Page 44 of Kiwi Gold
Philippa stood, too, clearly about to fight my dad over the ordering and paying, which made four of us standing about as if we were preparing to engage in ritual combat, and Lachlan said, close enough to my ear to be heard over the babble of conversation, “You can talk to him later. Talk it over, eh.”
I said, “I should wait and give him the chance. He probably wants to say the part again about how I’m still his daughter, and so forth. Either that, or it’s about …” I admitted it, because he’d know soon enough, I was betting. “My dress.”
“Yourdress?”he said. “What about your dress?”
“Immodest.”
“No. It’s a hint, not a shout. That’s why it’s so sexy. D’you actually want him to weigh in on that, though?”
“No. I don’t.” And then I stepped across to my dad and said quietly, “I know you love me, Dad. I’m not worried, if that’s the problem.”
He was frowning. “Why would you be worried?”
If emotional intelligence is inherited, I must have got it from my mum.
“Never mind,” I said, wanting to laugh again. “Anyway, I’m not, and if I were—I’m grown now. I can adjust. But Lachlan and I have that booking, so—if you’re sure you’re OK here, d’you want to ring me tomorrow night from Aussie for a chat?”
“Dinner with the client tomorrow,” he said. “I’ll ring you Sunday, if you like.” As if there couldn’t possibly be any reason that he’d needmysupport. Temporary weakness, mastered. “You should have dinner here with us, though,” he went on. “It’d be better.”
“Uh-huh,” I said. “Why?”
“Because you shouldn’t be going out with Lachlan Hughes,” he said promptly, not one bit afraid to spell out his opinion. “Or wearing that dress to do it.”
And, yes. That was it. All this happening, and he was worried about thedress.I was clearly the main daughter at this point, anyway. He wasn’t tellingthemto change their clothes. I’d have liked to see him tell Lexi. Or Philippa. Ha.
“Don’t you think you’d better learn to like him?” I asked, ignoring the dress question. “As he’s your daughters’ brother?” He hadn’t thought of that, it was clear. “He’s as protective as you, that’s all. Which is why you’re locking horns.”
He was honestly lost for words. “He’s not—” he started to say, and the red was right there in his face. Nobody flushed like a ginger. “He’s an unscrupulous bastard, just like his stepfather. And he’s not going to be protective if you’re wearing that dress. Your first date, and he can see through your clothes? Only one message a man gets from that.”
Somehow, I’d crossed my arms. “As I was wearing a nightdress when we met,” I said, “and had my hair down—both in about as public a place as you can imagine—I think he’s already got that message. And he didn’t even kiss me.”
“You’re wrong,” I heard. I turned fast, because that was Lachlan, there at my elbow. Again. Like the protection I didn’t—I didnot—need. Nobody’d protected me when I’d been with Kegan, and I hadn’t taken my dad’s money since my wedding. All right, I’d lived with him for a year or so there—withthe girls—but now? I was doing life by myself again, on my own terms. I was all good.
Lachlan went on, though. Of course he did. “The message I got was that she didn’t want me to touch her, and she didn’t want anybody else to do it, either. I acted on that message, because whatever you think, I’m not that much of a prick. Sorry, Laila.”
I waved my hand. “No worries.” Wanting to laugh again, somehow.Moredrama. “I was married for years,” I reminded both of them. “I’m not a virgin, and I’m not naïve.”
Dad said, “You’re not a prick, eh. Not my experience.” To Lachlan, of course, not to me. Looking huge. Looking forbidding. Possibly because I’d said the word “virgin.”
I wanted to say,You weren’t even Muslim until you married Mum! How can you have absorbed all its very worst ideas?
Lachlan might be leaner than my dad, but he wasn’t shorter, and he wasn’t backing down, either. “Think what you like,” he said. “I invited Laila to dinner, and she said yes.”
“It isn’t some romantic evening anyway,” I said. “It’s a casual dinner between friends, and we’re splitting the check.”
“You think that’s helping,” Dad said. “It’s not. Dinner that you pay for, so he can teach you what a man wants. I know what a man wants. I can explain it to you for free.”
I sighed, then looked at Lachlan. “How do you find women to have sex with?” I asked.
He stared at me for a horror-struck moment, then said, “I, uh …”
“You have a way, right?” I asked.
“Well … yeh,” he said.
“So if you need sex,” I said, “I’m not your only hope?”
A gleam of amusement in his eyes now. “Based on our interactions so far? I hope not. Doomed to disappointment, eh.”
