“No worries,” Zane said. “I booked. Seemed wise. You could sit by me, if you like.” He stood behind the chair at the head of the table as if he couldn’t imagine sitting anywhereelse. “Put Scarlett and your son down by my Nan and your Granddad, why don’t you, for their sins. We’ll let them deal with it. Besides, it could be funny to watch the sparks fly from afar. What’s your boy’s name?”
“Oh,” she realized in confusion. Whenhadn’tshe been confused around him? And he thought it was funny to watch kids fight? Not her idea of a good time. But then, he played on a team with his brothers, and that might be the dynamic he was used to. “I never introduced you. That’s Finlay. Finlay, this is Zane. Ah … Mr. Mahuta.”
Zane had a smile lurking somewhere just shy of his mouth. “I’m not going to know who he’s talking to if he calls me that. I don’t think anybody’s ever called me that, and I’m including the sponsors. Definitely the sponsors.”
“If your kids have to call Mum ‘Ms. Fairburn,’” Finlay said, “it’s fair that I call you that.” He offered his hand. “I’m pleased to meet you.”
Zane raised an eyebrow and shook the hand. “Likewise. We’ll put the littlies by your mum and me, how’s that, and the rest of you can arrange yourselves however you like.” Maureen and Geoffrey, in fact, had already sat at the opposite end of the table and were not exactly signaling, “Ready to take on child-minding duties!”
Skylar was just thinking that when Zane said, “Only fair that they get a day off, I reckon.” He smiled at Olive, then. Yes, an actual smile. “Hi. Good book?”
She looked up, kept her finger in her book, and blinked. “Yes. It’s the fourth book in theInheritanceseries, and I really want to find out how it ends. It’s about magic, and there are dragons.”
“Ah,” Zane said. “A bit like Harry Potter, maybe.”
“Yes,” she said in a considering tone, “but different. There’s more violence, and I don’t like that so much, but I like action. And dragons. Especially getting to ride a dragon. Especially adragon that can read your thoughts. That would feel so cozy, like a friend you always had in your head.”
“It’s a pretty good-sized book,” Zane said. “How old are you?”
“Eight,” Olive said. “I don’t like kids’ books as much. They don’t feel real. This isn’t real, of course, because it’s imaginary, but it feels more real anyway. I want to readThe Lord of the Ringsnext. Everybody keeps saying this copies off those books, so I want to read them for myself.”
“A woman to be reckoned with, then,” Zane said. “What’s your name?”
“Olive,” she said. “What’s yours?”
“Olive,” Skylar said. “You know his name. You watched him play last night, and we just discussed his name. He’s Zane Mahuta. Mr. Mahuta. From the Blues rugby team. He’s the other kids’ dad, remember?” Wait. Had she explained that to the kids? Surely she had. Of course she had!
“Oh.” Olive blinked. “I’m sorry. I didn’t watch very much, and you probably look different with your clothes on.”
Zane’s mouth twitched. To his credit, though, he didn’t laugh. He said, “I probably do. And you,” he said to George, “I know, because Georgia told me. You’re George.”
“Yes,” George said, sticking out his hand in the way Olive should have done. “We have almost the same name, but it’s not quite the same, because hers is different at the end.”
“Because she’s a girl,” Zane said. “Girls’ names do that sometimes.”
“Oh.” George considered. “I never heard of that before. May I sit beside Georgia, please, Mum? She knows about rats.”
“Absolutely,” Skylar said. George couldn’t sit beside Skylar anyway, because Olive had pulled out the chair beside hers and was reading again.
So, no, it wasn’t exactly like drinking wine with Zane in the night. It was like being taken on the world’s most confusing,most expensive, and least conversational date, was what it was. That was because Zane somehow ended up paying for all their breakfasts, a fact she didn’t realize until it had already happened.
The first she knew of it was when they all stood up to leave, and she said, “Cheers for that, Granddad, though I’m feeling guilty about my duck salad. It said twenty-nine dollars right there on the menu, and somehow I ordered it anyway.”
“Don’t thank me,” Granddad said cheerily. “Zane here was tapping his card against the screen before I could even pull my wallet from my trouser pocket. I’d have fought him for it, but it wouldn’t have ended well.”
Oh. My. God.How much had those five meals cost Zane? Her granddad had had the lamb belly! Almost forty dollars right there, and how much in all? Coffees, hot chocolates … It had to have been … she added up hastily. A hundred fifty dollars at least. She knew she was turning red. Embarrassment, anger … she couldn’t even have said. She told Zane, “I’m so sorry. This was meant to be …” She looked daggers at her granddad, walking out with Maureen as if he hadn’t a care in the world. “Whatever it was meant to be, it certainly wasn’t meant to be a charge on you. Ever. Please tell me Granddad paid for the tickets last night. Please tell me that.”
“Don’t remember,” Zane said, which was all the answer she needed. She wanted to sink through the floor.
“Then,” she said, going for the cheerful approach, “it seems I need to return the favor, at least as much as I can. How about if you and your whanau come to ours for a meal next weekend? I promise it won’t be beans, greens, and grains.” Wait. He probably ate Wagyu steaks. Lamb cutlets. King salmon with crayfish. Would he even touch, say, chicken thighs? Beef mince? He certainly wouldn’t eat sausages.
Just as she was panicking, he said, “You do realize I’ll be playing on Saturday night. Qualifying round against theBrumbies, it’s going to be. Which will be in Canberra. Where I’ll be flying on Wednesday.”
“Oh.” She was turning red, she knew. “Of course you will be. Sorry.”
“We’ll be back on Sunday morning, though,” he said, “if you’d like to invite us for a barbecue.”
Fish,she thought. Fish can seem more flash than it really is.“Yes,” she said. “That would be fine.”
