Page 96 of Kiwi Sin
“If it’s mine, I am,” Rowan said. “Otherwise, it’s gone in a day.” He dumped some into each of the mugs and told Oriana, “Have mine, and I’ll make another.”
She hung the tea towel neatly over the handle of the cooker. “Thanks, but I need to go home. If I collect you at eight-thirty tomorrow morning, Gabriel, we could do breakfast in the caravan.”
The boys looked even more surprised at that one, and I couldn’t blame them. I told them, “With her sister,” and told Oriana, “That’d be awesome.”
“Then we could also peek and see if we can tell how Daisy likes her house,” she said. “What d’you reckon Gray ran over there to check the minute you texted him we were done?”
“I wouldn’t take that bet,” I said. “As he’s checked every day this week. I’ll walk you out.”
I shut the door behind me and leaned against it. Somebody walked by—it was Katie, the girl from the flat next door, dressed in a short skirt and more swinging earrings. Oriana said, “Hi,” to her, and Katie looked almost as shocked as the flatmates. Oriana told me, “I’m so dirty,” and smiled again. How did she somehow have all the self-possession I lacked?
“Yeh. You are.” I smiled back, and Katie put the key in her lock and went inside. The fatigue was coming in waves, but so was the satisfaction. I’d finished the job, I’d given my best and done my all, and we were standing on one side of that Rubicon, waiting to cross. I told Oriana, “I want to kiss you again.”
She didn’t answer. She stepped into me, pulled my head down with both hands, and pressed her lips to mine.
Maybe you think it isn’t sexy, kissing a girl in dusty overalls. You haven’t kissed Oriana, though, with all her sweetness and all her hunger. By the time she stepped back and dropped her hands, my own hands were on her hips, I was breathing hard, and I didn’t want to let her go.
“I’ll come back tomorrow,” she said. “We’ll have breakfast, and we’ll make a plan.”
“To cross the Rubicon,” I said.
She looked startled, but she’d had the same education I had, because she smiled again, kissed me once more for good measure, and said, “Yeh. We need to do that, but whatever happens—I’m going to marry you anyway.Moea he tangata ringa raupa.I learnt that, recently. It means, ‘Marry a man with calloused hands,’ a man who knows how to work and wants to do it, and that’s what I’m going to do. See if anybody can stop me.”
41
STILL TEETERING ON THE EDGE
Oriana
I went to bed on Saturday night feeling so … confident. At least, I thought that was what it was, because I woke up that way, too. I lay beside Priya with the birds singing their hearts out in their dawn chorus and thought,I was brave, and I did the right thing.It was a new feeling. It was agoodfeeling.
Last night, I hadn’t worried about what Daisy would say, or what Uncle Aaron would say. I’d seen the weariness in the men’s bodies as they hauled out rubbish, looked at the clock, and thought,They need something to eat and drink.When I’d gone in and seen the dust on the windowsills, felt the grit on the benchtop when I’d set my hand on it, remembered Gabriel with rings of sweat under his arms and a dark patch of it on his back, wrestling with a huge hoover, I’d thought,He needs my help.And I’ddoneit. I’d met his flatmates, I’d done all the things that made sense to me to do, I’d kissed Gabriel and told him I wanted to marry him, and the world hadn’t ended.
I wanted to tell somebody. The problem was—who would I tell? I could ring Aisha—well, when it got later, I could—but she wouldn’t understand that this wasn’t a crush, it was my life. I could tell Priya, but Priya had blurted out Uriel and Glory’s secrets. She hadn’t been able to help herself, because it was all too exciting. I understood that, but I didn’t want her blurting out mine. I could tell Daisy—well, no, I couldn’t, obviously. That was out.
Or I could tell Frankie, since she was coming home today. Except that Frankie was even worse than Daisy about school and marriage, so, again—no.
I could tell Gabriel, that was who.We could fit at home,he’d said.My wife and I.
Could your husband be your friend? It was a ludicrous question, like asking if you could marry your cat, but … maybe it wasn’t. Heunderstood,that was all.
I stayed happy for hours. I did collect him from his flat. I kissed him at the door, in front of one of his flatmates—Rowan, the one who’d helped with the washing-up—and I brought him home with me. Like an adult. Like a regular person who got to choose for herself, because it was her life.
When we walked down to the caravan, Gray was in the garden, working with Iris and somehow managing to look expectant, like he was nearly poised on his toes, which meant Daisy was still asleep after her evening shift and nothing had happened yet. How was Gray managing to wait?Icould hardly wait.
When we walked past, Gray said, “Gabriel. Hold on a sec.”
Gabriel stopped, and now, the expectancy and tension were in him, too. Gray came up, put out a hand to shake, and said, “Awesome job, mate. How late were you there?”
“Eleven or so.” Gabriel’s face was wooden. That would be because he didn’t want to betray how much this mattered to him. “Cleaning. Oriana helped. For hours, actually.”
Gray looked at me, then. “Thanks,” he said. That was all, but I could tell he meant it.
“You’re welcome,” I said. “It’s a beautiful house. She’s going to love it.”
Gray ran a hand over the back of his head and looked a bit sheepish. “Is it that obvious?”
“Yes,” Iris said. She’d been feeding the flowering plants. “Just don’t go anywhere near the chickens, because you’ll throw them off their feed. Just about throwing me off mine, aren’t you.”
