Second Chance Lane (Brockenridge #2) - Nicola Marsh Page 0,34

talk about it?’ She sat opposite him and dished out a healthy serve of the pesto pasta. Another of her go-to meals when they’d practically lived with each other in Melbourne and she’d insist he load up on carbs before a gig.

‘Talking won’t help,’ he muttered, picking up his fork and stabbing at the spaghetti, twirling it around and around. ‘I have to get my shit together on my own.’

Roger, Blue, Daz and Yanni had all seen a counsellor afterwards, but he had an aversion to blurting his innermost fears to a stranger who would potentially judge him. If he couldn’t face empathy from his best mates, no way in hell did he want to blab to anyone else about his fear that he’d never pick up a guitar again let alone sing.

‘Uh-huh,’ she mumbled, pushing her pasta around the plate. ‘But just so you know, kids pick up on moods, so you might want to rethink bottling everything up inside if you’re going to spend quality time with Isla.’

His fork slipped from his fingers and clattered against the plate. ‘Give me a break, Tash. We don’t know each other anymore and you want me to pour my heart and soul out to you? And when I don’t want to, you bring up Isla as some kind of stick to beat me with?’

She widened her eyes before lowering her gaze. ‘I’m sorry. I thought it might help.’

Feeling like a bastard for snapping at her, he reached across the table to touch her hand. ‘I’m the one who should be apologising.’

To his surprise, she didn’t snatch her hand away. Instead, she turned it over so their palms aligned. Her acceptance of his touch after the way he’d treated her made his throat swell. She’d always been like this, quick to forgive, caring, intuitive. He’d loved so much about her and she’d gutted him.

But he was here, now, and by some strange twist of fate they were neighbours for the foreseeable future. And he shared a child with her. He really needed to pull his head out of his arse and stop being so touchy around her.

‘I can’t talk about what happened at that concert yet.’ He patted her hand before removing his. ‘It’s still too raw. But I’m getting a handle on it and if I need to talk, I know where you live.’ He managed a half-hearted smile. ‘As for Isla, I’ll do my best not to inflict my moods on her. I want to get to know her, to spend time with her.’ He dragged in a breath, determined to get the rest out. ‘And I might need your help in learning how to be a good parent.’

Tears filled her eyes and stricken, he fumbled for the right words to say. But she didn’t give him a chance to say anything. She stood, moved around the table and dropped a kiss on his forehead.

‘You’re a good guy, Kody, and something tells me you’re going to be a great dad.’

CHAPTER

15

Tash had thirty minutes before she had to pick up Isla and she used half that time to wash her face and apply a bit of make-up. She’d always been an ugly crier and, after barely touching her dinner and ensuring Kody knew his meds schedule, she’d bolted for the sanctity of her car where she let the tears she’d been battling fall. She didn’t know why she was crying. For Kody, stoic and hurting? For Isla, who would pine when Kody eventually left? For herself, who’d spent a few hours in his thorny company and realised she still had a major soft spot for him?

Whatever the reason, she had to pull herself together because she’d been right about one thing: Isla picked up on the slightest shift in her mood. They had enough to talk about tonight without her daughter zeroing in on the fact she was upset.

As she drove the short distance into town, Tash tried to rehearse what she’d say to Isla about spending time with Kody tomorrow. But every time she tried to formulate a plan, the image of an almost-naked Kody would intrude on her thoughts, making her heart pound and her palms grow clammy. It had been a long time since she’d been that turned on, so long in fact she couldn’t remember the last time. She’d had sex a total of five times since Kody. By her calculations, that equated to a shag every two-point-six years. Little wonder she’d almost combusted when she’d caught