Page 29 of Just Come Over
“I can imagine,” Zora said. “Does Victoria know?”
He was casting about for a lie.Somelie. The problem was, he was a disaster as a liar. When they’d been kids, even as Dylan was smiling charmingly and spinning a much preferable story, Rhys had always been caught, flat-footed and stolid, with the unpalatable truth. What had happened to the feijoas off the neighbor’s tree? A possum had got up in the tree, Dylan would say, and a cat had gone after it. They’d had a royal battle, and half the fruits had been knocked down, but the possum had got away. Dylan had tried to pick the feijoas up and put them in a sack, but the other kids had come along and started eating them, and they hadn’t listened when he’d told them to stop.
That time, their Nan had sighed and looked at Rhys, and he’d said, “We picked them and ate them.”
They’d got a hiding, and Dylan had told Rhys tearfully, afterwards, “She wasbelievingme. Why do you always have to tell?” He couldn’t have explained. He was built that way, that was all. He had no twisty spaces inside.
Except, now, he looked like he did have them. And hestillcouldn’t think of a lie. If that wasn’t the worst of both worlds, he didn’t know what was.
“No,” he said. “Victoria doesn’t know. Reckon she will now, because I’ll have to tell her.”
“Well, yes,” Zora said, back to tweaking her flowers, “I’d say so. You wouldn’t want her to base her life, all her memories, on a lie. You wouldn’t want her to...”
Her hands were trembling. He wanted to take hold of one of them, to pull her in and hold her close, the same way he’d done once before, almost the only time he’d ever touched her. He wanted to wrap his arms around her and tell her,Yeh, he was a bastard, but he loved you. Just not enough. You deserved better.
“You’re right,” he said instead. He didn’t say, “I’m sorry.” That had been Dylan’s other talent: apologizing like his heart was broken to have broken yours, and he’d never do it again. He’d always meant it, too, Rhys would swear. At the time. He was sure Zora had heard that enough, so instead, he said, “I’ll take her home, I guess, and get her things unpacked. Sort out dinner and so forth. I’ll bring her tomorrow. Seven-thirty OK?”
Zora sighed. “Rhys. I can tell she’s exhausted, but how much sleep haveyouhad?”
He ran his hand over his jaw again. He’d shaved to meet the social worker, whose name he somehow couldn’t bring up anymore, but not since then. His eyes felt as scratchy as his face, and his muscles ached from lack of use and the discomforts of travel. “Oh, not so much. I’m good, but Casey’s a bit tired, you’re right.”
“You’re not good,” she said. “You’re both practically falling over, and are you telling me you’ve gotnothingfor her at home?”
“I barely have anything formeat home,” he admitted. He had sheets on his bed, and that was about it. He wasn’t sure that his milk wouldn’t have gone off by now. How long had he been gone? And Casey needed... He was blanking again. He couldn’t even think what she needed.
Zora said, “Help me carry these to the van. I’ll make my deliveries, and I’ll pick up a few things for her on the way back. Am I guessing that you don’t have anything for her hair?”
“There’s a brush. I told her to brush it.”
She stared at him, then laughed. “Rhys.Youhave to brush it. She’ll never get through all that hair. What clothes does she have to wear after school?”
“A few things. Mostly winter jumpers and jeans, a couple dresses. Warm ones, though. It was winter there.”
“What size is she?”
“Uh... not sure. Small?”
She didn’t roll her eyes, but he suspected she wanted to. “Take the flowers to the van and shove them into the pasteboard holders back there so they won’t spill. I’ll find out.”
“How?”
“I’ll look at the tags, of course.”
When he came back from loading the van, though, and went to find Zora, Casey was fast asleep, turned onto her side with her face buried in the fabric folds of the hammock and her fist still clutching Moana tight. Zora had picked up the dinosaur book and was holding it, looking down at the girl. Thinking what, Rhys had no idea. He said, keeping his voice down, “Can you guess, on the clothes?”
“Yeh. I can. Let her sleep. Except that I need these.” She eased off Casey’s trainers and peeked inside. Looking for the size, he guessed.
He hesitated, then said, “I don’t want her to wake up and be scared. That happened on the plane. I’ll put her on your couch instead. At least if she wakes up, I’ll be there.”
He lifted her into his arms. She made a protesting sound, nothing but a broken-off murmur, snuggled into him more tightly, her head on his shoulder, and went limp again. Zora followed behind him with the book and set it on the coffee table while he laid Casey gently down on the couch and pulled a cotton throw over her. Zora said, keeping her voice down, “If I’m not back before Isaiah comes home, tell him I’ll be here soon. We’ll talk about the rest later.”
She delivered her flowers with the radio turned up, and when that didn’t work, she sang along. No point in thinking too much, or, rather, a wonderful time to think about the six hundred dollars every week’s spa-flowers subscription brought her. The lovely thing about Anna Pemberly, the owner, was that she wanted everything high-end. “No carnations” and “use your own judgment”— those were six words that brought joy to a florist’s heart.
When she’d finished her deliveries and was wandering the girls’ aisles at Cotton On in New Lynn, though, the thoughts came back. And as always when it came to Rhys, they were confused.
He’d never seen his daughter, and yet he’d picked her up like she was precious. When he’d covered her with the blanket, Zora’s heart had melted a little. There was still the cheating and lying he’d done, though, not to mention the non-visiting, and how to reconcile that with everything she’d supposed him to be. It wasn’t her business, but how could she help thinking about it?
Never mind. She forced herself to focus instead on the unexpected pleasure of shopping for little-girl clothes, of balancing Casey’s dinosaur T-shirt against her fascination with the princess flowers, and doing her best to shop for both sides of her. Casey wasn’t hers, but she’d pretend, just for a few minutes. Both Casey and Rhys clearly needed the help, and for once, she didn’t even have to worry about the budget.
