Diving Into Trouble by Shona Husk

Author:Shona Husk
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin Enterprises, Australia Pty Ltd

Chapter 16

Kurt put down the phone. That hadn’t gone quite as planned. He wanted to call Rainy back and tell her he’d changed his mind. And what? That they were going to keep going? After the rumours that had started this week he was sure it wasn’t worth the risk. She’d end up hating him if she got kicked off the boat. That was the one thing he didn’t want.

He got up and opened some of the blinds. He was sure some of them hadn’t been opened in years. There was a thick coating of dust in the back rooms of his father’s house. His old room was as he’d left it last time he’d been here. He’d had to make the bed before he could lie down and have a nap. He wasn’t sure he’d really slept. He was restless, like he’d had too many coffees and couldn’t settle. Talking to Rainy hadn’t helped.

Staying here wasn’t helping. The past pressed all around him and not in the comfy way memories should have. It was suffocating. He’d almost considered staying at a motel to avoid the place, but he’d been tired. When he’d put his key in the lock, he’d been surprised it had worked.

The house was as it had always been, barely furnished. No pictures on the wall. It was impersonal and yet at the same time he knew every hairline crack that traced up the wall and along the cornice. The stain on the ceiling from the storm-caused water damage that had happened when he was fifteen. Even the sofa in the lounge room was the same—a little more worn and a little more stained from where his father ate in front of the TV—but the same. The large flat screen TV was new.

He kept expecting his father to come in, open the fridge, grab a beer and plant himself on the sofa until his next shift. Kurt looked in the fridge; sure enough there was a carton of beer in there, and a half-empty box of long-life milk that smelled like it had died a while ago. That was it.

Jesus, Dad. If the truck hadn’t killed him his lifestyle would’ve. He poured the milk down the sink. There were a few empty cups waiting to be washed. He did the dishes and stacked them up to dry. He could’ve thrown them in the bin. It didn’t matter. None of it did.

He rested his hands on the sink. If he got out, this would be his life. The house had been left to him, according to his aunt, and it was almost paid off. She’d suggested he fix up the place. Great town to start a family, she’d said. Like hell. She’d acted as if she knew him and gave a damn.

He didn’t want to have a fucking family here.

He didn’t want to live here.

But he did want a family one day. That was one thing he was sure of, and he was never going to be able to keep that together while in the navy.

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