Echoes Of The Past (Fermosa Bay #1) Read Online Free

accident?”
    “Mate, you’re really low on fuel. You slipped on a rock, had a nice cut which needed a few stitches, and the next thing I remember was you had left.”
    Connor instinctively touched the scar on his forehead. The one he got when he fell off the bike. Not when he slipped on a rock.
    “Still there,” Ethan remarked with a grin.
    “Still there,” Connor agreed. “But my story is different.”
    Ethan’s expression changed as he shook his head. “Mate, what happened?”
    With a slight shrug of his shoulder, Connor replied, “That’s why I’m here. To find out.”
    “I suppose Jack hasn’t told you, yet, why he went through all the effort to find you.”
    Connor looked at Ethan and choked back a chuckle. “Honestly? I thought it was to look after him, but if nothing else, I’ve found out he’s got some great people around. So, no, I haven’t got a clue.” Then he gazed across the ocean. “To apologise? Make up for lost time?” He shrugged. “You’d probably know more than me.”
    Ethan was quiet for a long moment before he met Connor’s gaze. “Jack’s missed you. Damn, he missed you. He’s an old man. A bit rough on the edges and grumpy, but he means well. Hell, I don’t think I would’ve coped, if it hadn’t been for him.”
    A pang of jealousy rushed through Connor and it blindsided him a bit, because he had no right to feel that way. When Jack asked Connor’s mother to leave, he’d made it clear how important Connor was in his life—not at all.
    “Your father wants you to have fifty percent of his hotel business.”
    Connor wasn’t able to hold back his surprise. “Which hotel?”
    “Hotels. Jack’s the owner of half a dozen hotels in the area.”
    Leaning back into his chair, Connor let the news sink in. When he’d arrived in Australia, he’d known it wasn’t a trip of a lifetime to the other side of the world, to explore this wonderful continent, but to put together a jigsaw—piece by piece, bit by bit. There was the reason to find out why Jack had wanted Connor and his mother to leave. He needed to piece together four friends he’d had no idea about. And now the puzzle had just turned bigger; Jack was the owner of six hotels. Now it made sense that Jack was able to enjoy living in a spacious house like this. Had it been his arrogance to assume that Jack lacked money?
    Fifty percent of the hotel business. He might need Duncan’s legal expertise after all. He had no idea about the implications.
    “Six hotels?” he asked to clarify.
    Ethan nodded. “He’s a great business man. I’ve learnt a lot from him.
    Six hotels… Connor tossed that thought around his head for a long while.
    Ethan stood. “It seems you didn’t know. How about I leave you with that thought.” As he gave Connor a gentle slap on the shoulder, he added, “Don’t disappear on me again, mate.”
     
    ***
     
    Emily grabbed one of the last parking spots on the main road on Wednesday morning, got out, and went into the small newsagency and grabbed a copy of the local paper. It was the middle of the week and the streets were still empty of tourists; only the occasional motorhome or caravan travelled through.
    “How are you, honey?”
    She turned and looked at Sabrina, Niall’s grandmother.
    With a smile, she replied, “Good morning.”
    “A dollar-fifty,” Sabrina said.
    Handing over the coins, Emily asked, “Sabrina, how old were you when you met Sean?”
    Yet, as soon as the words left her lips, she regretted them.
    “Aww, honey. I’ve heard that Connor’s back in town.”
    Emily shouldn’t have said anything and felt the heat rising in her cheeks, but wasn’t sure whether it was the comment or the assumption behind the comment. Sabrina had known her all her life and knew how much she’d liked Connor, not to mention how upset she’d been when he’d left.
    She stayed quiet.
    “We were nine, but honey, in those days you were bound to end up with someone local. Fermosa Bay was our