That Summer with Kate

We spent a week with Mitch and Julie, and Mitch took me up just to confirm Micha's assessment of my pilot potential, and then he left it to us. We flew Pete down to a cattle sale at Goulburn where he picked up a lot of a hundred yearling steers for himself, and Mitch, that could be fattened up for the market.

Mitch flew us to Bankstown and we had three choices in getting to Mascot for our flight to Darwin, catch a cab, not our first choice, hire a car and hope to convince the rental agency to let us have it at a reduced rate given that we'd only need it for a couple of hours, or catch a train that would take us right into the airport.

The second choice turned out better than expected, the agency wanted a car delivered to its Mascot office, so we got it for nothing.

We had some time to kill before the boarding call for our flight, so we found a cafe and were sipping our way through a coffee, when an announcement came of the PA system. "If Mr. Adam Matthews is in the terminal, would he proceed to the QANTAS information desk, there is someone waiting to see him."

"I wonder who that could be?" I wasn't left wondering for very long, there were two people standing at the desk, Kate and Cousin Geoff. With a certain degree of apprehension, we approached them. "I hope that this isn't going to end badly." I said quietly to Micha. I needn't have worried.

"Adam, I have to apologise for my actions, and to thank you for saving my life, both of you. I'm sorry for my behaviour at Richmond, I'm sorry for doing what I did. I knew that you were at your Uncles' place and thought that, I don't know what I thought, anyway, I know this woman is your wife Micha, and I want to apologise to her as well." She went to Micha and gave her a hug. "Will you ever forgive me?"

"Of course, I would probably have done the same if I was in your situation."

"I have so much to tell you, to explain to you, can we go somewhere quiet?"

"We were having coffee at this cafe down the way a bit, we could always go there." Micha said.

We were seated in a booth away from the usual bustle. "That letter that I wrote you, I'm sorry for that. I was so in love with Will that I wasn't thinking straight. I didn't know what to say or how to say it, so one of the girls on base told me what to say. I realise now that it was the wrong thing to do. As it turned out, that was not the only thing to go wrong. Will was only looking for someone that he could live with and have sex with until his wife came back. Don't get me wrong, in the sex department he was good, but I have come to the conclusion that sex is not the only thing to a long term relationship." She looked at Geoff. "After he went scurrying back to the little lady, I sort of lost the plot, and had to front the brass. I was sent to see a Psychologist, who I spilled my guts to. He arranged to chat with Will, which was when I came to realise what a total bastard he was. When the Psychologist told him that I was pregnant, Will said that it wasn't his problem, that I had a reputation as being willing to go to bed with just about anyone. In fact he said, at one party I had sex with five different men, three of them at the same time. I had no recollection of having sex with anyone but him, but he said that the other men would back up his story. If I had lost the plot before then, I really lost it now. I went AWOL and went back home. Then you and Micha turned up and, you know the rest."

"Geoff came to see me in hospital and we got to talking. Do remember in my letter I told you that you were the solid, reliable type that the heroine rushed back to after being jilted by the dashing Lothario, and that solid, reliable didn't do it for you anymore, or words to that effect?"

"I could hardly forget that."

"Well, I've changed my mind. Solid and reliable is exactly what I need, and Geoff has offered to be there for me. I am officially on extended sick leave and, at the end of that I am going to resign. Geoff and I are going to get married and he is taking over our family farm. He has also told me that, as far as he is concerned, the baby is his. How do you like them apples?"

"Let me tell you something." Micha said. "Mitchell Underwood is not my biological father, even though it says so on my Birth Certificate, My real father was a pilot that my Mother had a fling with, one of many as it turned out, and he was the pilot of the plane that crashed' killing both of them. I was lucky, because I had jammed myself under the seat to get away from her. I survived the crash with little more than a broken arm. With the blessing of my maternal grandparents, Mitch applied for custody of me, and eventually he and Julie adopted me. So you see there is hope for your child, adn I'm sure that Geoff will do the right thing by both of you."

"You bet." Geoff, like his father, was a man of few words, but those few words said a lot.

"I think that's great. One thing that you can be sure of, and that is that Geoff here is not going to be going around chasing after other women."

"He'd better not because, if he does, I won't lose the plot, he'd lose his cock." She smiled, and I recognised the Kate that I had spent that summer with.