Tap raised both hands. “Hey. You wanna tell Will what he can and can’t do, be my guest. Me? I’d prefer my balls remain exactly where they are. I just thought you should know, that’s all. They’re probably having a beer as we speak.”
Holy shit. I checked my watch and threw down my shovel. “Start loading up. We’re going home.”
All he did was laugh.
As soon asI turned into the driveway, I knew I was in trouble. “Fucking, fuck, fuck.” I stared bug-eyed at the two vehicles parked in my carport. Will’s bright orange Kia and my sister, Naomi’s, red Toyota.
At forty-two, Naomi was older than me and took after our father with her dark curly hair, stout frame, and assertive go-getter style. The marketing manager for a large New Zealandcompany, she’d divorced her lacklustre, cheating husband several years before, and shared custody of their bubbly ten-year-old daughter, Fiona. Within five minutes of Will and Naomi’s first meeting, Tap and I shared a beleaguered look that said we knew this was a bad idea. The two went together like hot sauce and coriander, simultaneously polarising and delicious, and I loved both of them with all my heart.
My younger sister, Kris, leaned more toward our mother in both looks and personality, as did I. Blonde, tall, and a great deal more... accommodating, she and her husband lived way down south where they ran a successful wellness centre that was a little too far left of hippie for my comfort. With both our parents dead, Naomi and Kris took it on themselves to be up in my business as much as possible, and the drums beat loudly between the North and South Islands on a regular basis.Oh joy.
“Fuck!” I swore again and scrambled out from the car just as Tap’s ute pulled in behind. I waited until he joined me, then pointed to Naomi’s vehicle. “Did you know about this as well? Be very careful how you answer.”
Tap made no attempt to hide his glee as he raised both hands. “Not a thing, and I can’t be held responsible for what Will may or may not have organised without my knowledge.”
I glared at him. “Really? Goddammit, Tap, you’re supposed to be on my side. Do you have no control over him at all?”
Tap simply shrugged. “He’s my boyfriend, Ry. I might love you to bits, but Will—” He left the rest unsaid, and I didn’t need to ask.
I groaned and closed my eyes, trying to breathe into that elusive centre of peace I’d discovered that one time on a meditation retreat Kris had sent me to a few months after James left. Then again, that might’ve been the joint I finished in my room just before it started.
I opened my eyes and glared at Tap again.
“I swear, I knew nothing,” he repeated, starting to look a little antsy. “As you well know, Will and Naomi are cut from the same cloth. They’re always texting. So, am I surprised to see them both here to check out your guy?”
“He’snotmy guy.”
Tap ignored me. “The answer is no, I’m not surprised.” He glanced toward the house and that loopy smile I loved was back. “But you have to admit, it’s kind of amusing.”
I gave him a shove. “It bloody is not. What about Thaddeus? After everything he’s been through, how do you think he might feel having Laurel and Hardy descend on him like smiling vultures to a fresh kill? Interrogating him while they pick his bones clean.”
Tap blinked. “A little dramatic, don’t you think?”
I simply stared.
His cheeks brightened and he sighed. “Okay, okay. Fair point. We better get inside, then.”
“Ya think?” I growled and gave him another shove before storming up the path and ignoring the muffled snort at my back.
I left my boots at the front door, walked straight past an excited Ziggy waiting to greet me, and was almost at the kitchen when guilt stopped me in my tracks. “Come here, boy.” I bent down to scoop him into my arms, suffered the admonishments of his wet nose and tongue on my neck, and apologised for ignoring him. As I calmed down and caught my breath, the distant sound of conversation and laughter filtered into the hall from somewhere outside.
“God help us,” I whispered in Ziggy’s ear, then set him on the floor.
Tap’s hand landed on my shoulder from behind. “Remember, never show any fear.”
“Funny guy.” I elbowed him in the ribs and headed for the deck, but whatever I was expecting, it wasn’t the sight of mysister, Will, and Thaddeus wiping tears from their eyes as they hooted with delight at whatever Naomi was saying. I stopped mid-stride and took a couple of seconds to digest the unexpected tableau.
Thaddeus sat sprawled in a cane armchair, wine in hand, and barely able to catch his breath as his shoulders heaved in choking laughter. My sister lay on one side of the double lounger, facing Thaddeus and shoulder to shoulder with Will. Both dangled glasses of wine from their respective hands, and judging by the colour, it looked like one of my best pinot gris. The deck either side of the lounger was littered with tell-tale splashes of the expensive vintage, and someone was going to be buying me a new one... or two, I thought as I spotted two empty bottles on the cane coffee table.
I froze, thrown back almost a decade to the last time I’d come home to a similar scene, when James and I were still together and the cottage rang to the sound of laughter. When our friends or, more specifically, hisfriends, would gather on the deck just like this. A time when the cottage felt more like a home than just a place I crashed while I worked on the garden. Back then, it happened so frequently that I almost resented the intrusion on our lives. With the wisdom of hindsight, I saw the need James had to fill his world with so much more activity and people than living with me provided. But I also couldn’t deny the warm feeling those social occasions brought with them. The same feeling I was experiencing right then. Being a part of something bigger. Being a couple.
It was a warning I couldn’t ignore, because just like James, Thaddeus too was a self-proclaimed city boy.But not an extrovert, a voice popped into my brain. Not a people person like James. But as I watched Thaddeus laugh and wipe his eyes, I wasn’t so sure it mattered.
When Thaddeus looked up and caught me staring, his smile went wide. “Ryder!” he exclaimed, getting to his feet and walking a little unsteadily toward me.
Behind him, the two shit-stirrers immediately turned, their expressions part guilty, part delighted. I was going to kill both of them very slowly and very painfully and hoped my glower conveyed exactly that. Whether it did or not appeared to be moot as Naomi simply blew me a kiss, while Will raised his glass in some kind of defiant toast.
“Oh boy,” Tap’s whisper came from somewhere behind me. “I somehow don’t think that’s their first drink.”
