Chapter 20
WHY DID I SAY THAT?
Why had she said yes, even for a week? She had time to examine the reasons on the hourlong flight to Wellington three weeks later.
That was because the kids were sitting together in one row and she was in the aisle seat behind them, reading a book.
Ah, the freedom that was your children getting older.
Unfortunately, the book was the third in a series about a woman who’d fallen in love with a magical wolf, and the romance was …
compelling. Ridiculously compelling. She’d had a long list of things to accomplish over the holidays, and here she was, ten days in and off to Wellington for the rest of the time, and only half those things done.
What exactly hadn’t happened? Painting the downstairs, for one thing.
It was going to have to wait until the spring holidays now.
Of course, she had spent too many hours sitting on various benches in the Museum of Transport and Technology, the Maritime Museum, the War Memorial Museum, the Naval Museum, and the Stardome Observatory, reading her book.
She’d have felt bad about not educating herself, but between her kids and class trips, she’d absorbed everything she’d ever wanted to know about transport and technology and heaps she didn’t.
Everything but the Museum of Transport and the Stardome had been free, also, and how else was she meant to keep three kids entertained by herself for weeks on end?
After their outings, she’d taken the kids home, made an evening meal, and fallen asleep over her book before nine.
She’d always suspected that if she ever had a chance to slow down, she’d prove to be terribly lazy, and here was the evidence.
There’d still been time to fit in that painting, if she’d been more efficient. She just hadn’t wanted to do it.
Well, there’d been the exercise, too. Finlay had decided he wanted to lift weights himself, and had begun joining her for her Body Pump sessions.
She’d reckoned, May as well add on while I have the time, and was now doing a daily mix of yoga and Pilates that told her exactly how many muscles she had in her core and where all of them lived.
All the kids had been joining her for that—they were so much more flexible than she was, it wasn’t funny—which resulted in some hilarity when somebody inevitably fell on their head.
They’d been practicing their handstands and half-handstands recently against the walls of the lounge, which meant that she really needed to paint soon just to remove all the smudges, but her triceps had never been stronger, and that was something, wasn’t it?
It wouldn’t improve the value of her house, but maybe she could lighten up a bit?
How bad would it be to slack off some now that the kids were older, especially as Granddad wasn’t around?
See? Lazy. These were dangerous thoughts, and half of her wanted to panic at her deep desire, this holidays, to lie in bed an hour longer over morning tea and toast. And, of course, her book.
Oh. Why was she on this plane, after telling herself that Granddad’s plan was ridiculous and inappropriate, and that they’d be foisting themselves on another family who would get by just fine on their holidays without five extra occupants in their house?
She could either blame Zane for that or herself. She had a bad feeling which it was.
It definitely wouldn’t have happened if he hadn’t said, after every scrap of her enormous lemon pudding cake had disappeared, “Let’s leave my sister and brothers to look after the kids and clean this up while we go for a walk, Skylar.
It’s a fine day, and I could use a stretch of my legs after the plane. ”
“Oi,” Gordon said, though not very emphatically. “We’re on babysitting duty, are we?”
“Excuse me,” Scarlett said. “Babysitting? I’m twelve.”
“Yeh,” Zane said. “She’s twelve. You’ll watch them in the pool, though?”
“I could float on the lilo, I reckon,” Gordon said. “If I have to.”
“First one to push Uncle Gordon off the lilo wins!” Duncan said.
“Go on, bro,” Jade said. “I’ve had too much lunch and need to lie down and focus on digestion as soon as possible. I feel like a snake that’s eaten a rabbit. And then there was last night. I’m knackered.”
“We don’t want to hear about that,” Jack said. “Spare me, and I’ll spare you.”
“If you can even remember last night,” Jade said. “Got pissed out of your skull, it looks to me. I doubt you showed her a fabulous time.”
“I did, as it happens,” Jack said. “You saying I have no skills? I have skills.”
“Stop,” Zane said. “Kids present. Also me present, and I don’t want to hear it, either.”
“And after swimming, we can watch a movie all together,” Georgia said, fortunately oblivious. “We haven’t watched Zootopia 2 yet.”
“I can always have a kip, I guess,” Jack said.
“No!” Georgia grabbed his hands. “Because you’re the funnest to watch with. Please?”
“I don’t know.” He was lifting her, though, as she climbed his legs with her bare feet, then turned a somersault in the air as he held her up. “Well, I suppose I could. If you sit beside me and keep me awake.”
George said, “I want to watch it too. I haven’t seen it.”
“We haven’t even seen the first one,” Olive said. “We don’t have the Disney Channel.”
“You don’t?” Duncan said. “I thought everybody had that. You’d better watch with us, then, so you’ll know what everybody’s talking about.”
Scarlett sighed ostentatiously, and Finlay said, “Scarlett and I don’t necessarily want to watch a kid movie.”
“Thank you,” Scarlett said, the two of them united in purpose for once.
“I reckon you’ll find some way to pass the time,” Zane said. “Coming, Skylar?”
So, yes, she went. It was the most spontaneous thing she’d done for ages, was why.
And it was a gorgeously fine day, the wind fresh and the puffy white clouds scudding along overhead.
“I’m going to let you choose the way,” she said, when they’d headed down the road, “possibly because it gets a bit much at times, making every decision. But then, you probably feel the same way.”
“Not today,” he said, and she wondered, What does that mean? But she didn’t pursue it. She’d been in that kitchen for hours.
She was thinking it when Zane said, “You must’ve been in the kitchen for hours, doing all that cooking, and in the supermarket before that.”
“Yes,” she said. “But I have to admit, cooking in your beautiful kitchen is pretty enjoyable, especially if I don’t have to pay for the groceries.
And my kids got to swim in your pool, too.
I’m afraid they would just as soon spend the entire holidays with you after today. Not that that’s happening,” she added.
“Mm,” he said, then raised his hands overhead and stretched as he walked. “Ah, that feels good.”
“I thought I noticed you limping,” she said.
“Bruised, that’s all. Got to expect the occasional niggle.
” He put his arms down and walked beside her for a while in silence that somehow wasn’t awkward.
Why not? Because he was a calming presence, that was why, even as he was just exactly not a calming presence.
He proved it by saying, “Bugger it,” and taking her hand.
“OK with you? Feels odd to walk beside you and not hold your hand.”
She should think about those rules. Whether anybody might pass by who recognized both of them, somebody with a kid in her class, perhaps.
Zane was too recognizable. What she thought instead was, It’s just holding a hand.
And it feels so good. Especially when he threaded his fingers through hers.
“OK,” she said, and then, because she had to say something, “I like your brothers. And your sister. The way they just blurt it all out.”
He smiled. “They do. They like you, too. And your kids. George and Georgia seem to be fast friends already. In case you’re worrying, Duncan’s a pretty careful fella, too. Looks out for Georgia, and he’ll do the same for George.”
“Another nurturing man,” she said.
“Even though he doesn’t want to be,” he said, and this time, they both smiled.
“This idea, though,” she said.
“Hold that thought.” They’d been walking through the leafy suburb, peaceful in the late-autumn Sunday sunshine, but had reached the Orakei Basin and were walking over the bridge. “Nearly at the pub. Sit outside by the water, you reckon, and have a drink? You’ve earned it.”
“Sure,” she said, the recklessness overtaking her. “I’d say that you’ve earned one too. Your brothers went out drinking last night and you didn’t, I suspect.”
“Mm.” When they got there, he sat in one red-striped canvas chair and she took the one next to it.
There was a tiny table between them, and she was sorry to lose his hand.
It had been big and warm and so … comforting.
Could a man be both comforting and exciting?
Not in her experience. She wasn’t thinking very clearly at all, she was afraid.
She was mostly feeling, and her thoughts never managed to keep up with her feelings.
Her thoughts usually didn’t even recognize her feelings.
“Champagne, I think,” Zane said, as she looked out at the sunlight sparkling on the water and wanted to fall asleep right here. “My favorite they’ve got is the Mumm Grand Cordon. Still a Brut, but with heaps of fruit flavors. OK?”
“Oh, yes. Champagne, though. Are we celebrating?” It was teasing, but she felt like teasing. The tang of salt in the air, the breeze lifting the edges of her hair, and the knowledge that she was, at this moment, responsible for nothing.
“Commiserating,” he said, and they both smiled again. “I’m cheating, because my whanau does a pretty good Brut Rose. I’ll open a bottle another time and you can try it.”
He ordered two glasses. Twenty-four dollars each, and she couldn’t care. She had cooked two dinners for his whanau while he’d been gone, after all. When the wine came and she took a sip, the fizz made her sneeze.