Page 52 of The Rules of Their Red-Hot Reunion

Pasco pulled up a smile for Hank. ‘I want to go home, Hank. I want to drink wine with my woman, look at the mountains, smell the fynbos. New York isn’t for me any more.’

Pasco felt his phone vibrate and pulled it out of the inside pocket of his jacket, his eyebrows lifting when he saw Muzi video calling him.

‘What’s up, dude?’

Muzi, as he always did when he was excited, babbled away in Xhosa. ‘Ro’s in labour! I’m going to be a dad!’

Pasco’s heart jumped and he silently cursed. What the hell was he doing here when all the people he cared about were on another continent, eighteen hours away? ‘Oh, man, Muzi, that’s so exciting!’ he responded in rusty Xhosa. God, his accent was dreadful.

Muzi obviously thought so too because he switched to English. ‘She keeps saying that it might be a false alarm, that it’s a practice round, Braxton somethings, but I know this is it, Pas. I’m going to be a dad!’

‘You are,’ Pasco told him, grinning. This was the first good news he’d had all week, the first thing to make him smile. ‘I’m heading straight to the airport and I’ll leave as soon as I can. Send me a picture as soon as they are born, and I’ll come straight to the hospital, okay?’

‘Okay.’ Muzi placed a hand on his heart. ‘I’m not ready for this, Pas.’

Pasco walked to the exit and stepped into the sunshine. But it wasn’t tip of Africa sunshine, so it felt wrong. ‘You are ready, brother, and even if you weren’t, they are on their way. Hang in there, Muzi, and keep me updated, okay?’

‘Digby is on his way, so is Keane. And Radd. But I need—’

He needed him, his best friend. Yeah, Pasco didn’t need him to spell it out. He needed to get home, to meet the twins, and to share a cigar with his oldest friend.

But even more important than that, he needed to find Aisha and love her for the rest of her life.

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