Page 41 of Just Watch Me
Wait.What?
“I don’t understand,” Zane said. “What’s stopping you? What does this have to do with us? With Skylar and me, and the kids?” The exact thing Skylar was thinking.
“Well, obviously,” Maureen said, “we’d be spending most of our time here, as there’s so much more space.”
“And the man travels to see the woman, of course,” Granddad said, as if that were settled dogma.
“And when you’re off with the team,” Maureen went on, “that’s another chance, isn’t it?”
“Of course you can have your … have Geoffrey here,” Zane said. “It’s your home, too.” He was frowning, though. Therewasmore to this, then. But what?
“So many things we’d like to do together,” Granddad said. “Maureen wants to try my strength class at the community center, and I’ve promised to do Tai Chi and yoga with her. Water aerobics as well. Why not? She does something like that every day. I’d have called it discipline, but she calls it fun. I’d like to have more fun. Maybe we’ll take up birdwatching. Watercolor painting. Who knows?”
“Uh, Granddad?” Skylar said. “You realize that the attendance at water aerobics is about ninety percent female, right? Or a hundred percent, from what I’ve seen.”
“Pity I already have a girlfriend, then,” he said. “But a man can still look.” Maureen slapped his arm, and he laughed. “I’ve come alive, is what it is. I always thought retirement would be a time when Frances and I would putter around together. Do the shopping, cook dinner, fold the washing at night while we watched TV. Maybe travel a bit before we got too old to enjoy it. And what happened instead? She died. Same for Maureen. We want to be useful; of course we do. But we want that other thing, too. We want to feel alive again.”
“Having somebody to love,” Maureen said, “and having them love us. A hand to hold. Somebody to kiss before we fall asleep. How I’ve missed that.”
“Butwelove you, Nan,” Georgia burst out. “You can hold my hand, and I will kiss you at night. You don’t have to feel lonesome.” She slid down from her chair and ran to her great-grandmother, where she threw her arms around her waist.
“I love you too, my darling,” Maureen said, cuddling her in return. “But a grown lady needs a grown man to love. And a grown man needs a grown lady.” Was it Skylar’s imagination, or did his grandmother lookextremelypointedly at Zane?
“I’m going to say it,” Skylar decided, “because Zane’s too polite to. Matchmaking had better not be any part of this, Granddad. I’m happy for you, and I’m sure Zane is too. But this …” She cast an arm around the table, where the older kids, at least, were gazing at their elders suspiciously. “This ‘one big happy family’ bit hasn’t gone so well to date, let’s be honest. So of course you should spend more time with Maureen. As long as you’ll still walk the kids to school and collect them after it, why not? And you don’t have to help with my shopping anymore, or cook any dinners or put in my washing, either. Single mums all over the world are doing those things every day without any help. Besides, I’ve been thinking the kids could be doing more. Or I should say that we need to be doing more as a whanau.” There. That sounded mature, and never mind that she’d just realized how much she’d relied on her granddad to make her life easier.
“What a good idea,” Maureen said. She hadn’t even responded to the ‘matchmaking’ bit.HadSkylar imagined it? And then just blurted it out in front of everybody? How embarrassing was this? “We should do something like that ourselves over here,” she went on. “Coddled, that’s what you kids are. Time to step up and let your great-grandmother kick up her heels a bit.”
“Oh, brilliant,” Scarlett said. “Thanks heaps, Ms. Fairburn. I’m going to be pressed into domestic servitude, you wait.”
“Folding some washing and peeling a potato,” Zane said, “is not hard labor. I could step up more myself. Can’t do it when I’m not here, though, so there’s that. That’s it, then? You’re over here with Nan more, Geoffrey, and staying the night sometimes? I don’t hate you too much so far, so let’s try it and see how we go.”
Skylar wished she could be that direct. If it didn’t work out, she’d bet Zane would just tell Granddad so outright and be done with it. Maybe she should ask for lessons.
“Fair enough,” Granddad said. He was still looking at Skylar, though. Why? “But you see,” he said, “when Zaneisgone and Maureen’s here alone, I’d be bringing the kids here after school sometimes, is the idea. Cooking dinner together, like I said. When you’re done at school, you come by and collect them, and I’ll turn up in the morning again in time to walk them to school. Easy-peasy.”
“I don’t need walking to school,” Finlay said, flushing and glancing at Scarlett. “I haven’t needed it for years now. I walk by myself to intermediate school, the same as Scarlett probably does.”
“I don’t need it either,” Olive said, “but Granddad’s walking anyway with George, and I don’t mind.”
Scarlett looked like she was about to erupt. Zane wasfrowning. Skylar felt like she wanted to sink through the floor, but before she did … “May I speak to you privately?” she asked her grandfather.
“We’ll go home,” he said, “and speak as privately as you like.”
“No,” she said. “Now.” She meant it, too.
Zane rose. “Washing-up time. Come help me, kids.”
“But we don’t—” Duncan began.
Zane gave him a look. Skylar didn’t know about Duncan, but that look would have convincedher.“We do now,” he said. “You heard your Nan. Come on. You other kids can …” He seemed to be casting about for what to do with the three extra children in his house.
“I’ll read my book,” Olive said. “I’m just at the good part.”
“Georgia,” Zane said, “you’re excused from washing-up. Go play with George.”
“I’ll just sit here and eat worms, I suppose,” Finlay said.
A twist of Zane’s mouth. “Or you could find a book. Watch TV. Contemplate the mysteries of the universe.”
