Page 49 of Just Watch Me
“Absolutely. This way I’m not wonderingwhento ask. Mince is thirty dollars a kilogram now and the lamb chops nearly as dear, so, yes, I’m asking.”
“Thirty dollars a kilogram for mince?” Jack said. “How can that be?”
“If you ever did a shop,” Gordon said, “you’d know. Because it’s all going to China and the States, that’s why, for top dollar. Here we are, best meat in the world, and we barely get a sniff of it.”
“Text me the amount and your payment info,” Zane said, “and I’ll send it over.”
“See how easy?” she said, and smiled. “And so far, good news, Finlay and Scarlett haven’t killed each other. At least I don’t think so. If there’s somebody lying on the trampoline with a knife in their back, don’t tell me until I finish this dinner. It’ll put me straight off my game.”
She was wearing an apron. What was it about a curvy woman in bare feet and an apron, cooking in your kitchen? Probablysaid something bad about him that he found that so sexy. He was a throwback, like he’d told her. Fortunately, she seemed to be a bit of a throwback too.
He wanted to kiss her more, and also better. Unfortunately, she was cooking that dinner—and probably didn’t want to kiss him—so he changed into togs instead, tossing a couple of extra pairs to his brothers. They had comical things to say about the size of them, of course, but he just said, “Because you’re boys trying to fit into man’s clothes, that’s why,” and went outside, where the reason for the togs was immediately apparent.
Jade was bouncing on the trampoline with Scarlett, but at sight of him, Scarlett and the two kids in the pool mobbed him with maximum wetness quotient, then did the same to their uncles. Before long, Geoffrey was back in the house, and Zane and his brothers were in the pool with a kid on each of their shoulders, having a chicken fight. Olive, he was amused to see, fought with the best of them, crowing with delight when she managed to knock Duncan off Gordon’s shoulders.
“No fair,” Duncan said, swimming over again. “Uncle Gordon isn’t as strong as you, Dad.”
“I resent that,” Gordon said. He had Georgia up there now, but she and George, on Jack’s shoulders, were mostly giggling and tapping each other, while Olive said, “Comeon,you two, knock somebody off. I can’t fight you, because it’s not fair picking on you, and I want to fight some more!”
“I’ll fight you,” Scarlett said. “Give me a turn, George.”
“OK,” he said equably. “I don’t really like fighting anyway. Come on, Georgia. Let’s jump on the trampoline.”
Finlay and Scarlett were up then, and as you’d expect, things got lively. Olive was knocked off fairly quickly—by Scarlett, as Finlay had said, “I can’t fight my littlesister.”Then it was the two of them battling it out, and Zane and Gordon getting the kids closer, then pulling apart, turning in the waterto avoid shoving hands. Heaps of shrieking from all sides, but if it bothered Gordon’s tender head, he didn’t say so. He dug in instead, coming at Zane with Finlay on his shoulders as if today was the day that the younger kids won.
Which wasn’t happening. Zane forgot that Finlay was Skylar’s. He charged, and then he charged again. He wasn’t losing. Not today. Scarlett was laughing, breathless, saying, “Come on, Dad! Get him!”
It could have gone on for an hour, but Skylar came out of the house. Zane didn’t hear her at first, for obvious reasons, but then there was a piercing whistle, and he whirled. She shouted, “Dinner in ten minutes,” and he said, “OK.” Which was when Gordon cannoned into him and they all went flying.
Not a bad way to recover. Not bad at all.
But, of course, his whanau soon made things much more complicated. Well, his whanau and Skylar’s grandfather.
Could he please, just once, meet this woman like a normal human? Possibly drink another glass of wine with her, watch her curl up on the couch beside him—she’d curl up every time; she was the cuddly sort—and find out whether she wanted to kiss him half as much as he wanted to kiss her?
He was a sportsman! You were meant to be able to get the girl. That had definitely been in the recruiting material.
19
UNDERCURRENT CITY
The lamb was incredible. Nothing like his Nan’s stodgy British-meets-Maori roast dinners, Zane thought disloyally. Olivesandcapers this time, and some tomato, too, the acidic bite punching up the rich flavor of the meat. The kids didn’t even complain about the capers. Skylar had made a mountain of the stuff, which was good, because he was hungry and his brothers were downright ravenous.
His table was hard-pressed to seat twelve, but they managed it, and it felt … lively. Friendly. Possibly even fun. Definitely better than he’d expected to feel the day after losing in the semis. Skylar’s food was like a warm cuddle, and that was how she looked, too. Her hair looked almost alive today, as if her very curls had to express her personality, and she was in the tight jeans again, with the same deep-red shirt she’d worn at their family breakfast, which had the kind of neckline a man appreciated and showed off her creamy skin. That was satisfying, too, in a different way.
Geoffrey joined them for tea. Maureen was sleeping, he reported, and generally going along a bit better since she’d gotthe tablets, but refused to allow any of them in for fear of infecting them. “She says this is the best care anyone’s ever taken of her,” he threw in. “I told her I was married for ages, and she said, so was she. Makes you wonder, eh.”
Zane looked up with a frown, and Skylar said, “Granddad. That’s their grandfather you’re talking about.”
“I’mnot talking about him,” he said, even though he was. “I’m just repeating it. The truth is the truth.”
“Probably so,” Zane said. “He was a hard worker, our granddad, but not what you’d call ‘nurturing.’ He was the way dads were meant to be at that time, probably.”
“You’renurturing, Dad,” Scarlett said. Loyalty winning again.
“What’s ‘nurturing’?” Georgia asked.
“Caring for somebody,” Scarlett said.
