Page 31 of Just Come Over
It wasn’t easy to see the partier in the solid man leaning against her kitchen cabinets, his muscular arms crossed over his broad chest, talking about his nephew and focusing on this moment, this issue, this responsibility. Casey was proof, though, that the partier was still there.
He was silent for a minute, and she finished putting away the groceries, lined up the ingredients for tonight’s dinner with more precision than required, and wondered what to say next.
“You’ve done a good job with him,” he said. “I’ve always thought so. You’re a great mum.”
“Thank you.” It was nice. It just wasn’t exactly sexy.
Fortunately, Isaiah and Casey chose that minute to burst through the door. “Mum!” Isaiah said, toeing off his trainers. “Casey moved here all the way from Chicago, and she’s my cousin, did you know? I didn’t know Ihada cousin. Chicago is the biggest city in Illinois, but it’s not the capital. It’s far north, so it’s very cold, compared to here. Because of latitude, and also, it’s on one of the biggest lakes in the world. It’s called Lake Michigan, even though Chicago isn’t in Michigan, it’s in Illinois.”
“Geography is another fascination,” Zora told Rhys.
“You need to take your shoes off,” Isaiah told Casey.
“How come?” she asked.
“Because it’s in the house.”
“It’s a New Zealand thing,” Zora said. “A Maori thing. Besides, I have some surprises to show you, and you may need to have your shoes off to fully appreciate them. Let’s go into the lounge. Rhys, you could bring those shopping bags from Cotton On.”
She’d tried to restrain herself, thinking that Rhys could take Casey shopping later, but the clothes had been so cute. A pair of denim shorts with lace filling in the V-shaped cutouts on either side, a blue pair with flowers, and a red pair with different flowers, just because you could never have too many flowers. A pair of gray capri leggings with pink butterflies flying across the bottoms, and a pink pair with flowers, because... see the note on flowers. A red T-shirt with a glittery star on the front, a black-and-white-polka-dotted long-sleeve one with a message spelled out in pink,Girls Can,that would be perfect with the pink leggings, an adorable gray one with an enormous picture of Mickey Mouse printed across the front, and another one, that she hadn’t been able to resist and that she hoped wasn’t too girly for Casey, that was white with pink trim and featured a sparkling unicorn rearing up on its hind legs, its extravagant mane and tail curling like Casey’s own hair. And matching socks for all of it, of course. You needed matching socks, and Rhys would never know it.
The unicorn shirt was the one Casey grabbed. “Iloveit,” she said. “I want to wear it tomorrow, for when I go to school in Year Two, but I have to wear a uniform instead. There’s even a different uniform for P.E. So I have to weartwouniforms.”
“You change when you get home,” Isaiah said. “Like me. You can wear it then.”
“Except I’m supposed to come here after school,” Casey said. “It’s like day care. You don’t change in day care.”
“Of course you do,” Zora said. “It’s not day care. It’s your auntie’s house, which is me, just like Isaiah is your cousin. You’ll have to change, if you’re going to help me with my flowers and play outside.” However she felt about Rhys, how could she take it out on this little girl? “You leave a few things here for now. The unicorn shirt, and which shorts?”
“These ones,” Casey said, looking excited, pointing to the jean shorts with lace. Zora guessed the princess flowers hadn’t been a momentary fascination.
“Best for last,” she announced. “I saw that you had trainers for running, and I assumed your...” She had to stop for a second to say it. “Your dad bought your school shoes, but girls need fun shoes, too.” She pulled them out of a bag. A pair of sparkly silver trainers that made Casey’s eyes go wide, and a pair of pale-blue jellies. “Also,” she said, “togs, because you never know when you’ll need to take a swim.” She’d chosen a blue-and-white-striped top with sleeves, for sun protection, and boy-shorts bottoms. The top was adorned with a red anchor, so the whole thing looked like a sailor suit. Fun, but practical, too. And a pair of cute shortie PJ’s, with Mickey and Minnie on the top and yellow polka dots below.
“She’ll need more, obviously,” she told Rhys, who looked at her like a deer in the headlights at the thought, “but this will get her started. And—” One more bag. “Hair. I got clips, and elastics and scrunchies, and some pretty bows that will look gorgeous on a high pony, as well as a new brush and comb, just in case, and a spray bottle that you can fill with warm water, helpful for styling. And I thought, Casey, since we have time before dinner, we could give your dad a lesson in how to fix your hair.”
Twenty minutes later, Casey sighed and said, “You’re not very good at this.”
“Oi,” Rhys said. “I’m a beginner. You don’t coach a beginner like that. Give a fella a chance to practice. Nobody’s good first time out of the chute.”
“You’re still pulling,” Casey informed him. She made a face that was surely more dramatic than the occasion warranted.“Ow.”
She was standing on a kitchen chair, in front of the bathroom mirror. She was half his height and about a fifth of his weight, but there was no question which of them thought she was the Queen Bee here. He should work on that. He’d do better tomorrow, when they were rested.
Zora said, “You’ll want to grab her hair tighter up above so you can work the tangles out below without pulling.” She put her hand over his. “Up here. See?”
“You could sound less amused,” he told her.
“Oh,” she said, “I don’t think I could.” She was laughing at him, in fact, in the mirror, and she was much too close. She’d said he smelled good? So did she. It wasn’t anything strong, just faintly floral, which made sense. Roses, maybe. He wasn’t going to tell her so. Very bad idea.
Isaiah said, “You could get your hair cut very short, Casey, and then you wouldn’t have to do all that. Girls have short hair sometimes.”
Casey rolled her eyes. Zora rolled hers, too. They were a matched set. “No, she couldn’t,” Zora explained, “because then she won’t be able to use all her hair clips and bows.” Which sounded like a wonderful idea to Rhys. Taming Casey’s hair was like pruning blackberries.
“Right,” he said, “that’s the tangles out, I think. It’s a bit... wild, though.” He looked at Casey’s hair dubiously. It was, in fact, standing out almost horizontally from her head.
“We’ll use this for now,” Zora said, slapping a bottle of something into his hand like a nurse in the operating theater, which summed up how this felt. Generally, though, you had some training before you tried surgery for the first time. “But you’ll want to pick up some shampoo and conditioner for her. Detangler, also, and a curl cream.”
“Awhat?”
