Read Online Real Men Don't Quit by Coleen Kwan - Free Book Online Page B

he’d inherited from the man.
    “You’ve been wandering around like a gypsy for years now,” Helen began, looking like she was settling in for a long argument. “It’s not good for you. You should quit your roaming and put down some roots.”
    “Yeah, time you got married and popped out a few kids like the rest of us.” Mags winked at him. Great, another allusion to Jennifer . Luke pointedly ignored her.
    “Mum wanted you to come home,” Helen said.
    Irritation spurted in him at Helen’s officious tone. “You know that for a fact, do you?”
    “She never said in so many words, but I could tell. I know she missed you, worried about you. She kept that old bedroom of yours spotless. Why can’t you finish your book at home?”
    Luke felt his gut tightening. Damn. As if he didn’t feel guilty enough as it was, now he had his sister laying it on with a trowel. But he couldn’t go back to Goulburn. Here, he was away from the memories, the pressure. Here, he was a temporary visitor, the way he preferred it. And here, he was also next door to Tyler…
    “I wasn’t getting any writing done at Mum’s house,” he said, keeping his voice even. “You know I have a tight deadline.”
    “So you’re getting a lot of writing done here?” Helen looked skeptical.
    “A fair amount,” he lied. In the past few days, he’d written five thousand words, and yesterday he’d deleted all but a thousand of them. A yell sounded from outside. “Shouldn’t someone be watching the kids in the pool?” he asked, keen to drop the subject.
    Karly and the twins headed outside, but Helen remained. “About Mum’s house…”
    Oh jeez, not again. He opened his mouth to head her off, but Helen preempted him.
    “I know I’m being a pain nagging you to come back, but”—she bit her lip—“the truth is, I’m dreading when you really do move out because—because you’ll want to sell the house we all grew up in, and we’ll have to clear out Mum’s things.”
    He stared at her. “I’m not planning to sell Mum’s house.”
    “You’re not?” She gazed back at him, still troubled. “But letting it stand empty doesn’t make sense, and it’s too small for us when the girls are with me, so surely you’ll have to sell?”
    “Not if it upsets you that much.”
    “You’ll have to do something with it eventually.” Helen prodded at a bowl of potato salad, her frown lingering. “And I’d still like to see you back home. You belong there, and I like having my kid brother nearby.”
    He merely rolled his eyes in reply.
    She nudged one of the food containers on the counter toward Luke. “Here, I brought you some soda bread, just like Mum used to make.”
    Luke blinked and squeezed her shoulder, his irritation leaching away. “Thanks, sis. Haven’t had that in a while.”
    “Remember how Mum would serve soda bread with sausages and onion gravy? It was such a treat for us.” Her eyes moistened. “She had it hard. It wasn’t easy raising five children on her own.”
    He wasn’t used to the sight of his stoic big sister tearing up. Reaching out, he put his arms around her. She rested her head on his shoulder and sniffled a bit.
    “She worked herself to the bone for us,” Helen continued. “I wanted to leave school and get a job to help out, but she wouldn’t let me. She made Karly and me finish high school.” Helen and Karly had both trained as nurses. Helen, now a widow, had two daughters studying at university, while Karly and her husband had two teenagers.
    “Mum was very proud of you and Karly and the twins.”
    “Yeah, but we all know you were the apple of her eye,” Helen said without a trace of rancor. “She used to tell me all the time what a genius you were. You were good at everything. You could have been anything—a doctor, lawyer, engineer.”
    Yet he’d chosen to become a writer. If he’d studied medicine or law or just about anything else he would have been able to support his mother financially a