“He probably wants Mum to come anyway,” Finlay said. “Since they were kissing before. I’m not sure if he wants us tocome, though. People usually don’t invite extra kids along on their holidays.Oneextra kid, maybe, but not three. And she can’t exactly leave us alone.”
“They werekissing?”Scarlett asked. “Dad! You told us that?—”
“I think,” Zane said firmly, “that I’ll discuss it with Skylar. And that we’ll decide together.”
20
WHY DID I SAY THAT?
Why had she said yes, even for a week? She had time to examine the reasons on the hourlong flight to Wellington three weeks later. That was because the kids were sitting together in one row and she was in the aisle seat behind them, reading a book. Ah, the freedom that was your children getting older.
Unfortunately, the book was the third in a series about a woman who’d fallen in love with a magical wolf, and the romance was … compelling.Ridiculouslycompelling. She’d had a long list of things to accomplish over the holidays, and here she was, ten days in and off to Wellington for the rest of the time, and only half those things done.
What exactly hadn’t happened? Painting the downstairs, for one thing. It was going to have to wait until the spring holidays now. Of course, shehadspent too many hours sitting on various benches in the Museum of Transport and Technology, the Maritime Museum, the War Memorial Museum, the Naval Museum, and the Stardome Observatory, reading her book. She’d have felt bad about not educating herself, but between her kids and class trips, she’d absorbed everythingshe’d ever wanted to know about transport and technology and heaps she didn’t. Everything but the Museum of Transport and the Stardome had been free, also, and how else was she meant to keep three kids entertained by herself for weeks on end?
After their outings, she’d taken the kids home, made an evening meal, and fallen asleep over her book before nine. She’d always suspected that if she ever had a chance to slow down, she’d prove to be terribly lazy, and here was the evidence. There’d still been time to fit in that painting, if she’d been more efficient. She just hadn’t wanted to do it.
Well, there’d been the exercise, too. Finlay had decided he wanted to lift weights himself, and had begun joining her for her Body Pump sessions. She’d reckoned,May as well add on while I have the time,and was now doing a daily mix of yoga and Pilates that told her exactly how many muscles she had in her core and where all of them lived. All the kids had been joining her for that—they were so much more flexible than she was, it wasn’t funny—which resulted in some hilarity when somebody inevitably fell on their head. They’d been practicing their handstands and half-handstands recently against the walls of the lounge, which meant that shereallyneeded to paint soon just to remove all the smudges, but her triceps had never been stronger, and that was something, wasn’t it? It wouldn’t improve the value of her house, but maybe she could lighten up a bit? How bad would it be to slack off some now that the kids were older, especially as Granddad wasn’t around?
See? Lazy. These were dangerous thoughts, and half of her wanted to panic at her deep desire, this holidays, to lie in bed an hour longer over morning tea and toast. And, of course, her book.
Oh. Why was she on this plane, after telling herself that Granddad’s plan was ridiculous and inappropriate, and thatthey’d be foisting themselves on another family who would get by just fine on their holidays without five extra occupants in their house? She could either blame Zane for that or herself. She had a bad feeling which it was.
It definitely wouldn’t have happened if he hadn’t said, after every scrap of her enormous lemon pudding cake had disappeared, “Let’s leave my sister and brothers to look after the kids and clean this up while we go for a walk, Skylar. It’s a fine day, and I could use a stretch of my legs after the plane.”
“Oi,” Gordon said, though not very emphatically. “We’re on babysitting duty, are we?”
“Excuse me,” Scarlett said. “Babysitting? I’mtwelve.”
“Yeh,” Zane said. “She’s twelve. You’ll watch them in the pool, though?”
“I could float on the lilo, I reckon,” Gordon said. “If I have to.”
“First one to push Uncle Gordon off the lilo wins!” Duncan said.
“Go on, bro,” Jade said. “I’ve had too much lunch and need to lie down and focus on digestion as soon as possible. I feel like a snake that’s eaten a rabbit. And then there was last night. I’m knackered.”
“We don’t want to hear about that,” Jack said. “Spare me, and I’ll spare you.”
“If you can even remember last night,” Jade said. “Got pissed out of your skull, it looks to me. I doubt you showed her a fabulous time.”
“I did, as it happens,” Jack said. “You saying I have no skills? I have skills.”
“Stop,” Zane said. “Kids present. Also me present, and I don’t want to hear it, either.”
“And after swimming, we can watch a movie all together,” Georgia said, fortunately oblivious. “We haven’t watchedZootopia 2yet.”
“I can always have a kip, I guess,” Jack said.
“No!” Georgia grabbed his hands. “Because you’re the funnest to watch with. Please?”
“I don’t know.” He was lifting her, though, as she climbed his legs with her bare feet, then turned a somersault in the air as he held her up. “Well, I suppose Icould.If you sit beside me and keep me awake.”
George said, “I want to watch it too. I haven’t seen it.”
“We haven’t even seen the first one,” Olive said. “We don’t have the Disney Channel.”
“You don’t?” Duncan said. “I thought everybody had that. You’d better watch with us, then, so you’ll know what everybody’s talking about.”
