“There’s nothing in here you haven’t seen before,” Jane said abruptly, moving past him out of the room.
“Mom!” a girl called. Footsteps thudded on the stairs. “The stove’s broken. The egg pot boiled over, the element went pffft and the electricity cut out.”
Mary Kate burst into the hallway. Cole dragged his mind out of the past as he looked upon the daughter he’d seen only a handful of times in his life. His heart raced as eyes uncannily similar to his own stared back at him. “Hello, Mary Kate.”
“Hi.” She came forward hesitantly, glancing at her mother as if for reassurance.
Cole opened his arms and took her into a hug. Her shoulders were stiff and tense, so he kept it brief, covering his disappointment. “You’ve grown,” he said, feeling foolishly hearty. “How tall are you now?”
Mary Kate shrugged and again looked to her mother.
“She’s five feet four inches.” Jane moved over to Mary Kate and put an arm around her shoulder. “She’s really shot up in the past year.”
Everything Cole had imagined saying to Mary Kate when they met flew out of his brain. This wasn’t the warm loving reunion he’d imagined. In the face of her tepid response his own excitement fizzled. He dragged a hand through his hair and felt his scalp hot and damp. “Right, well, let’s have a look at the fuse box.”
The breaker was on the front veranda, so they all trooped downstairs and out into the shade of the overhanging roof. Jane peered at the faded labels above the switches until Cole edged her out of the way and flipped a switch on the top row. “That ought to do it.”
“Mary Kate, go see if the stove is working,” Jane said.
Mary Kate ran inside, her pink thongs flapping.
Cole waited a moment then grabbed Jane’s arm and turned her to face him. “What have you been saying to her about me?”
Jane yanked her arm away. “I’ve never said a word against you.”
“Then why won’t she look at me?”
“I don’t know,” Jane said, pacing. “You can’t expect her to be instantly affectionate. She barely knows you. A few stilted phone calls a year are no substitute for a real relationship.”
“Exactly.” Cole followed her along the veranda, miffed to be speaking to her back. “Whose fault is that?”
Jane spun. “Are we going to hash through this again? I never tried to stop you from seeing her.”
“No, but you made it bloody difficult. I can understand you leaving Red Hill, but did you have to move to the other side of the ocean?”
Mary Kate ran back outside, breathless. “It’s still not on. The toaster is, though, and the lights.”
Cole yanked his tie loose, trying to get some breathing room. “The stove runs off a higher voltage than the toaster and kettle. You’ll have to get an electrician to look at it. The house is old, it needs rewiring.”
Inside, a cell phone rang. “That’s mine,” Jane said, and hurried away.
Alone with Mary Kate, Cole felt perspiration prickling his hairline. “So,” he said. “How do you like Red Hill?”
Mary Kate twined a lock of hair around her finger and gazed at the veranda roof. “It sucks.”
Unlike Jane, who only had traces of an accent, Mary Kate sounded American. She might resemble him in appearance but in all other respects she was as foreign as any stranger in the street.
“I’m really happy you’re here,” he plowed on. “Stephanie can’t wait to see you, too. Do you remember when you were five years old and your mum brought you to Red Hill for a visit? You girls were inseparable.”
Mary Kate gave him an unnerving stare. “Then why did you separate us?”
Frowning, Cole started to say, “That wasn’t my decision,” then stopped. He blamed Jane, but it wasn’t right to badmouth her to Mary Kate. All at once he couldn’t handle the situation. If he stayed a moment longer his anger toward Jane would spill out and that wouldn’t endear him to Mary Kate.
Stepping off the veranda, he reached into his pocket for his car keys. “Tell your mother I’ll give her a call when I’ve worked out an asking price. I’ll be in touch about you getting together with Stephanie.”
JANE CAME BACK onto the veranda in time to see Cole’s older-model Porsche bumping down the rutted driveway. His hasty retreat sparked a pain that hardened her resolve to get out of this town as fast as possible. He’d left their daughter standing alone on the porch looking ready to cry.
“Are you okay, sweetheart?” Jane asked, giving her a hug.
“He said he’d call you later.” Mary Kate dragged a hand across her sniffly nose. “I think he’s mad at me.”
“No, he’s not. He’s mad at me.” But that was no reason for him to hurt Mary Kate by taking off so abruptly.
“Come on, let’s see if we can figure out what to do with that stove.”
Glaring at the appliance accomplished nothing. So Jane kicked it. And immediately regretted it. Hobbling to a chair, she sat down. Cole was undoubtedly right; she needed an electrician to fix the wiring and possibly a new stove. Should she bother when she was selling? The headaches associated with disposing of her aunt’s house were multiplying.
Mary Kate fished her egg out of the pot and peered at it. “This is probably as hard as a rock.” She put it in a ceramic Easter-bunny egg cup. Then she got out a spoon and held the tip to the side of the shell. “He wants me to hang out with Stephanie.”
“She was your best friend when you were five. For the month we were here, at least.” Jane sat down again and checked her toenail. Broken. Served her right.
“What if she doesn’t want to hang out with me?”
Jane shrugged helplessly, wishing she could take Mary Kate far away from these difficult encounters. It wasn’t like her confident daughter to be worried about whether someone liked her. “All you can do is be yourself. I’m sure she’ll love you.”
Mary Kate stabbed the spoon through the shell and made a face. “Yuck. It’s like rubber.” Pushing it away, she sat back and asked Jane point-blank, “Why did you and Cole break up?”
“We didn’t really have a choice,” Jane said. “Cole asked Leslie to marry him when he found out she was pregnant. He could hardly go back on his word when he found out I was pregnant, too.” Even if he’d wanted to, which he hadn’t, Jane reminded herself grimly.
“But that was awful for you,” Mary Kate said.
“I had big plans,” Jane said briskly, refusing to tell a tale of woe. “I was going to be an actor. I couldn’t do that by getting stuck in a small town. I went to Sydney and stayed with a friend of Esther’s. Cole offered to send money but I refused it since he had too many people to provide for already. Esther’s friend gave me free room and board in exchange for housekeeping. I was fine .”
“So Cole stayed here and married Stephanie’s mom.”
“That’s right.” Jane sucked in a breath. She couldn’t believe how much that rankled even after all these years. She’d loved Cole with all her heart and soul. He’d told her he loved her, then he’d told her he didn’t. Sure, she’d wanted to be an actor but that wasn’t why she’d left Red Hill; it was because Cole had chosen Leslie. The humiliation and pain had taught her a lesson—never forget, never forgive. But she kept her shoulders square and her smile bright for Mary Kate.
“That’s ancient history,” Jane said. “Now, are you going to eat that egg?”
“Do