So he had. Returned home anyway. He sure hadn’t sorted anything out, least of all a plan of action regarding Tui and their unborn child. Work was the only thing that made sense, and he threw himself into it.
Eight miserable hours later, he turned into his driveway to see a black SUV parked in it. If he hadn’t already recognized Isaac’s vehicle, the six-foot-something former athlete emerging from the driver’s seat was a dead giveaway. Just to add the cherry on top to a really awesome day, the passenger door cranked open and another scowling Ngata male emerged—Sam.
Kyle pulled in behind the SUV and tugged on the parking brake while sending up a silent prayer requesting some self-preserving restraint as he didn’t trust himself not to take a swing at one of the brothers should they have arrived there to gloat. He stepped out of his vehicle and made his way to the front, where both men leaned against the SUV’s sides with coordinated dark shades, folded arms, and scowls.
Not come to gloat, then.
“If you’ve come to put me in the hospital”—Kyle staggered his work-booted feet on the concrete, evenly distributing his weight and keeping his abs tensed, preparing for a blow—“get on with it.”
“Got somewhere else to be, Griffin?” Isaac said dryly. He clicked a button on his key chain and the SUV’s back door slowly rose…to reveal a six-pack of beer.
“You drove all the way to Auckland to bring me beer?” Some but not all of the tension in his stomach muscles released.
“Yeah, right, dumbass,” Sam muttered. “We’re acting for your local Uber Eats.”
“Sam.” Isaac’s voice remained mild, but there was an undercurrent there.
One that Kyle recognized, eldest brother to eldest brother.
“We’ve come to talk about Tui,” Isaac continued.
“Figured this wasn’t a we’re just in the neighborhood, social drop-in.”
Sam’s eyebrow twitched above his shades but he kept his mouth zipped. Fine, whatever. If Tui wanted to break his heart via her brothers, he just wanted to get on with it.
“Better come in, unless you want to stick around drinking in my driveway and looking like thugs.” Kyle gave the men and the SUV a wide berth as he strode to his front door and unlocked it.
He stepped inside, leaving the door open, and strolled into his room to change out of his collared shirt. Either they’d follow him in or they wouldn’t. He didn’t give a rat’s furry behind.
Not quite true, he admitted, tossing aside his shirt and pulling a T-shirt over his head. If Tui confided in anyone as to where she’d run off to, it’d be one or both of her brothers. And part of him—a bigger part of him that he was comfortable with—was desperate to hear news of her.
When he emerged from his bedroom, he found Isaac and Sam sprawled on his couch with open beers in their hands and his architectural magazines shoved to one side on his coffee table to fit the remaining bottles.
A sarcastic make yourself at home was on the tip of his tongue, but he pushed it into his cheek pouch and snatched up the opened bottle one of them had positioned in front of the armchair. He drained half of it, the icy beer cooling the flush of irritated anticipation crawling up his throat. Now that her brothers were here, he had to force himself not to threaten or beg for information about Tui.
“Does she know you’re here?” he asked as an opener, folding himself into the armchair.
The brothers shot each other loaded glances.
“No,” Isaac said.
“She’d gut us if she did,” Sam said.
“Do you know where she is?”
“At the cottage.” Sam took another sip of his beer. “Got back yesterday afternoon.”
Kyle’s heart catapulted into his throat then dropped to his feet, which itched like mad to run all the way to Bounty Bay right this minute. “She’s okay?” he barked. “Is she okay?”
“Take it easy. She’s fine.” Isaac set his beer bottle down. “Ish.”
“Yeah.” Sam crinkled his nose. “Definitely ish. She almost took my head off when I asked how she was feeling.”
“That’s because you’ve all the subtlety of a tank blundering into a china shop,” Isaac said. “No finesse.”
Sam turned a slit-eyed glare Kyle’s way. “So. What didya do to screw things up with our sister?”
Kyle returned the glare, though, truth be told, there wasn’t much threat in it. “I told her I loved her and wanted us to be a family.”
“Huh.” Isaac picked up his bottle and leaned into the couch, taking a thoughtful sip.
“Did you mean it?” Sam asked.
“Of course I bloody meant it.”
Isaac: “You’re in love with her?”
Sam: “And you told her that in actual, spoken-out-loud words?”
Isaac: “Not in that wishy-washy I’m crazy about you, babe BS, which according to women doesn’t count, right?”
Sam: “You sure you didn’t just think the words?”
Kyle’s brain pounded like his brain was a bass drum and each stupid-ass question a drumstick, and he held up a hand. “I’m not an idiot. I’m head-over-heels in love with Tui and I told her—out loud and using the L-word—and she kissed me like a drowning woman and took off.” He dropped his face into his hands. “I was stupid enough to think she felt the same.”
A rustle of clothing on couch cushions. Kyle spied between his fingers Sam and Isaac once again exchanging knowing looks.
“Pretty sure she does.” Isaac sighed, like the admission hurt.
“Yeah,” Sam said morosely. “Never seen her this cut up over a man before.”
“So what the hell is going on with her?” He didn’t really expect the two men to cough up any of Tui’s secrets—he knew family loyalty when he saw it.
“Mate. She’s pregnant,” Sam said.
As if that explained everything.
“Can’t blame it all on hormones.” Isaac’s mouth pursed and he once again took a thoughtful sip of beer. “Look,” he said once he’d swallowed. “If Tui cares about you, you can’t be a complete asshole like we first thought.”
“Thanks for the vote of confidence.”
“Welcome.” Isaac toasted him with his bottle. “And in that case, if you’re not a complete asshole, why are you here?”
Wallowing in self-pity, his tone implied.
“In a philosophical sense? Because it’s pretty damn obvious why I’m here in Auckland. Tui made it clear she didn’t want to be around me.”
Sam rolled his eyes. “If she didn’t want to be around you, she would’ve told you to piss off. She’s not shy.”
“Nope. Not shy at all,” Isaac agreed. “And given the state of her nightstand…”
Kyle must’ve had a completely blank look on his face as Isaac snorted out a laugh.
“There’s a foot-high stack of books on it, along with enough bags of salted nuts to give someone with allergies nightmares,” he explained. “Which makes us wonder why you weren’t camped out on her doorstep, waiting out her mini freak-out instead of running back here.”
“Like a little kid,” Sam added. “Not like a man who’s planning to marry the woman he loves.”
“Who said I was planning to marry anyone?” Hell, wasn’t any conversation private in the Ngata family? “Did your father—”
“Who do you think suggested we come down here to tell you to get your spurned butt back to Bounty Bay?” Sam said.
“What?” Kyle felt his jaw sag. “Why would he—but your father hates me.”
Sam huffed out a laugh. “Nah. Well, maybe a little. No more than any man who got his only daughter pregnant. No one is ever gonna be good enough for his baby bird.”
Isaac sat forward, resting his elbows on his knees and skewering Kyle with a steady stare. “Dad admits he had a little too much to drink when he confronted you on Christmas Day. He let his overprotective side come out and said some things he regrets. Dad, like us, could see how gutted you were when you found out Tui had gone. He’ll own up to it, too
, soon as you get a chance to talk to him.”
“I’m not going back to Bounty Bay to have peacekeeping talks with Pete. What’s the point? I can’t change who my family is and what happened in the past.”
“The point is Tui, isn’t it?” Sam asked. “She’s pregnant, scared, and vulnerable—though she’d kick me in the nuts for saying it.”
Kyle squeezed his eyes shut against the image of Tui, huddled in her bed with only a stack of paperbacks to distract her from the fact she was alone. Her choice, a snide little voice hissed in his ear. You offered her and the baby everything and she didn’t want it. Didn’t love you the way that you love her.
Really?
Kyle replayed the conversation in her old room in slow motion, trying to figure out what he’d said and…oh, damn. His hand on her stomach and mentioning the baby. That’s when he’d felt her tense. But she couldn’t think that he loved her only because of the baby—
His eyes flew open and he jerked upright, startling both other men into upright positions. He swore softly and dragged his hand down his face. “Does Tui think I only want to be with her—marry her—because of the baby?”
Sam and Isaac stared at him as if he’d just asked a question they’d need high-level knowledge of trigonometry to answer.
After a couple of beats of stunned silence, Sam said, “How the hell would we know? That’s waaay above our pay grade.”
“Better make tracks up to Bounty Bay and find out,” Isaac suggested. “You’ve given her enough time to stew in her own juices.” He flashed a sharp grin at Kyle. “Now you need to seal the deal. Fight for her.”
“Exactly.” Sam pointed a gun-shaped finger at him. “Like my poor, dense bro here did, you need a BRG—a Big Romantic Gesture. Perfect opportunity is the New Year’s party at the Hunters’ tomorrow night. Everyone’s going to be there—including Tui.”
Isaac nodded his agreement. “You show up with flowers, maybe some handwritten signs like in Love Actually—”
“Did you seriously watch that chick flick again this Christmas?” Sam flopped back onto the couch, snickering.
“Shut up.” Isaac turned to Kyle and widened his eyes dramatically. “A whopper of a diamond ring might go down well.”
“Don’t listen to him,” Sam advised. “Tui’s not a diamond-ring kind of woman and she’s likely to see one as just another ploy to tie her down into the role of mother, rather than wife and equal partner.”
“When did you get so wise, little brother?”
Sam raised his left hand and tapped the spot where a wedding ring would soon reside.
Kyle, who’d watched Isaac and Sam’s exchange while trying to figure out what the hell he should do, stood. “Why would you try to help me out with Tui? You two don’t want me around your sister any more than your father does.”
Both men stopped bantering and stared up at him with open mouths.
Isaac recovered first. “What we want isn’t important.” He slanted a look at Sam, who shrugged. “We’re pretty sure she wants you, and since that’s the case, we’ll do all we can to see she gets what she wants.” Another lethally pointed stare in Kyle’s direction. “What she deserves—which is to be loved by someone strong enough to stand up to her father and brothers.”
“Are you standing, Griffin?” Sam asked.
“What do you think, Ngata?” Kyle replied, bracing his feet on the floor and folding his arms.
Sam grinned at him. “I think you should finish your beer then pack your bags.”
“Precisely what I had in mind,” Kyle said.
Tui folded the page corner down of the ninth novel she’d read since returning to the cottage, snubbing the bookmark on the rumpled bed beside her. Look at her, being a rebel and not preserving the pristine pages of Harlan Coben’s latest suspense thriller.
Sad that it was the only control she felt she had over her life at the moment.
That, and refusing to go to the New Year’s party tonight with all her whānau. She hadn’t been totally dishonest about feeling unwell when she’d waved her parents off that evening with assurances that she was just going to have a quiet night and then go to bed.
Which she had. She was tucked up in bed with Harlan by nine thirty. Now, at close to eleven and only five chapters to go, she could probably ring in the New Year by finishing the book.
Whoopee.
Her fluffy-sock-covered toes rustled on the sheets as she rolled over to reach the open bag of honey-roasted nuts on her nightstand. Her second bag of the night. Such a party animal.
The unwell part she’d mentioned to her ma was the aching hurt she carried around that made her brain feel numb, her shoulders feel as though the weight of the world was on them, and her heart feel like it’d been in the boxing ring with David Tua for a few rounds.
As she stuffed yet another handful of nuts into her mouth, barking erupted in the distance. She frowned and cocked her head. Probably they’d heard a fat possum scurrying up a tree. But she’d been around Kuri and Hari long enough to differentiate between an I’ve spotted a possum bark, the that’s my owners’ truck engine bark, and the deeper pitched there’s a stranger on our property bark.
Tui climbed out of her bed and slipped through the living room to the front door. The dogs were still barking as she stepped out onto her porch, narrowing her eyes in the inky darkness to try to catch a glimpse of the dogs streaking around the main house below. Nothing. And none of the house’s front security lights had gone on either. Which was kinda weird if the dogs were roaming because they’d been disturbed. She frowned again.
Then it occurred to her. Maybe one of the horses had escaped their paddock, or one of her dad’s stock—or hell, maybe even one of the Griffins’ cows had broken through a fence.
With a muttered curse about animals in general, Tui stomped back into her room and put a sweater on over her tank top and sleep shorts. She grabbed a flashlight and shoved her feet into a pair of gumboots, because, cow poop.
“Live on a farm, they said.” She strode down the hill toward the main house, following the dancing beam of her flashlight. “It’ll be fun, they said.”
A cool breeze ruffled her hair and skimmed down the neck of her sweater. Goose bumps pebbled her bare legs. She shivered, wishing she’d taken the time to get dressed. Depending on whether she was dealing with a horse or cow, this could take longer than she’d planned. Lucky, lucky her.
She hit the bottom of the hill and turned onto her parents’ driveway. The dogs had ceased barking, and normal night sounds had taken over—the rustle of thousands of leaves, the flutter of tiny wings as moths dive-bombed her flashlight, the crunch of her gumboots on gravel.
Speaking of luck, it’d be hers to find Kuri and Hari back in their beds, looking at her with wide-eyed surprise as if they hadn’t been barking up a storm only minutes ago.
“Bet it was a damn possum after all,” she muttered at the dark silhouette of the main house.
Tui shone the flashlight around the yard and as far as the beam would pierce the darkness beyond. No sign of a stray cow or horse, but she cocked her head and shut her eyes, listening for the telltale sound of hooves or a large animal cropping grass in her parents’ yard. Nothing.
Still, she’d do a quick circuit around the house and check on the dogs. She went to the front door and the security light popped on. There. She was worried about nothing. The flashlight beam danced over her ma’s carefully chosen shrubs that bordered the path leading to the back of the house, and a small woodshed where Kuri’s and Hari’s beds were housed to keep them out of the weather.
They weren’t in their beds.
Around the front, the security light flicked off, leaving her in darkness again.
She continued on, heading around the corner of the house to where the dogs were probably sitting on the back deck, hoping someone would let them inside. The moment she stepped out of the deeper shadows surrounding the house, three things became apparent in quick succession.
O
ne. She stood surrounded by darkness instead of being spotlit by a security light positioned above her in the house’s eaves.
Two. Gnawing sounds came from beneath one of the trees at the far end of the yard. The edge of the beam illuminated both dogs who had huge beef bones, and whoever provided them had tied the dogs to the base of the tree.
Three. That whoever was a black-on-black shadow on her parents’ deck, fiddling with the sliding door’s lock.
“Hey!” The word exploded out of her without the benefit of filtering and she swung the flashlight toward the tall, bulky shadow.
The beam caught the shadow—the man—right in the face. Even with his eyes squinted to slits, a hood from his black sweatshirt pulled low down his brow, and a defensively raised arm, she recognized him.
Oh my God.
She recognized him, but all the air in her lungs had been expelled in that one shouted alarm and now she had no oxygen left to speak his name. But she had enough strength left in her wobbly legs to stumble back the way she’d come and sharp enough hearing to pick up the sound of heavy footfalls racing across the deck toward her.
Tui ran.
Chapter 21
As far as BRGs went, circling the inside of Griff’s house like a caged tiger probably didn’t count. Kyle climbed the stairs for the nth time and stood at the spare room window, staring in the direction of the Ngatas’ house. Not that there was anything to see. The house was dark because, as Sam and Isaac had mentioned yesterday, everyone was attending the Hunters’ New Year’s Eve party.
Everyone including Tui. Everyone excluding him.
Because he just couldn’t for the life of him figure out what he could do or say to convince her that he was all in, that what they’d stumbled into was real and worth fighting for. Would a dozen roses or a flash-mob dance proposal convince her of that?
He cracked open the window and braced his palms on the sill, taking in a deep lungful of night air. For another woman, maybe. But not Tui, not his woman. He smiled a little at the thought, then grimaced. Yeah, he’d skip the bound-to-be-crowded party and head over to the cottage first thing in the morning—early. Before she’d fully woken up and had time to think of another half a dozen reasons why they couldn’t spend the rest of their lives together.
Tame Your Heart: A Small Town Romance (Bounty Bay Book 6) Page 27