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she’d only just arrived at her friend’s place and turned her mobile back on.
    “I’ll grab a quick bite, then I’ll come back and get the kids,” she said. “I wouldn’t have come to Bathurst if I hadn’t thought Dad would stick around.”
    Frank was still in town, but he’d taken himself off to the pub as soon as it opened. Sia foresaw that the fun half an hour they’d had the night before would be the best for a while.
    “No, it’s fine,” Sia said. “Mary’s happy to keep them until the morning. You stay, so you can study again tomorrow. How’s it going?”
    “I’m less panicked over my accounting exam, but only marginally,” Sienna said. “Thanks, sis.”
    Sia got home from work at four in the morning. She checked and found her father snoring in his bed. Alone, thank goodness. It had been a while since he’d hooked up with a woman, and generally it wasn’t good. Most of his chosen mates were drunks like him, and having two in the house caused even more housework. And that was assuming the woman didn’t leave a baby behind when she inevitably left.
    Sia shook her head at the thought. She loved Brock and Ebonny and was never going to wish them out of her life. But that didn’t mean she didn’t hope her father was over procreating.
    In the shower, Sia started thinking about how long it had been since she’d hooked up with someone. She had a semi-regular thing with a friend’s cousin when he came to town, and the occasional one night stand with someone passing through but it had been a while since she’d had a man to pleasure and please her.
    That brought thoughts of Todd Lansing and Sia swept them away. It didn’t matter that he was the most gorgeous thing she’d ever seen and that even when angry he made her body heat. Nothing would ever happen between her and Todd.
    Sia slept until ten, then she went and collected Brock and Ebonny and spent the day ensuring the washing was up to date and Brock was ready to start the school week.
    Sienna arrived home at four in the afternoon and waved Sia away. “I can feed and put the munchkins to bed, and you’ve not touched a brush for more than a day. Go paint.”
    Sia drove to her studio. She stood for a moment in the doorway of the bedroom, fighting the fear that it wouldn’t be as good.
    Then she stepped inside and gasped. Yes, the painting could still take her breath away. Just as the man who inspired it had.
    Gently, she lifted the painting away and leant it against the wall so it could dry. Then she pulled a new canvas out and placed it on the easel. She started mixing paints, studying the colour she’d finally arrived at the other night. That pink was just right, she thought. She’d made it once. She could make it again.
    So she set to painting a sunset scene. It would just be the backdrop for whatever emotion came through, but she was determined to get it right.
    She worked for hours. As the light changed and the colours started to dim, she closed the heavy curtains that blocked the windows and turned on the lights. Sunlight was much better than artificial, but regardless of its source good light was the most important tool in an artist’s repertoire.
    She broke at one point to eat — nothing much, cheese and crackers and a glass of milk. Protein to keep her brain firing. Then back to it.
    She found the pink, mixed the matching shades and the sunset that unfurled from her brush was magnificent. It had been worth taking on Todd, to achieve this.
    A knock at the glass door startled her. Sia looked over her shoulder with a frown. No one disturbed her at night.
    She pushed open the curtain and almost shuddered at Todd’s dark face. The light from the studio slanted across his skin, lighting his smouldering eyes but leaving his tight mouth in semi-shadow.
    She slid the door open and his anger beat at her like a wind.
    “I told you to stay away from my brother.”
    Sia blinked and then realised Paul must have told him about their conversation