Found (Not Quite a Billionaire Book 3) (10 page)

“Right, then. Rules?”

He was going for it. I couldn’t believe it. He really
did
care enough. Half of me wanted to throw myself into his arms and tell him that was enough, and to please take me home right now. The other half reined Miss Undisciplined in and said, “If you wanted to come visit, that would be awesome. I know you’re so busy, and everything’s so hard right now. That’s what keeps getting in my way. I keep thinking, ‘Hope, he’s so busy and under so much stress. You can’t ask any more of him.’ And then I feel . . . last on your list. So I’m going to tell you. I’d love you to visit. I’d love to hear from you in between. I’d love you to talk to me.”

“Texts,” he said. “Emails. Phone calls. All the things I stopped doing once you were in my bed every night.”

“You think you’re jumping through hoops. I can see how you could think that.”

He smiled suddenly, and I was so surprised that I dropped my piece of bark. “Sweetheart. If we ever buy you a car? Let me do the negotiation, eh. Because you’re rubbish.”

“Oh, I don’t know,” I said. “Seems like I’m getting what I asked for.”

“Yeh.” He tucked a strand of hair behind my ear and smiled down at me, his eyes so warm, and I was melting once again. “But the car salesman isn’t going to be hopelessly in love with you.”

Hope

Did he kiss me then? Of course he didn’t. He had a plan, I could tell, and it was going to be worth waiting for.

Have you ever wanted to be swept off your feet? I had. I
did
. I was a sucker for it, in fact, and Hemi could sweep like nobody’s business.

We walked back along the beach, and he asked, “All right?” I guess I’d gone too quiet.

“Sure.”

“You’re worrying. Don’t worry. We’re going to be all good, you’ll see.”

“I’m not worrying. I’m just . . . I’m . . .”

He looked down at me, his expression impossible to read. “Hope,” he said softly, “what are you?”

“I’m a dirty girl,” I said with a sigh. “I should be having elevated thoughts about love and life and motherhood and my higher purpose and all that, and I’m not. Maybe you should be the one thinking twice.”

There was a light in his eyes now that I could read just fine. “You need to be straightened out?”

That gave me such a hard rush, I nearly shuddered again. “Maybe.”

He sighed. “And here I was, planning to be nothing but tender and adoring with my sweet little pregnant bride.”

“You were not,” I said, trying not to laugh. “You are a dirty liar.”

He laughed out loud himself. “Well, mostly I was.” He let go of my hand and gave me a light slap on the bottom that made me jump.

“Hey,” I said. “I thought we weren’t doing that anymore.”

“Just a tap.” He was still smiling. “If a man can’t give his woman a little tap on the bum when she needs it, what’s the point in living?”

“There is so much wrong with that statement.” I tried to frown at him, but it wasn’t working.

“Well, you can tell me tonight,” he said. “Maybe. Or could be all you’ll be able to say is ‘Please.’ We’ll see which it is.”

Which was all wonderful. And then we went back to the hospital.

When we walked into Koro’s room, Karen was still there, and so were June and Tane. And Daniel, sitting at his father’s bedside.

It was odd, really. He looked like Koro, and he looked like Hemi. Tall and broad-shouldered, with strong features and bronzed skin. And yet he looked nothing like them. He had none of their power, none of their force of personality. None of their strength.

Even as I was thinking it, I felt Hemi tensing up beside me. Koro, though, merely said, “There you are. Good. Take Karen home, and the rest of you lot can go on as well. I need to rest for a bit, especially as I’m meant to be going home tomorrow.”

“About that,” Hemi said. “What do you think about Hope staying with you?” Which tells you all about Hemi and how hard he was trying. He hadn’t wanted me to stay, but he’d listened to me, he’d agreed, and now, he was jumping straight in to help me do it.

“Thought she
was
staying,” Koro said. “Thought that was the whole idea. Were you thinking I’d tell her to go on home with you? Not until she’s ready.”

Everybody was looking pretty interested. I said, “I’d like to stay with you, and I’d like to help out. Thank you.”

“Oh,” June said, giving me a curious glance. “Well, that makes life easier. I was just on the phone with the others this morning, trying to work out a schedule.”

“Nobody has to work out a schedule,” Koro said. “I won’t be helpless.”

“You’ll need some help in the bath and all,” June said. “At least at first. In and out, with the dizzy spells, the arm. D’you want Hope doing that? Better be me, I’m thinking.”

Koro scowled at her. “Not showing you my bare backside, thank you very much.”

She laughed, not one bit fazed. “I’ve got two sons. There’s nothing you can show me that’s going to be a surprise, or that I haven’t seen too much of.”

Koro was still frowning, and Tane said, the amusement clear to see on his face, “I’ll come help with the bath, eh. Or Matiu will, if I can’t. No worries. As I’m guessing Hemi’s going to be taking that jet of his home, off to do important things.”

“No choice,” Hemi said.

“Always got a choice, haven’t you,” Daniel said. “Whanau comes first, mate.”

Hemi seemed to get bigger before my eyes, and I could tell that only his willpower was holding him back. Time to step in. I said, “Nobody knows that better than Hemi, wouldn’t you say?” and gave Daniel my best innocent look. “He’s in a pretty critical place with the business, yet he came all this way. Because of Koro, and to be with me. We’re expecting a baby, you see.”

I said it to take the spotlight off Hemi. Besides, surely Hemi’s father would want to know he would be a grandfather.

For a moment, it seemed to be working, as June let out an exclamation and gave me a quick hug, while a smile spread across Tane’s face before he was pumping Hemi’s hand and slapping him on the back. Koro just looked thoroughly satisfied.

Daniel didn’t do any of that. He looked me up and down, long and slow, and then he looked at Hemi. “Expecting a baby, and she’s staying here? Not going home to be with you?”

“Not for a bit,” Hemi said, his face and voice equally expressionless. “Koro needs the help just now, and Hope’s right. It
is
a critical time for me.”

“If you’re going to be a dad,” Daniel said, “maybe you should start acting like a family man for once. Take Koro back to New York with you, get him looked after properly, and this time, see your woman goes with you as well, where she belongs.”

I truly thought for a moment that Hemi was going to jump across the space between them and throttle his father. He didn’t, of course. He just gathered his energy into himself and stood motionless.

“He didn’t suggest that,” Koro said, “because he knew I’d say, ‘Like bloody hell I’m going.’ I’ve been to New York. Catch me spending my time in the Big Smoke where I can’t hear the birds and can’t catch a fish, everybody talking on their phones night and day and never bothering to look up at the people around them, and nobody who’ll answer a civil “Morning” from a stranger. I’ll stay here with my whanau, thank you very much, and if Hemi wants to see me, he can visit. I reckon you couldn’t keep him away.”

I thought Hemi was going to say something about me, but he didn’t. He just stood there, betraying none of the vibrating tension I knew he was feeling, and stared at his father. It was a pretty scary look.

“Sounds like you’ve all decided already,” Daniel said. “As usual. I’d best be off. I promised a mate my company for the All Blacks match tonight. He’s just come out of the program, and only a month sober. Keep him from going to the pub, back with the old crowd. Temptation’s a hard thing, eh. Old patterns.”

He shook hands with Tane, then turned to Hemi and said, “Walk me to my car, mate.”

Hemi said, “Aren’t you going to say goodbye to Hope and her sister?”

“Course,” Daniel said. I held out my hand, but he grabbed me instead, pulled me in, and held me too tight, smothering me with the smell of cigarettes. My stomach instantly rebelled, and I stiffened in the grip of his clutching hands.

I hated being grabbed by big men, especially when they wouldn’t let me get away. And if you think that’s what Hemi did, you don’t understand my boundaries and the way Hemi watched for and respected them. Or the way his father didn’t. All I can say is, my body knew the difference.

When Daniel finally let me go, I stood back and focused on breathing, but he wasn’t done. “Think about being a good wife to Hemi,” he said, his eyes shining with the tears that I could already see came too easily to him. “Such a thing as loyalty and supporting your man through the hard times. You could think about that.”

The room was nothing but silence until Hemi said, “I’ll walk you out, Dad.” His voice was hard and cold as steel, and he didn’t even glance my way, just stalked out beside his father.

“Whoa,” Karen said into the silence that followed their exit. “I guess I’m glad I didn’t get any words of wisdom. Or a hug.”

“All right?” Tane asked me.

“Sure.”

Koro said, “Sit down,” and I didn’t argue. I sank into the chair Daniel had vacated and thought,
Wow.

Tane said to June, “If I ever do that to one of our sons? Shoot me quick.”

It was so unexpected, I laughed, and so did everybody else except Koro.

“Yeh,” Tane told me with a grin. “Never mind. He’ll be far away. The Pacific Ocean’s a wide and wonderful thing.”

I thought,
Thank goodness.
And then I thought,
Oh, Hemi.
And I hadn’t even met his mother yet.

Hemi

I didn’t want to hang about and chat with my dad, but he paused at the open door to his car, looked at me with resignation that made my blood boil, and said, “You don’t have to marry her just because she’s pregnant.”

I was controlled. That was who I was. At least it was the man I had made myself into. “I do have to marry her,” I said. “I’m going to marry her. You’ll be invited to the wedding, because Koro will want you there. And if you get drunk, I’ll be the one chucking you out. Drive safely.”

“I told you,” he said. “I’m sober. If I’m not safe, it won’t be my fault. It’ll be these tires, because they’re buggered.”

I held his gaze. “Tell me you don’t have a bet on that All Blacks match. More than one, probably, because somebody’s in form, and the jokers at the TAB haven’t figured it out. You’ve got inside info on who’s likely to score the first try, and you can’t lose, because this is your big chance, and you deserve it. How much? A hundred? How many tires would that buy?”

A flash of anger in the dark eyes. “Your sister says you’re a cold bastard. Why d’you reckon she’d say that?”

I breathed in and out. “Because I don’t listen to excuses. Because I expect the same effort out of anybody else that I’m willing to put in.”

“You don’t understand human weakness. You don’t understand life.”

“No. I understand it, and I don’t let it beat me. I push back.”

I left him standing there. Did it feel good? No. But then, it never did.

Back into the hospital, then. Back to Koro, and a roomful of people I could be grateful for with my whole heart. Back to Hope.