Page 26 of The Wanderer

Then he was gone, leaving her feeling giddy and hopeful and looking forward to the next few weeks with him way too much, while pondering what lay beneath the surface of this enigmatic man.

Chapter Thirteen

It had been way too long since Logan last saw Hope on Wednesday at the State Library: four long days.

He'd intentionally stayed away because he felt like a bastard for lying to her. There hadn't been a glitch with a permit. There'd been a glitch in the form of his father calling.

The second he'd heard Stephen Holmes's gravelly voice in his ear, he'd known he couldn't hang around Hope for the rest of the day. His father always put him in a foul mood so he'd begged off and left. She hadn't seemed fazed but he'd maintained his distance for the rest of the week, not because he wasn't clamouring to see her but because he knew he wasn't fit company for anybody for days following his dad's calls.

He'd had to give in today because he'd invited her to this footy game so he'd swallowed his resentment at his father and manned up.

"The team's about to run out," he said, nudging her carefully so she wouldn't drop her meat pie.

"We're barracking for the red and white team, right?"

Her eyes twinkled with mischief and he clamped down on the urge to cover her mouth with his. She had this way of lighting everything around her and he needed that today. His dad's pleas still rung in his head days later and this time it was taking him longer than usual to get over his funk.

"You know very well the Kangaroos wear royal blue and white vertical stripes."

Her eyes widened in mock surprise. "On yeah, we've already been over this. Eighteen men on the field per side who can kick, handball, and mark the ball, along with tackling each other, with the ultimate aim being to kick goals." She pointed at one end of the stadium. "Through the big sticks is a goal, through the big and small goalpost is a behind.”

She grinned and tapped her temple. "See? All that useless information you spouted earlier is stored up here."

He laughed, her teasing just what he needed today. "You can't live in Melbourne and not support a footy team. It's un-Australian.”

"Lucky I'm a Brit," she said, blowing on her pie to cool it. "Though I am partial to these pies. They're delish."

Her contrasts never seemed to surprise him. Considering her privileged background—he'd looked her up online—he'd expected her to be a Michelin star kind of girl who'd think the humble Aussie meat pie was gross. But she'd demolished one and was onto her second before the game even started. Intriguing indeed.

"Did you get your permit issue sorted?"

Great. Now he'd be forced to lie again. "Yeah."

Unable to meet her curious gaze, he focussed on the players warming up on the stadium’s pristine grassy surface. Who knew watching a bunch of athletes running through warm-up stretches could be so fascinating?

"There was no hitch, was there?"

Damn, how did she do that? He hated lying, had no tolerance for it after his childhood. But telling her the truth could result in more questions and he had no intention of discussing his warped family life. Even now, days later, he still couldn’t forget his father’s pleading tone, asking to meet. Asking for a second chance.

His gut churned with repressed anger. He owed his father nothing, even after he’d digested the startling news of how close he’d come to losing him.

When she continued to stare at him in open curiosity, he knew he had to come clean.

"My dad called. He never fails to rile me and I often end up yelling at him, and I didn’t want you privy to that so I begged off to talk to him in private."

He silently prayed she wouldn't delve further as thinking about their last call made him want to thump something.

Stephen Holmes had survived a cancer scare.

And Logan learning about it after the fact rammed home how shitty their relationship was.

His choice, of course. Once his mum died, and Logan knew the real cause, he hadn't wanted anything to do with his father. He'd been blaming his dad for years for abandoning them so it hadn't been difficult.

What had been hard were his father's constant overtures to mend their relationship. No matter how many times Logan hung up on him or yelled or called him names, Stephen persisted. His father never gave up despite not being able to get through to him.

Until last Wednesday, when Logan had learned about his father's battle with testicular cancer and how he wouldn't have known until he got a call from the hospital if things had gone south with his dad's operation.

It made him feel like shit.

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