Page 41 of Kiwi Gold
I said, “She wouldn’t have left you, Dad.”
His face twisted, and then he breathed in, breathed out, set his shoulders, and said, “I need to go do this.”
“Then,” I said, “take me with you. If Mama were here, you know she’d stay with you and help, no matter what you’d done. She’s not here, but I am. Let me come.”
I truly thought he was going to cry. I’d never seen him like this before, even when my mum had died. He’d never let me see his hardest times, his worst times. He’d been looking out for me then, and he’d done a good job. Now, it was my turn.
He took in a ragged breath, and I reached into my purse and handed him a tissue. He blew his nose and said, “Right, then. Reckon it can’t be any worse having you there. But I wish they hadn’t been Peter’s kids.”
Whatever that meant.
* * *
Lachlan
I rang the restaurant. I told them nine o’clock. Optimistic, you’re thinking, with all this drama, but planning for the best is as important as planning for the worst.
Hoping for the best? Hope doesn’t get you there. You need a plan.
When I finally got to the table and joined my family, I kissed my mum on the cheek, then kissed the others, because they were clearly anxious as hell, and tried to let them know,It’ll be OK.When I was done, I sat down beside Mum, leaving a place for Drake beside me,which wouldn’t have been my first choice, or my second, but what the hell. In case it got ugly, I thought obscurely, I needed to be beside him.
As if that would help.
Then I thought,Laila,pictured her standing outside alone, waiting for this to be over, or, possibly worse, standing inside the door alone in her pretty dress and her pretty face, and I just about left again.
She didn’t seem to know what a knockout punch that dress was, or how much it made a man want to stare at her legs through the sheer fabric, but I knew. She hadn’t been prepared for that masquerade ball, probably because of the dead husband and all, and she wasn’t prepared to deal with Speight’s collection of Friday-night drunk arseholes, either. It would make her nervous, the same way the bloke with the sword had. And what if somebody grabbed her again?
Right now, though, Mum was saying, “You’re here too, eh. It’s not my birthday, and this clearly isn’t my surprise party. Why are we all here, then? Sit down and tell me, Lachlan. Nobody else has been willing to, so it’s bad.” She straightened her shoulders and, as usual, went ahead and got stuck in. I’d learned from the best that if you needed to do something, you went ahead and did it, and you didn’t whinge about it. “I’m guessing somebody’s had a diagnosis,” she said. “That’s the mood I’m getting. And for some reason, you’re telling me last, which means the diagnosis is bad.” She looked around the table. Lark, pale and tense. Lexi, all vibrating tension herself, but also looking like she was about to giggle. Liana, her mouth quivering, looking distressed. And Larissa, holding Liana’s hand, looking composed but anxious. And me. “Which one of you?” she asked, and then her gaze locked on me. “It’s you. That’s why nobody will tell me. They’re afraid of losing you.”
I laughed, and everybody froze. “Nah,” I said. “Nobody’s dying. Last thing from it.”
Unfortunately, I didn’t get any further than that, because they were coming through the doors and looking around. Both of them. Torsten Drake, striding like the colossus he was, exploration-geology-wise, his Viking face set in stern lines. And Laila behind him, her face back to the closed-off look that was her habitual expression. Passing for serene, but actually, I was pretty sure, just hiding her feelings. It was harder for her to hide tonight, in her sexy, pretty dress and her sexy, pretty shoes, with that oversized knot of dark hair at her nape, her golden eyes, and her rose-petal mouth. With her protective father. Who hated meandmy stepdad.
This play wouldn’t have been Shakespeare, unless it was a farce. You could never put all this complication in unless you were laughing at it.
Laila’s face, though. How could I laugh at that? After what she’d said in front of her dad about me teaching her what men wanted, I couldn’t blame her dad for reacting, not really. If she was his only child …
Except that she wasn’t. He had at least four more.
She saw us, then, and they were coming over. Both of them, rather than Laila standing by the door, so that was better. I went on, without any forethought at all, just trying to get it out there fast, “No worries. The girls have found their sperm donor, that’s all, and he’s a Kiwi. In fact, he’s Torsten Drake. Reason for the ginger hair, eh.”
If my bluntness was a virtue, Mum didn’t seem to be appreciating it. She said,“What?”
“That’s what I said. Surprise. I don’t think he’s best pleased, either.”
“He knows?” she asked. “That it’s us?”
“He does now. Also, his daughter’s here. Laila.”
“Lachlan’sdate,”Lexi had to put in. “And he said it was romantic. Did you know who she was, Lachlan? Is that why? Extra drama? Extra spice? What is this play,Romeo and Juliet?”
“No,” I said. “It wasHamlet.Never mind. Joke. And, no, I didn’t know.”
That was all we managed, because they were here. Another man might have bolted under this kind of pressure, but Drake hadn’t backed off. You had to give him that. He said “Hello, Philippa.”
“Hello,” she said. “And … what? I’m sorry, but I’ve just heard.What?”
“That’s what I said,” he told her. “May I sit down? Oh. My daughter, Laila.” He shot me a hard look, and I could read that look like he’d hired a skywriter.Don’t touch my daughter.
