Page 74 of The Version You Hide

“She died. She’s gone.”

“Oh, Kenz.” I shuffle closer to her on the couch, my hands reaching for hers. “How? I thought you had no idea where she was.”

“I don’t. I didn’t.” She slides her fingers from my grip, swiping at her eyes, then the words rush out of her. “I met this woman at the pier one day and she told me that she liked my art. She runs a studio in Seabright Cove. I took her up on her offer to go to her art classes there and today she told me…” She pauses, inhaling deeply as though she’s internally mustering up the strength to get the words out of her mouth. “She told me that she is my maternal grandmother.”

I blow out a long breath, bringing my hands to the bridge of my nose. For her to have learnt that her mother has passed away the same day she discovers she has a grandmother? It’s no wonder she’s in this state. “That’s a lot to process.”

“I asked her where my mum was but somehow, I already knew. She told me she’d passed away not all that long ago.” Another tear falls down her cheek. “But I don’t even know whether to believe her. I mean, how did she even find me at the pier that day?”

I don’t know what to say, so I just listen. I place a hand on her knee, careful to avoid the bruise.

“It’s stupid,” she says, swiping at her face with the sleeves of my hoodie. “I feel like an idiot. I didn’t even know her. I don’t have any right to be upset when she wasn’t even a part of my life.”

“Of course, you do,” I tell her. “You have every right to be upset, or angry even. All of your feelings are valid.”

She nods. “I guess there’s always been this small part of me that had hope. This naïve idea that one day she’d walk back into my life. And now that dream is over. I never got to know my mother. I have no idea where I came from. And now I never will.”

“I’m sorry, Kenz.” I wrap my arm around her shoulder and she nuzzles into my chest.

I pull her closer, leaning back into the couch cushions behind us. We stay like that, listening to the wind howl through the sheets of roofing over the front porch and the tinny echo made by the battering rain. I hold her until her tears stop falling, knowing that there isn’t anything that I can say to ease her heartache.

“Thank you,” she whispers. “For taking care of me.”

“Always.”

She tilts her face up to mine and my arms tighten around her. I lean in, the memory of her mouth on mine in the warehouse still fresh in my mind. What I wouldn’t do to live that moment all over again. I glide my fingers along her jaw, pressing my thumb to the centre of her full bottom lip.

Then my heart jerks in my chest as something crashes loudly against the back doors.

“What was that?” Mackenzie startles, her eyes brimming with fear. She unfurls herself from me and I pine the loss of her warmth.

A low groan leaves me. “That,” I say, getting up and walking to the french doors, “was Chance.”

I throw open the curtains to reveal a mud and rain-soaked kelpie-border collie mix.

The smile that lights up her face is real and it’s almost enough to make me forget she was ever sad. “Oh my God. He’s the most adorable thing.”

“Are we looking at the same mutt?” I ask her sarcastically.

She rises from the couch and meets me at the doors, looking down at my brute of a dog who looks pretty damn proud of himself for getting as dirty as possible. “Hi, Chance.”

Chance offers a bark in reply, his paw lifting to scratch at the other side of the door. Mackenzie laughs as I aim a warning glance at him. If only he had any idea what he had just interrupted.

“Aren’t you going to let him in?”

“Are you kidding?” I ask. “Look at him. He’s filthy.”

She aims a pout at me. “But it’s cold out there.”

I could argue with her that this dog has seen much worse, having been a stray that wanders the town for sometimes days at a time, but Chance here seems to have lifted her spirits in a way that I doubt I’d ever be able to. Maybe he’s just the distraction she needs.

A deep sigh deflates my chest as my eyes roll back. “Feel like helping me give a dog a bath?”

She nods, the smile on her face growing just that little bit bigger.

I open the door and wrangle Chance before he has the

opportunity to cover Mackenzie in muddy paw prints and carry him down the hall. I wrestle him into the bathtub, the sound of Mackenzie’s laughter resonating off the bathroom walls like music to my ears.

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