Just for Now (19 page)

Jenna nodded and began to help Sophie and Harry gather their
belongings as the plane was called, while Finn shouldered the bags for the
short trip to the gate.

“I wish we didn’t have to go to school today,” Sophie
complained as they climbed into the Range Rover in the Auckland Airport carpark
after the brief flight.

“You left early Friday, and you’re going in late today,”
Jenna pointed out. “You’re going to be missing this Friday as well, and then
it’s going to be all fun. You have to learn something before that happens.”

“We went to the museum yesterday, though,” Sophie reminded
her. “That was educational.”

Jenna laughed. “That’s why I don’t feel bad about your
missing the morning. And after dinner tonight, remember, we’re starting our new
book, since we finished
The Hobbit.
”

“What are you reading us next?” Harry asked with his usual
enthusiasm.

“I thought, since Sophie enjoyed
Fantastic Mr. Fox
so
much, I’d read
Matilda
to you. I’m going to see if I can get it from the
library this afternoon. If you both help me clean up after dinner, we can get
started early.”

“We’ll help,” Sophie promised.

“Do I get to listen too?” Finn asked. “I like the way you
read.”

“Of course you do, if you flatter me like that, and if
that’s the way you want to spend the last bit of your time off. Be warned, I might
make you help clean up too.”

“Think I could run to that,” he agreed. “As this is meant to
be your own day off.”

“You’re right. But this is actually pretty selfish. I’ve
been wanting to read it again myself. It’s one of my favorites.”

She remembered what a revelation it had been the first time
she had read the book. Her own third-grade teacher had recommended the Roald
Dahl story, seeing something of Matilda in Jenna’s quiet, bright eight-year-old
self. TV dinners. Literally and figuratively. They’d made Jenna, like Matilda,
a reader and a cook in self-defense, which was why the book had always
resonated so powerfully with her. Too bad she’d never had superpowers. She’d
magically flown from her chaotic upbringing into this life, though. And that
was something in itself.

“Well,” she said as Finn pulled the car to a stop outside
the villa after dropping Sophie and Harry at school.

“Well,” he grinned back at her. “Here we are.”

He hopped out, began pulling bags from the back of the Range
Rover, and she went to help him.

“Reckon we’ve got a choice here,” he said, making his laden
way up the villa’s front steps. “You could start your time off. Or you could go
upstairs with me.”

There was nothing she wanted more right now. She wrestled
with herself as she pulled out her key to open the front door, preceded him
inside.

“I’m really tempted,” she admitted at last, pulling Harry
and Sophie’s bags from the pile he tossed into the middle of the entryway floor.
“But I was right, last night. Bad idea. So I’m going to get the kids unpacked,
start the washing, and then I’m going to go for a run. And I must regretfully
decline your kind invitation.”

He sighed. “I was afraid that was going to be the answer.”

“Remember, I have my volunteer day tomorrow.” Time to move
on. “Rescheduled. Miriam’s coming in the morning. She’ll take the kids to
school, but I’ll be back to fix dinner.”

“I’m remembering. Can I ask you for a lift to the airport
Wednesday morning, though?”

“Oh. Right. Because you’ll be driving the Toyota back again
after the wedding,” she realized. “Sure. I can do that.”

“Thanks.” He watched her heading down the hallway with a
sigh of regret. She was probably right. It was probably a bad idea. But it felt
like such a good one.

“How was the volunteer day?” he asked her the following
evening. She had at least joined him as usual for her glass of wine, he’d been
glad to see. No jumping her, he reminded himself sternly. Or he was going to
lose any chance he had, and find himself minus a nanny as well.

“Good. We worked on maths. And I had a great moment. There’s
this one little girl, Fa’alele. Samoan, obviously. Very quiet, very
overwhelmed, new arrival. I’ve been working with her on her reading, before
this. She’s been struggling. So today, like I said, was maths. And she sailed
straight through it. She did all the addition and subtraction, so I tried her
on multiplication. And she got that too!”

“Multiplication? How d’you do multiplication in Year One?”
he objected.

“It’s all more concrete,” Jenna explained. “You don’t use
the abstract numbers. You use picture cards, and counters. ‘Tane has three
kete. If there are four kumara in each kete, how many kumara does he have?’
Rather than three times four.”

“And she got that?” he asked, impressed.

“Yes!” He watched her face light up as she recalled the
moment. “I tried her with a bunch of them. She has a real mathematical mind. It
was so exciting.”

“I can see that,” he agreed. “Think Harry’d have a hard time
with that problem.”

“He’s more verbal,” Jenna said. “Bright at maths too, but
it’s not his strongest point.”

“And how’s my mate Ian?” Finn asked with a twinkle.

“Stiff,” she admitted. “Still a bit offended, I’m afraid. He
asked about you today. Sarcastically. He blames you.”

“Me?” he asked, touching his chest and opening his eyes wide
in mock alarm. “What’d I do?”

“Exist,” she said with a sigh. “He thinks I have . . . other
interests. That he can’t measure up.” She smiled. “Probably true.”

“Could be that trip to Dunedin’s going to be a good thing
after all, then,” he said. “Four weeks off before AB training starts up again.
And the kids with their grandparents for a week. Fancy a bit of company on your
holiday?”

She smiled ruefully. “Always a mistake for me to sit with
you and drink wine. I keep getting myself into trouble. In a couple months,
when we’re done with this . . . Ask me out, and I’m not going to be saying no.
If you still want to.”

“I’ll want to,” he assured her. “No worries. I want to so
much right now. Can’t tell you.”

“Time for me to go to bed, then.” She got up, scooped up his
beer bottle together with her wine glass. “Before I change my mind.”

“Got all the info you need?” he asked her from the passenger
seat the next morning. “About packing the kids up, and all?”

“If not, I have your sister’s number. I’ll figure it out.”

“Right. Glad you’re staying for the game, anyway. Should be
quite a contest. Everything at once, eh. Final game of the Rugby Championship, and
if we win it, we’ll have the trophy as well. And I get to play it in Dunedin,
in front of all my rellies. Always a treat when your family’s there.”

“And even better when you win, I’m guessing.” Jenna glanced
over her shoulder as she merged onto the motorway.

“Too right. We’re ready to get stuck in, though. We’ve had some
pretty good intensity this week. Everyone knows they need to step up another
level with Drew out. Course, we’ll have to see how we go on the night.”

“I’m confident,” she told him. “If you have anything to do
with it.”

They drove in silence for a few miles. “It’s really not right,”
she mused at last.

“What isn’t?”

“Violence shouldn’t be attractive. Right? It must be my
Neanderthal brain or something. Why am I looking forward to watching you so
much?”

“Well, that’s good news. Another reason to win, eh.”

“Sadly,” she told him with a sigh, “it doesn’t even seem to
matter. It’s just the effort, and the sweat. And the hits,” she admitted. “I’m
not proud of it, but there you are.”

His grin grew as he watched her steer the car into the
Departures lane, pull up to let him out.

“Have a good game,” she said. “Play hard. And I guess maybe
I’ll see you Saturday before I leave. Or after my holiday, if not.”

He unfastened his seatbelt, leaned across the center
console, and put a hand behind her head. “Saturday morning,” he promised. He pulled
her more closely to him and closed his mouth over hers. Felt himself falling
into the sweetness of her mouth, the taste of her.

He broke away at last, smiled into her eyes. “I’ll do my
best to appeal to your Neanderthal brain.”

“You do that.” She smiled mistily back at him. “I’ll be
watching.”

He got out of the car reluctantly, grabbed his duffel from
the back seat. Slammed the door shut, then leaned in through the open passenger
window for a final word.

“We’re not going to be waiting till December,” he informed
her. “Fair warning.”

“Auntie Sarah!” Sophie called out as they came through the
gate into the unassuming Dunedin Airport on Friday afternoon. She ran to the
tall, rangy woman and gave her an enthusiastic hug. Harry wasn’t far behind to
add his own greeting. “Where’s Uncle Kieran?”

“Back at home,” Sarah told her, laughing as she pulled both
children close. “We didn’t have enough people to work, in the end, and one of
us had to stay.”

She straightened up as Jenna approached, held out a hand. “You
must be Jenna. Thanks for bringing these two down to see us.”

Jenna wasn’t used to feeling short, but Sarah topped her by
a good three inches. It was easy to see that Finn’s height was a family trait. “No
worries,” she assured the other woman. “I was glad to do it. And I get to stay
over tonight, go to the game as well. I’m looking forward to that. I want to
see the results of all that extra time Finn’s been putting in this week.”

“Heard about that. That Drew’s ankle’s still crook,” Sarah
agreed. “I’m sorry to hear it for his sake, and the team’s. But I’ll admit
that, as a sister, it gives me a good thrill—and a fair dose of the
collywobbles for his sake—when Finn’s the skipper. And being able to see it
live tonight will be pretty special.”

“I’m looking forward to it,” Jenna said again. “Though I may
have to ask you to take Sophie’s place as my rugby tutor.”

“I’ve been teaching Jenna all about footy,” Sophie told her
aunt. “She didn’t know much about it before.”

“That’s putting it charitably,” Jenna laughed. “But Sophie’s
an excellent teacher.” She rested her hand on Sophie’s head as the little girl
beamed with pride.

“We don’t get to go to the game tonight with you, though,”
Sophie told her aunt with disappointment. “Too late, Dad said. We have to stay
at the hotel with Nana instead.”

“The weekend will be busy enough, with the wedding on
Sunday,” Jenna told her. “And you can watch the game on TV with your Nana.”

“It’s not the same, though,” Sophie scowled. “It’s not fair.
Just because Harry’s too little.
I’m
not.
I
didn’t fall asleep
last week.”

“I know it’s disappointing, but your dad said no,” Jenna
reminded her. “And I agreed with him. Can you give me a hand with this luggage,
please?”

Sophie still looked mutinous, but didn’t protest further,
grabbing a wheeled case and moving toward the carpark with the others.

“Thanks for the lift,” Jenna told Sarah as she climbed into
the front seat of the Toyota people mover. “I hope it isn’t putting you out. I
could have hired a car as well. Then Finn could have used it after tonight.”

“Dunedin’s not what you’d call a sprawling metropolis,”
Sarah said dryly. “We can walk nearly everywhere we’ll want to go from the
hotel. Finn knows that. Besides, I couldn’t wait to see my favorite niece and
nephew.”

“We’re your
only
niece and nephew, Auntie Sarah,”
Harry piped up from the back seat. “So that’s silly.”

“Like I said. My favorites.”

“Are Nana and Grandpa here yet?” Sophie asked. Jenna was
grateful that she seemed to have put aside her disappointment over missing the
game, at least for the time being.

“At the hotel, waiting for you,” Sarah promised. “And they
asked me to invite you to join us for dinner,” she told Jenna. “They’re quite
keen to meet you.”

“Me?” Jenna asked in surprise.

“Seems they’ve heard a fair bit about you from their
grandchildren, these past months. And from Finn, I gather.” She cast a quick
glance at Jenna. “You’ve made an impression.”

“That’s nice to hear. I’d enjoy having dinner with all of you.”

“You may change your mind once you know how many that is,”
Sarah grinned. “Most of the family’s here for the wedding, as well as all
Ella’s family and friends. And everyone who could manage it got here early to
go to the game tonight. It’ll be a bit of an open slather, I’m afraid.”

“Sounds fun,” Jenna said determinedly.

“We’ll meet at six, then, in the lobby,” Sarah told her as
she pulled into the hotel carpark. “Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

“How ya goin’?” Sarah asked as they began the trek to Forsyth
Barr Stadium that evening after dinner, their large family group just part of
the happy throng headed that way, many wearing All Blacks apparel or carrying
the distinctive black flag with its silver fern, some even having decorated
themselves with white and black face paint in honor of the occasion.

“You were right,” Jenna admitted. “Fun, but a little overwhelming.
I’m going to have a job remembering everyone’s name.”

“Finn said you’d been a teacher. You must have had some
practice remembering names.”

“True. More challenging in the pub, though, than in a nice
orderly classroom.”

“Why
are
you doing this now? Being a nanny, I mean,”
Sarah clarified. “Bit overqualified, aren’t you?”

“I’m taking a year off,” Jenna explained. “I’d been living in
Wellington since I moved to New Zealand, and never even got around that much. I
knew I wanted to live someplace else, but I wasn’t sure where. So I traveled
around the North Island for a while, working in cafés, staying in backpackers’
hostels, looking for somewhere to settle. I tried New Plymouth, Rotorua, a few
other places. I ended up in Auckland, because . . .” She shrugged. “Because
everyone ends up in Auckland, right? I was visiting a friend there when I saw
Finn’s advert. I was missing working with kids, and the timing was right. It
seemed like a fun thing to do, just for now. I like to cook, and Finn’s an
appreciative audience, let me tell you. I’ve never cooked for anyone who ate
that much, or enjoyed it as much as he does. I love that.”