looked down at her feet as she tried to compose herself.
“Kenny?”
“I’m fine,” she whispered, blinking back tears and tilting her chin upward to meet Fern’s concerned eyes.
She forced a smile.
“Let me grab some food before it all disappears.” She pivoted away from Fern, before hesitating and turning back. “Fern…thank you. For-for this. It means a lot.”
Fern smiled, her eyes filled with warmth and understanding.
“I meant what I said earlier, Kenny,” she said, her voice filled with gentle vehemence. “If you ever need to talk, or just a sympathetic ear, please reach out.”
Kenny clamped her lips between her teeth and nodded. Afraid to speak in case she humiliated herself by bursting into tears.
She was taken aback by how much Fern’s offer meant to her. She wasn’t the type to ever confide in others. But knowing Fern cared…
The lump in her throat made it hard for her to even swallow and she took a moment to compose herself before joining the cheerful throng milling around the buffet Gideon and Beth had set up. The last thing in the world she felt like doing right now was eating.
But skipping lunch would raise even more questions and concern from her family.
She wondered if Smith was finding this all as difficult as she was. Or was he happy to finally be rid of her? Considering what he’d said about none of his friends and family liking her, they must be ecstatic for him.
Was he celebrating his liberation from her with them at this very moment?
The thought was galling and painful and she shoved it from her mind. It wouldn’t help her get through today. She needed to get her shit together, put on a less miserable face for her own family, and try to salvage the rest of this day as best she could.
Chapter
Five
It was nearly six in the evening and the day hadn’t cooled down at all. The temperature still hovering around the thirty-three degrees Celsius mark.
Kenny surveyed her inhospitable surroundings apprehensively, convinced that she must have taken a wrong turn somewhere. With the red sand, sun-scorched shrubbery, and mostly dead trees from the last bushfire that had ravaged the area, this place could quite literally be described as hell.
This was what she got for insisting on doing this drive alone. She’d mistakenly believed that the nearly seven-hour long drive would somehow give her clarity. Help her mentally prepare for what was to follow once she reached her destination. But all it had done was make her even more apprehensive and cement her fear that this was a colossal error in judgment.
She didn’t enjoy driving. She didn’t like traffic. And now that she found herself on this dusty, gravel road in the middle of nowhere, she questioned her very sanity. Surely only a madwoman would have set off to parts unknown, in an unfamiliar car, with an uncertain and likely hostile reception awaiting her at the other end of her foolhardy journey.