North Star by Karly Lane Read Free Book Online

eyes out, with a policeman crouched at her feet. Way to fit in discreetly in a new town , she thought miserably.
    â€˜I’m sorry to have caused a big scene. I’m okay, really,’ she said, taking a deep breath. The last thing she needed was to have a police officer thinking she was on the verge of a nervous breakdown. ‘It’s just been a very stressful few weeks.’
    John wasn’t buying it. ‘I’ll feel better if I know you’re really okay, so humour me and let me get you a cuppa and something to eat, okay?’ he said, standing up and carefully closing her door.
    She considered driving off, but the thought that he might put on his sirens and book her in the main street stopped her—she couldn’t cope with any more publicity—so she gave a jerky nod, waited for him to pull out, then followed him.
    Kate winced slightly as he pulled into the police station. This would surely get around town in a flash.
    The station smelled of paper and ink and floor wax. Kate trailed John out the back to a small room that served as a tearoom.
    â€˜Okay, start from the beginning, tell me why your kids are going to have trouble fitting in here,’ John said as soon as the two of them were seated at the table with a cup of coffee.
    Kate let out a long breath. ‘Well, there’s my delinquent daughter, whom you’ve already picked up trying to buy alcohol within minutes of arriving in town,’ she started dryly. ‘She’s actually the main reason we’re here. Back in Sydney, the police picked her up very early one morning outside a train station. She was with a group of other kids, most of them drunk or stoned.’
    Georgia, so Kate later discovered, had apparently been climbing out of her bedroom window for weeks before she’d been caught, and had been wandering the streets at night with a gang of kids from her school. Discovering that while she thought her child had been safely tucked up in bed she’d actually been out on streets most adults wouldn’t dare walk down at night had been a terrifying wake-up call.
    â€˜She was hanging around a boy called Snake. He was nineteen and had a police record. I don’t know how far she’d gotten into drugs and drinking, I suspect she was still only experimenting, but I was at my wits’ end trying to think of how I could keep her away from all of that.’
    She picked at the chip on the handle of the ceramic mug. ‘I had to work two jobs, so I wasn’t around anywhere near enough, and we lived in a crappy area because, thanks to my gambling ex-husband, I was completely broke and couldn’t afford a decent place to bring up the kids.’ Kate stopped abruptly, realising to her embarrassment how much she’d revealed to a relative stranger.
    â€˜It’s okay, Kate. I have a feeling you haven’t been able to talk this stuff over with anyone before, am I right?’
    She shook her head. She couldn’t actually remember talking like this with anyone in a very long time. The friends she’d made over the years were really only acquaintances, women who had kids who went to the same school or played in the same sports teams. They were friends she shared the sports-kit washing with, not her personal demons.
    â€˜You can talk to me, Kate. I think you need to,’ he said, leaning back in his chair.
    â€˜Underneath that tough act, I know Georgia’s a good kid, she’s just a bit lost and confused.’ Kate’s voice wobbled but she took a sip of coffee and got it under control. ‘Liam’s the opposite. Since his father and I divorced, he seems to have lost all self-confidence. He won’t sleep at night unless the light’s on, he was getting bullied at his old school, he will barely let me out of his sight. It just breaks my heart to see him so miserable.’
    â€˜Do they still see their father?’ John asked carefully.
    She shook her head