Found (Not Quite a Billionaire Book 3) Page 10

  “Good,” Koro said at sight of me. “They say they’re going to let me out at last, and I wasn’t about to wait for you.”

  “We’ve heard the instructions from the doctor already,” Matiu said, shoving the phone back into his pocket. “All good. Got a printout for Hope as well.”

  “Hi, Matiu,” Karen said, bright and eager as a sparrow. “I thought maybe you weren’t around anymore.”

  “Nah,” he said with that patented smile that, Tane had told me, still had girls falling at his feet. “Been working, for my sins. I’ll follow you home, Hemi, so I can fill Hope in and get Koro well settled. I can give him a bit of a check once we get there, make sure nothing’s gone awry during the journey.”

  Koro said, “Think I can ride in a car for twenty minutes and go sit in my own house without needing a physical, thank you very much. Those nurses have been in here every time I turn around. Dunno what they’re checking for. If my heart had stopped, they’d know it. I’ve got a bit of a sore head and arm, and nothing else in the world the matter with me.”

  “Hmm,” Matiu said, the light in his eyes and the twitch at the corner of his mouth the only signs of the smile he was suppressing. “Call it being cautious with the whanau’s treasure.”

  Koro snorted at that, and Matiu looked more amused than ever. Everything was a joke with him even now, and as always, it annoyed me. He said, “Tane and I will switch off coming out to help Koro with his bath and all, depending on my schedule, and that’ll be good as well. I can keep my eye on the arm, and if Hope has any questions, I can answer them, and do anything else she and Koro need. Hope doesn’t have a driving license, I hear.”

  “I don’t,” Hope said. “Which I realize makes more work for the others.”

  “No worries,” Matiu said. “We can give you a hand with that as well, I’m thinking. Karen, too, as she’s turned sixteen. Driving lessons, eh. Between Tane and June and me, we should be able to get that sorted.” He flashed some more grin at the two of them. If women were drawn to me because I was closed off, with Matiu, it was the opposite. He was everything that promised a good time, even if he never promised a single thing more. Or delivered it.

  Well, that wasn’t quite fair. He was a doctor as well, and that hadn’t been easy. In any case, Karen seemed to have no qualms, whatever I’d told her about men. She smiled back at Matiu and murmured, “Oh, goody,” at Hope, and that wasn’t the best.

  Hope winced beside me, and I realized I was squeezing her hand too tightly and relaxed my own with an effort. We’d talked about driving lessons, after all. If she needed to be able to drive and swim to feel ready to marry me, then I reckoned she should learn to drive and swim. And if I’d rather be the one overseeing all that? I’d already seen how my attempts at full control had worked out. As for Karen, I had to admit that Hope didn’t seem any worse at managing her than I was. And Matiu was my cousin. He’d hardly set his considerable sights on my soon-to-be sister-in-law, all sixteen years old of her.

  Better for Karen, surely, to have a bit of a crush, if it happened, than to deal with an actual hormone-crazed boy who’d be coming around when I wasn’t there, taking her for a walk through the orchards, maneuvering to be alone with her in exactly the same way I’d done with every girl I could get my hands on in my own younger days. She’d have Koro around to give every bloke the look, after all. Koro’s look was as effective as my own, concussion or no, and his mana was second to none.

  Hope, seemingly unaware of any treacherous undercurrents, said, “Driving lessons would be amazing for both of us. Efficient, too, if we can get them together. I’m guessing it would be a whole lot easier to start learning here than in New York City.”

  “How long will you be staying?” Matiu asked.

  “Three weeks for Karen,” Hope said. “Six or so for me, maybe more. We’ll see.”

  That earned some interested looks I could have done without, until Koro said, “I know Hemi knows how to drive, anyway, and it’s high time he shook up a nurse and got me out of here. I want my own chair, my own bed, and my own garden. Want my own food, come to that. We’ll stop at Countdown along the way. I can have a sandwich at my own table, and not a minute too soon.”

  A couple hours later, and there was no putting it off.

  I thought I’d hardened myself against temptation long ago. I’d practiced discipline and self-control for so many years, they were second nature. Today, though—today, I wanted something else. I wanted to take Hope on another walk, to back her up against the smooth bark of an avocado tree in Koro’s back garden or, better yet, to pull her down into my lap on a handy bench, because Hope in my lap was one of my favorite things. I wanted to take my time kissing her until her mouth was swollen and her eyes were closed, until my hands were all over her and her entire body was yielding to mine, until I’d lost my own inhibitions and could whisper everything I yearned to say about the way I needed her. No fear, and no restraint.

  After that, I wanted to sit with Koro, watch the recap of the weekend’s rugby, and drink a beer. I wanted to cook dinner with Hope and Karen and eat it at the little table in the best house in the world. I wanted to be the one who helped Koro with his bath and put him to bed, and then I wanted to take Hope to our own bed and take care of her in every way there was.

  I wanted to be the man of my family. But to do that, I had to set my wishes aside and leave all of them. Life wasn’t about doing what you wanted. It was about doing what you had to do.

  Saying goodbye to Koro came first. In the end, the drive home and the wait in the Countdown carpark while the rest of us did a quick shop had tired him more than he’d been willing to admit, and there’d been a tinge of gray to his skin by the time Matiu and I had been helping him into the house. He hadn’t objected too strenuously when we’d got him into his pj’s and helped him climb into bed again before Matiu left.

  “Hope and Karen are making you a sandwich,” I said. “And Matiu will be back tonight.”

  “I’m not deaf,” he said with little enough heat that I recognized it for the pro forma protest it was. “I know he’s coming back. Can hardly get rid of him, can I.”

  “Good.” I put the TV remote next to his hand and rearranged a vase of flowers on the bedside table so he could reach the water glass more easily. “I can be back within the day if I’m needed. By you or Hope. Maybe you can remind her of that.”

  As soon as I’d said it, I knew it was weak, but Koro’s tired, wise old eyes had already shifted to mine. “No worries, my son. She loves you, and she’s not your mum. What’s a month or two compared to a lifetime? Nothing. Laying the foundation, that’s all.”

  “You’ve been talking to her.” When could he have done that?

  “I don’t need to talk to her to know that. I know it’s hard for you to follow somebody else’s lead, but in this, the woman sets the pace. No way around it. She tells you when you’ve got there, but once you have, there’ll be no budging her. She’ll be solid as the ridge post in the marae, exactly like your Kuia was for me. A woman to build your life around.”

  I was having some trouble with my eyes. I took his hand, as weathered and gnarled as the pohutukawa where Hope and I had sat the day before, squeezed it gently, and leaned forward to hongi him again.

  “Go,” he said. “I’m all good, and you have things to do. You’re better there.”

  “Three weeks,” I told him. “Then I’m back to collect Karen, and to see the two of you.”

  “Three weeks,” he said. “I’ll be up and around, and your heart will be easier, because you’ll see that you don’t have to be with her to take care of your woman. I reckon you may do that better now than when you had her with you.”

  “I’ll be doing that,” I said, and then, because the words wouldn’t stay inside, I added, “Take care of yourself. Please.”

  Please don’t die, I managed not to say. I can’t lose you. Not that.

  “I’ll be here,” he said, seeming to understand me without the words. “No
w go tell her everything you want her to know, including the hardest bits. It’s all good, my son. You’ve done tougher things.”

  Hope walked outside with me for that. I was glad that at least it wasn’t raining, so we could take our time. My pilot was going to be waiting a few extra minutes, but that was what I paid him for.

  I tossed my luggage in the boot, then slammed it shut and leaned against the door, wrapping my arms around Hope and giving her a slow, thorough kiss as her own arms twined around my neck.

  I could have kissed her forever, and she was the one who broke it off, then brushed her nose against mine in a playful gesture and smiled into my eyes. Her mouth may have trembled a bit around the edges, but her voice was firm when she said, “Take care of yourself, Hemi. And know that I’ll take care of your grandfather. I’ll do my very best, and so will you.”

  “I know you will,” I said. “You always do. But it’s not too late to change your mind. Surely you know how much I love you, and how much I’m willing to do to prove it. I can get Koro looked after. Come home with me.”

  Her eyes softened, and her hand was on my cheek when she said, “This is better. It’s hard on both of us, but it’s better. You think it’s about you, that you can change, and maybe you’re right. You’re strong enough to do anything. But it isn’t about you, not really. It’s about me. It’s about both of us holding strong together, not one person needing to carry the other, or the other person needing to be carried.”

  “It’s not you, it’s me?” I said. “Not something any bloke wants to hear.”

  “Practice, that’s all. We’ll both practice, and we’ll get better. That’s the point of practice.”

  I drove away, in the end, because I had no choice. And I watched her in the rearview mirror, a small, stalwart figure with her hand raised and a smile on her face, until I turned the corner and left her behind.

  I didn’t do helpless. Not ever. But I was damned if I could figure out how to do anything else.

  Hope

  Wednesdays can be weird.

  On a wet one ten days later, I woke to news that was either good or bad, depending on your point of view.

  I’d got out of bed at six-thirty, but Koro had beaten me. He was in the kitchen with a cup of tea and the newspaper, and not in his robe, either.

  “Hey,” I said, going over and giving him a kiss on the cheek, “look at you. Want some help with those buttons?” He was wearing a white T-shirt and jeans, with a flannel shirt hanging open over the shirt. Not quite neat enough for Koro, but major progress from staying in his robe until one of his nephews showed up to help him into his clothes. I knew it must have hurt getting his arm in and out of the sling, but I wasn’t going to mention that. Koro, like Hemi, had pride to burn.

  “I’d say no,” he said with the lightening around the eyes that was the Te Mana version of a smile, “but I reckon I’ve used up all my grumpy bugger points already.”

  “Never.” I fastened the shirt’s buttons for him and loved that he let me do it. I didn’t suggest that I could help tuck it in. I wasn’t pushing my luck. “Only the tiniest dent in the allowable total, and I’ve practically forgotten it already. How’s the head?”

  He flapped his uninjured hand. “I’ll live.” Indeed, he was looking and sounding less foggy day by day, although he still tired much too easily. “Even managed to read a bit of the paper today. Sorry I did, of course.”

  I popped a couple pieces of bread into the toaster, then spooned a little chopped ginger into a mug and added a tea bag, hot water, and my spoonful of manuka honey. “Sometimes,” I confessed, “I look at the news and want to pay to put the newspaper back. What was it today?”

  He didn’t tell me. Instead, he shoved the Herald across the table at me. I sat down, took a sip of tea, picked up the paper, and dropped it again. “Whoa.”

  Two faces stared back at me, and a shiver went straight down my spine. The first shot, Hemi at his darkest and most formidable, was nothing but a thrill. The one below that wasn’t quite as good, though.

  Hemi again. With his wife.

  A younger, slimmer, happier man looked back at me, the look on his face one I’d only seen on rare occasions when the two of us had been alone. His arm was wrapped protectively around an absolutely glowing Anika, who stood laughing with one hand holding down the skirt of a full white dress, with the other slim, graceful arm over her head to pull back the sheet of dark hair that whipped around her head like a victorious battle flag. Her smile matched his. Two beautiful people in love.

  Hemi and Anika Te Mana in happier times, the caption read, and I thought, No kidding.

  I read the headline, then. Cheating, lying, and the odd ménage a trois: Te Mana case takes a raunchy turn.

  “Oh, boy,” I muttered, but at that moment, my toast popped up, which delayed things a little bit more.

  You don’t think fixing your toast outweighs learning about a critical development in your fiancé’s life? All I can say is, you’ve clearly never been pregnant. Finally, though, I was sitting down again, falling on my toast with my usual starved-dog delicacy and reading between bites.

  Sensational new information surfaced yesterday that could threaten Hamilton-based Anika Cavendish’s claim to an estimated 125 million dollars, half the assets acquired by estranged husband Hemi Te Mana during the couple’s seventeen-year marriage, scheduled to end in divorce court in mid-September. The payout, fashion industry sources speculate, could spell disaster for the tycoon’s U.S.-based business empire.

  Cavendish’s suit, which is not yet scheduled for trial, took an unexpected turn when a University friend of the couple alleged a sexual relationship between Cavendish and star witness Beauden McAllister.

  The length of time the couple lived together remains at the heart of the dispute. A couple is required to split their property evenly only if they share the same residence for three years or more. McAllister, Te Mana’s former roommate, is reported to have sworn under oath that Cavendish moved into Te Mana’s apartment while the two men were still sharing a room in a flat near Auckland University. Other witnesses are expected to testify that the couple did not start living together until they rented their own flat, starting two years and ten months before the couple separated, with Te Mana moving to the United States while Cavendish stayed behind in New Zealand.

  Kiwi designer Violet Renfrow, friendly with both Te Mana and Cavendish in Uni days, has now alleged that McAllister was having a sexual relationship with Cavendish soon after Te Mana left New Zealand, which could cast doubt on the truth of McAllister’s testimony. According to Renfrow, “I popped by the flat one morning to consult with Anika on a project we were doing together. It was just a couple weeks after Hemi left, but she came to the door in a shortie robe and nothing I could see under it. I could see Beauden McAllister, Hemi’s old roommate, behind her pulling his shirt on. And after he left and I asked her about it? She laughed and said, ‘If Hemi cares, he knows what to do about me. But come on, Vi. You know and I know that he’s not coming back. Life’s short, and Beaudie’s hot. What, do you want to play, too? He’d be game.’ That was the part that surprised me most. Not that she’d cheat—that didn’t surprise me a bit—but that she’d be so open about it, to the point of asking me to join in. She didn’t care whether I told Hemi. I think she wanted me to. She wanted to hurt him for leaving her, and she had her ways to pull a man in and get him to do what she wanted. So, no. Trust Beauden to tell the truth about her I would not.”

  Cavendish’s neighbors, meanwhile, report even more startling activities at the tidy townhouse in Hamilton’s stylish centre that Te Mana’s wife has owned for the past five years. “There were noises coming from over there that you wouldn’t want your children to hear, let’s just say,” said one former neighbor who asked to remain anonymous. “There’s kinky, and then there’s the kind of thing she got up to. We didn’t want to pry into her business, and we try to think the best of our neighbors, but when you hear what we heard—well, there
’s not much else you can think, and it becomes your business.

  “I hope I’m as tolerant as the next woman,” the former neighbor continued, “but when we’d finally had enough, we slipped a note under the door asking for a little respect. She came over afterwards and told me off like I’ll never forget. Had a look on her face that chilled my blood when she said, ‘Your hubby must have drilled a hole through the wall, from the interest you’re taking. Is it you that’s jealous or him? Looking for lessons, is he? Next time, we’ll take care to make it better.’ Live and let live is one thing, but if she was married when she did all that, those weren’t the vows I took. I know what I’d call her, and it isn’t ‘wife.’”

  There was more. What Hemi’s attorney had said, what Anika’s had said in response, and how nobody’s behavior mattered, because the law only cared whether Hemi and Anika had lived together for three years. And about the suppression order Anika’s attorney had requested to avoid further trial by public opinion. A case of too little, too late, it seemed to me.

  I was still working my way through all that, taking another sip of tea to calm myself and thinking what a bad enemy Hemi would make, when Koro shook his head and said, “Hard to read. I hate to see her bringing shame to herself and her whanau like that, however much it’ll help Hemi.”

  I couldn’t meet his eyes. Instead, I buried my face in my mug. What would Koro think if he knew the kinds of things Hemi and I did together?

  No matter how filthy those things had been, I’d never felt dirty, except in the most delicious, intensely secret way. It had always felt like Hemi alone knew the woman beneath my innocent exterior, as if he and he alone was in charge of bringing her out, playing with her, and putting her away, secret once more.

  I’d said I didn’t want to be Hemi’s doll, and I’d told the truth. I did enjoy being his plaything at times, though.