Page 89 of Catch a Kiwi
Hope said, “The Katikati Beach Café is good. Would you like me to come with you?”
“No, thanks,” Summer said. “We’re fine, and it’s time for me to go anyway. Roman, why don’t you give us half an hour before you and Delilah come pick me up? I really do need the break.”
“Fine,” I said. I wasn’t sure how Summer was responsible for digging me out of this hole, but I couldn’t find a better alternative short of carrying my mum out bodily, so I guessed I’d let her.
Daniel said, “I’m not leaving. I have a right.”
Hemi didn’t answer him. He stepped forward, took Summer’s hand, and pressed it gently. “Thanks,” he said.
“Nothing to thank me for,” she said. “I’m doing what I want to do. Thank you for letting me join you today. I enjoyed meeting all of you. Please say goodbye to your grandfather for me. I see what everybody meant. He’s the … the anchor, isn’t he? The talisman.”
“The kaitiaki,” Hemi said. “The guardian. Yeh. He is.”
“Tell Maia goodbye, too, please,” Summer said, “and all the others.”
“I will,” Hemi said. “And I’ll hope to see you again.”
37
THE HARD WAY
Roman
I watched them go, watched Daniel shamble off into the party again, and told Delilah, “Half an hour.”
“I’m not deaf,” she said. “Thank God Summer didn’t make me go have a lovely cup of tea with them. Extreme application of her tact-and-kindness superpowers happening right now, I’ll bet, when all I’d want to do is tell your mom to get over herself.”
I laughed. “Well, me too, if it helps.”
“Ha,” she said. “You can’t even escape. Do you really support her? Like, completely?”
“Yes,” I said. “She’s my mum.”
“Man,” she said. “I’m revising my plans like crazy here. If I actually get rich, what’s to stop both of my worthless parents from crawling out of the woodwork with their hands out? Well, my dad probably doesn’t know who I am even if he remembers I exist, so there’s that, but my mom? Totally possible. Burglar alarms, I’m thinking. Call screening. Relentless coldness.”
A quiet huff of laughter that I realized had come fromHemi. Daniel had melted away, but Hemi and Hope were still here. He said, “I’ll tell you the secret of it. You don’t give them the money. You pay the bills directly.”
“Or you tell them to go fuck themselves,” Delilah said. “That’s my plan.”
“Also an option,” Hemi agreed, his face showing the most amusement I’d seen there all day. “And don’t worry about Daniel. I’ll manage him.”
“Better you than me,” Delilah said. “Ugh. Well, I’m off. Once I check and make sure they’re gone. The cool people are having a ping-pong tournament up at Tane and June’s.” Breezily, but I wasn’t sure she was feeling it. Possibly thinking she didn’t belong here either.
Hope said, “It’s fun up there with the cousins. Karen always loved it.” Hope had some tact superpowers of her own.
Karen came up before Delilah could leave, though, holding her kid, who was blinking sleepily against her shoulder. “What did I miss? People are whispering. Wouldn’t you know, the minute Logan wakes up from his nap, the excitement starts.”
“Nothing,” Hemi said.
Karen said, “Oh, come on. You can tell me.”
“Not our business,” Hemi said.
“Really, Karen,” Hope said. “It wasn’t?—”
“I’ll tell you,” Delilah said. “Let’s go sit in the front yard so we can gossip savagely. It had many facets. Much drama.”
“Oh, let’s,” Karen said happily, and off they went. Which left Hemi and Hope and me, looking at each other.
