“Scarlett,” Zane said, two days after Christmas. “And Finlay. I need a minute with the co-captains, please.”
They scrambled out of the sea with him without question, which, yes, made him pretty bloody proud. He asked Skylar, “OK with the littlies for a minute?”
“Of course,” she said. “You go on.” She was sticking close to Georgia and George. The boy’s swimming had come on by leaps and bounds, between Zane’s pool and their holidays. Hahei for a week first, because it was Skylar’s favorite, and now Hawke’s Bay to spend Christmas with Zane’s whanau, which included both Nan and Geoffrey. Marriage happening there, it seemed. “I don’t care for all this new nonsense about oldies living together outside of marriage,” Geoffrey had said when they’d announced it. “Seems to me, if you love a woman this much, you marry her.” Which suited Zane fine.
Oh. The kids. Both George and Georgia were now plunging into the sea and diving off the raft like they’d been born to it. Like fish, or possibly ducks, as Finlay no doubt would have pointed out that fish didn’t climb onto docks, or do much diving, either.
Ducks, definitely.
“What, Dad?” Scarlett asked.
“Over here,” he said, walking down the sand a bit, avoiding the cricket-playing kids and the row of kayaks ready to take out the next party. “As it’s a bit of a secret.”
When he got far enough away, he asked, “How would you two feel about taking charge for an hour this afternoon while I take Skylar on a bit of an outing? I’m asking, not telling, as it’s a favor. You comfortable with that, alone in the holiday house? Otherwise, I could get Nan and Geoffrey to come over. No swimming, obviously. House time only.”
“Of course we could do that,” Scarlett said. “Why wouldn’t we be comfortable?”
“When are you going?” Finlay asked.
“Three,” Zane said. “Four. Like that. Once everybody’s got tired and is reduced to playing board games, I thought.”
“You should go for longer,” Scarlett said. “Finlay and I can make dinner, can’t we?”
“Yeh,” Finlay said. “Mum was planning to use that snapper you and I caught this morning. She said she was making that first thing she cooked for everybody, the one with the noodles and the lemon and all. We’ve made it with her before and she’s bought all the stuff for it, so we could make that. It’s just noodles and fish and sauce, and we have the recipe.”
“And capers,” Scarlett said, “that you don’t like.”
“I like them now,” Finlay said. “Didn’t you notice that I liked them last time? I’m twelve now, and I like capers. So stop saying that.”
“Allright,”she said. “You don’t have to get all narky about it. But yeh, Dad, we can make that. And asparagus, too. That’s easy, and it’s Skylar’s favorite. But why is it a secret? I told you, we can look after the others. We can do it any time. We’re good at it.”
“OK, then,” Zane said. “But wait to do the noodles until wecome home, please. That big pot’s going to be heavy, and full of boiling water. Wait for me.”
Scarlett sighed.“Fine.Although we could do it. We’re both getting stronger.”
“Humor me,” Zane said. “And as to the secret, I have something I’d like to ask her, that’s all, and we’ll need time for a good chat.”
Scarlett looked at Finlay. “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”
“What?” Finlay blinked at her.
She sighed.“Boys.He’s going to ask her to marry him, of course! On the beach, which is romantic. Dad usually isn’t romantic, so if he’s being romantic, that must be why.”
“Oi,” Zane said. “I’m romantic.”
“You bought Mum that pendant that she wears all the time,” Finlay said. “You sent her flowers two times, too. Both of those things are romantic. I think.”
“And the pendant was very expensive,” Scarlett said. “When you buy something very expensive like that, it means, like, ‘engaged to be engaged.’ So OK,thatwas romantic. But you’re usually not.”
“Why would it be expensive?” Finlay asked. “It’s not very big.”
“That’s because your mum wouldn’t let me buy the big one,” Zane said. He felt he had to defend his honor here. “She said it was ‘clunky.’ She also said, ‘Absolutely not.’ She preferred the smaller one, because it was more delicate and she could wear it every day.”
“The one you bought was still very expensive,” Scarlett said. “It cost about seven thousand New Zealand dollars. I looked it up.”
“It’s just, like, a piece of honeycomb made of gold, though,” Finlay said. “With five little diamonds stuck on. How can thatcost seven thousand dollars? You can buy a car for seven thousand dollars!”
“Not much of one, you can’t,” Zane said. “And this thing was from Paris. Reckon they slap on another thousand or two for that. But that isn’t the point.”
