Page 58 of Just Come Over
He didn’t realize what he’d said until she asked the question. “So whose is Casey?”
His head came up, and he stared at her. She said, “You knew the answer to that one already.”
“I was his roomie on that tour,” Finn said. “And I knew him. I know him. Then and now. He won’t want anyone to know, though. Not something that little girl needs to ever find out.”
“Not with the abandonment issues she has to have already, no. Or Zora.”
“No. Or Zora.”
She was silent a moment. “And what I’m seeing between them? Is that from before? Or is it new?”
“It’s not from before. That’s not Drago. Not possible. At least, not acting on it, however he felt. He looked out for Dylan. He was the big brother.”
“That’s what I thought. And by the way—l love you.”
“I’m pretty fond of you as well,” he said, and then laughed and gave her a slap on the bum. “Or I’m over the moon about you. One or the other. I’ll tell you tonight, when it’s dark and I’m not embarrassed to say it.WhenI have six kids in my house, because my beautiful wife can’t help but try to make everybody’s life work out better.”
“What do you think,” she asked, not in any kind of rush to get up again, which he appreciated, “about having another baby?”
“I think I’d enjoy trying.”
She laughed, but said, “Seriously, Finn. Too many? Ridiculous? I said four, remember.”
“And I said six. If we’re going to breed a team of All Blacks, we’d better get our skates on.”
“Hmm.” She rubbed her cheek against his and kissed his mouth with the kind of enthusiasm a man had to enjoy, worked her way across to his ear, took the lobe between her teeth, then whispered, “We could have to add on to the house again.”
He laughed out loud. “Fortunately, I know a builder.”
The sound of running feet, and Lily and Ethan came skidding into the kitchen. “Oh,” his daughter said. “Kissing again.”
Jenna smiled and stood up. “Because Daddy’s leaving on his trip tomorrow, and I’ll miss him very much, so I have to kiss him now.”
“Because you love himsoooomuch,” Lily said, and she may have rolled her eyes. Could four-year-olds roll their eyes? He had the sauciest daughters in the world.
“That’s right, “Jenna said. “That’s what mummies and daddies do. Now. Who wants a glass of milk before nap time?”
If Zora had been tired this morning, she was giddy with it now. Also—confused. Was she ever confused.
At six o’clock, while Isaiah was eating his breakfast-for-dinner, which was a nice way of saying that she’d fixed him five minutes’ worth of eggs on toast, she gave up and rang Hayden.
“Matricide is illegal,” he announced the second he picked up. “Just to forestall you.”
“I’m over it,” she said. “On to a new problem. I need advice, and you’re the only one I can trust. Also, you can’t tell anybody I asked.”
“I am not telling you how to give a good blow job,” he said. “Awkward.”
She held the phone away from her face, then put it back. “No. That’s disgusting. I need to know what to wear to go out with Rhys.”
A long silence. “I think I prefer the blow job.”
“That’s the problem. Exactly. You’re thinking I’m doing something, orhe’sdoing something, and you’re going to have to tell me not to. No worries. Nobody’s doing anything. I need to let him know thatIknow that nobody’s doing anything. The kids are going to a friend’s house for the night, that’s all, and Rhys suggested that we could have dinner. To discuss things. Casey. The house. Rabbit care. Et cetera.”
“You need advice on what to wear to discuss rabbit care?”
“You’re enjoying this. Stop it and listen. He’s leaving tomorrow, and he suggested he and I should go out to dinner, because we always make dinner at my house. Or he stays for dinner with me, or whatever. Family time, with the kids. So he said, let’s go to a restaurant instead for once, let somebody else do the washing-up, and I said fine, andhesaid, I hear The Grove is nice. Suit you? AndIsaid—”
“You said, ‘So youdowant to do the horizontal tango with me, and it’s not just my imagination, even though it’s practically incest, but since I want the same thing, and I’ve got a dangerous appetite for hot Maori rugby players, let’s go, boy.’ Except that you didn’t say that. You want to be ladylike, in case somehow you’ve read it wrong, and he just wants to give you a sisterly treat. I can set you right there, anyway. He’s not giving you a sisterly treat. Or rather—heis, but that’s not the one he has in mind.”
