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“She was absolutely floored when I took her to Island Bay. She’s going to be terrified when she comes here. Just bear that in mind, will you?”
“You took her home?” Kip asks.
“Yeah.” The apartment I lived in with Renie was in the city center, and I only bought the house in Island Bay six months ago. He knows I haven’t taken any girls there. “Shut up,” I say, and he grins.
“So… are we to expect wedding bells?” Mum asks hopefully.
“I haven’t even kissed her yet. I mean since she came to Wellington,” I add, a touch sarcastically as they all raise their eyebrows.
“Do you love her?” Mum asks.
I hesitate again. Kip looks at Damon, and they both sit back in their seats, enjoying the performance. “Do you want to get the popcorn or shall I?” Damon asks.
I scowl. “Oh, fuck off.”
“Saxon,” Mum scolds, “language.”
“Don’t think I’m not going to thoroughly enjoy myself when it’s your turn,” I tell them. I look back at Mum. “I don’t have a lot of experience, but I thought that love was something that matured over time.”
“Like whisky,” Kip says.
“Or cheese,” Damon adds.
“Stop it, you two,” she tells them before turning back to me. “Are youinlove with her?”
I don’t look at the guys. Instead, I think about Catie, with her glorious red hair, her wary green eyes, her Doctor Who jokes, and her love of music. Is what I feel mixed up with the fact that she’s pregnant? I like her a lot. She’s funny, quirky, and gentle, beneath her prickly exterior. I think about her all the time, and have since I met her in Auckland. My heart beats faster when our eyes meet, and I still want her. I dream about making love to her. She’s fierce and so fucking brave. I want to take care of her. Does all that count as being in love? Or is that just the Chevalier sense of honor and duty poking through like spring shoots through the snow?
“I don’t know,” I say, conscious that my brothers are listening. “There are so many factors involved, including the babies and our money. Both of us are wary of the other thinking they’re the driving factors in us being together. So I’m determined to take things slow. I don’t want her to feel obligated. Does that make sense?”
“It’s a good point,” Dad says.
I nod, although it makes me sad. I want to sweep her off her feet. To make everything right for her. To take care of her and our babies. But it is sensible to take it slow.
Even if it goes against every instinct in my body to do so.
Chapter Seventeen
Catie
The next week passes painfully slowly.
It’s nothing to do with my new job, because that’s a lot of fun. Richard Mason is pleased to have a new recruit, and Joop is excited that my arrival has prompted the company to start a new study program. The four other guys and one girl who work in the NASA room prove to be fun and hardworking, and they’re also big fans of Saxon, which I like. Richard places me with Joop as he also hasn’t been there long, and he’s keen to show me the ropes and prove what he’s learned so far.
I miss Saxon though. And it’s horrible knowing he’s on his own in Auckland, because he’s obviously not averse to going out to meet girls and taking them back to his hotel room. Every night when I’m back in my tiny apartment, I wonder if he’s out in a bar somewhere, or already back in his room with some stranger, being ‘enthusiastic’.
To be fair to him, he texts me regularly both during the day and in the evening. Sometimes he just asks, “How are you doing?” Tonight, he’s nagging me about buying groceries.
Him:NINE DOLLARS FIFTY-TWO? CATIE!!!
Me:Stop yelling!
Him:You promised me!
Me:I bought a piece of fish. It was very nice.
Him:Was it a tadpole?
I laugh as I type:It was a perfectly reasonable piece of hoki.
