Chapter 19
UNDERCURRENT CITY
The lamb was incredible. Nothing like his Nan’s stodgy British-meets-Maori roast dinners, Zane thought disloyally.
Olives and capers 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 got the 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’m not 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’re nurturing, Dad,” Scarlett said. Loyalty winning again.
“What’s ‘nurturing’?” Georgia asked.
“Caring for somebody,” Scarlett said.
“Oh,” Georgia said. “Daddy loves us very much, so I think he’s nur— nur—”
“Nurturing,” Duncan said. “That’s not really something to say about men, though.”
“Pardon?” Zane said.
“I mean, not in front of our uncles,” Duncan said. “Not when you’re the leader. Leaders are meant to be strong and tough, not all … all soft like that.”
“In what way,” Gordon said, “is Zazza the leader? I object. Brilliant tucker, Skylar. You don’t have a sister, do you?”
“No,” she said. “I have a recipe, though.” Which was a pretty good retort. She was more relaxed today, somehow. Sassier, too. He liked sassy. It went well with the sweet.
“Dad’s the skipper, though, Uncle Gordon,” Scarlett said. “And the eldest.”
“Well, pardon me if I don’t bow and scrape,” Gordon said. “As my season with the Blues is over, I reckon I’ll be my own boss, thanks.”
Geoffrey said, “Nothing wrong with a man being soft with a woman, young Duncan. Or with his kids. It was a poorer world back then, and that’s the truth.
My own dad never said ‘I love you’ to any of us kids in his life, and if he said it to our mum, I didn’t hear it.
A hard man, though he was a hard worker, I’ll give him that, and brought his pay packet home every week. He’d have thought that was enough.”
“Really,” Skylar said. “That’s the first time I’ve heard that.”
Geoffrey said, “You didn’t ask. Luckily, your Gran let me know in no uncertain terms that that wasn’t good enough. Now, Zane here knows better. A good husband, Maureen says. Good material there.”
“Not exactly a subtle push, is it?” Jade asked the air.
Skylar said, “Who wants more lamb? Also, your whanau farms, is that right? What do they farm?” Neutral topic, Zane supposed.
“Grapes,” Gordon said. “Vineyard.”
“Ah,” she said. “The excellent white wine last week, not to mention what I found in your rack today. I thought your wine knowledge was on the sophisticated side, Zane.”
“For a knuckle-dragger, you mean,” Zane said.
She smiled cheekily. “Possibly. But now that I know you’re nurturing …”
“There you are, bro,” Jack said. “Either you’ve just lost your man card, or you’ve just punched it. Modern life, eh. Confusing.”
“I don’t understand this conversation,” Scarlett said.
“Join the club,” Jade said. “Undercurrent City. So you and Zane are … involved? Not involved? I’m getting ‘involved,’ but there’s something …”
“Oh, no,” Skylar said, blushing to the skies as usual. “I’m Georgia’s teacher.”
“Ah,” Jade said. “Of course, that tells me nothing.”
“Possibly because it’s none of your business,” Zane said. “Am I asking who you went out with last night?”
“Well, as she’s right here …” Jade said.
“That reminds me,” Geoffrey said, as innocently as ever. “Maureen and I came up with a bit of a plan.”
“Oh, no,” Skylar said.
“I thought she was lying on a bed of pain,” Gordon said. “Didn’t even want to see us. How’s she coming up with plans?”
“That’s just the germs,” Geoffrey said vaguely. “School holidays coming up in a week, though.”
“I wonder where this is going,” Skylar said.
“I like school holidays,” Finlay chimed in, “but I don’t like the winter ones as much.
You can’t play outside as often, the sea’s too cold to swim, and most of my friends are in special programs all day.
Some of the programs sound pretty fun, but I haven’t ever done them, so I don’t know for sure.
Or they’re in day care, even though kids my age shouldn’t have to be in day care.
They say that’s pretty boring, so I’m glad I don’t have to go.
I think school should make the winter holiday shorter and the summer one longer. ”
“Why don’t you ask your mum to put you in a holiday program, then?” Scarlett asked. “Heaps of kids I know used to do Kelly Club. They do things like cooking and games, but they go places, too. If you did that, you wouldn’t have to whinge.”
“Because we’re not rich like you?” Finlay said, flaring up just like that. “It’s sixty dollars a day for each kid, did you think of that?”
“Excuse me,” Scarlett said. “I was only trying to help.”
“I like doing activities,” Olive said, “but I don’t really mind. I like reading and playing at home, and helping Granddad.”
“Getting to be quite a good little DIYer,” Geoffrey said. “Olive looks up all the demonstrations for me on that YouTube. She says it’s in case I need more information, but it’s really so she can check whether I’m doing it right.”
“No it isn’t,” Olive said seriously. “It’s because I want to remember how for the future. I put the video in my library, and then if I ever need to do it and you’re dead, I’ll know how.”
That brought down the house. Even Skylar laughed, though she looked guilty about it. Olive said, looking around, “Why is that funny?”
“Because people don’t like to talk about other people dying,” Finlay said, “even though it’s realistic. Granddad’s really old, so he probably will die soon, but you’re not meant to say.”
“Oh,” Olive said. “That seems a bit silly.”
“I always think so,” Finlay said. “But most people don’t like to be realistic.”
Scarlett said, “You’re both so weird, I can’t even. If I told my Nan she’d probably die soon, she’d— Dunno. She wouldn’t cry, because Nan doesn’t cry, but something bad would happen to me.”
“Even though that’s realistic, too,” Finlay said. “She has flu now. Old people get pneumonia after they have flu, and then they die. It happens all the time.”
“Well, this is cheerful,” Jade said. “I know I feel wildly optimistic.”
“That’s because you’re not very old,” Finlay said, “so you don’t have to think so much about dying yet.”
“Oh, is that it,” she said. “Thank you.”
“Finlay,” Skylar said, “that wasn’t appropriate. You should tell your granddad that you’re sorry.”
“Never mind me,” Geoffrey said. “There’s more life in me than you know. And Finlay’s hit on the very idea I wanted to discuss.”
“What, your imminent death?” Jade asked.
“No,” he said. “Our plan to have Skylar and the kids come stay in Wellington for the school holidays.”
Skylar said, “Is this the perfect venue to discuss this topic, I wonder?” She tried to say it lightly, but wasn’t sure it had come across that way. Would her granddad stop?
“Ooh,” Jade said. “The plot thickens intriguingly.” She was looking between Zane and Skylar.
Skylar was probably red again, and Zane …
Skylar couldn’t tell how Zane felt. He wasn’t exactly the most powerful emoter she’d ever met.
Why was that so appealing? Possibly because Peter had been a bit whiny?
She could admit it. She had nothing to protect anymore.
As for Jade, she had the kind of looks and confidence Skylar always admired—statuesque and curvy, with curly dark hair and huge brown eyes, and a curving mouth that always seemed to want to smile.
Was she ever lost for a snappy retort? Skylar would bet not.
Right now, though, she could have done without it, so she said, “Pudding. Help me clear the table, kids.”
Zane stood up. “We’ll all do it. The boys and I will do the washing-up, too. Least we can do.”
“We will?” Jack asked.
Zane fixed him with the kind of stare associated with basilisks. “Yes,” he enunciated. “We will. As Skylar’s sacrificed her morning to cook for us.”
“Aye-aye, Captain,” Gordon said, getting to his feet.
“Just because I’d like to be invited again.
My cooking skills are definitely still subpar.
” And when Skylar set out the lemon pudding cake fifteen minutes later, he sighed and said, “I have a proposal of my own. I’ll come to dinner every night you cook, and do the washing-up after. ”
“No,” Zane said. “Find your own.” Which gave Skylar a little glow, even though it wasn’t applicable, of course.
If she’d hoped Granddad’s wildly inappropriate topic would be put to rest by that flurry of activity, she was disappointed. As soon as they were all seated again and digging into their pudding, he said, “So. The Wellington plan.”