“That’s kind of you to offer, but no, thank you. I’m an alcoholic.”
Tui’s ma didn’t blink, though she must’ve been as shocked as the rest of them. “A glass of water or juice, then? We have orange or apple juice.”
“Apple juice would be lovely. I find orange juice just a little bit acidic,” Netta said, oblivious to the exchange of mind-blown glances zipping back and forth across the room.
The Griffin and Ngata matriarchs making pleasantries about fruit juice? An apocalypse must be just around the corner.
While Nat offered to get the juice, everyone reshuffled seats so Pete and Ariana could sit down again. Tui found herself herded into a cramped spot between Sam and Isaac. Her two older brothers had become even more irritatingly protective since her hospital release. Maybe they expected the Griffins to launch into a sly ninja attack and planned to intercept any flying missiles aimed in her direction.
“I don’t know quite where to start,” Netta said after Nat passed her a glass of apple juice. “Other than to express how sorry I am for what my son has done.”
Tui froze, the knots in her stomach that’d appeared when the Griffins had, tangling together to form one giant ball of nerves. For a beat she wasn’t sure which son Netta was referring to—David or Kyle.
“You shouldn’t be judged for David’s actions,” her dad said in his stiff, I’m trying to be diplomatic voice. Not exactly a we accept your apology olive branch.
“But we will be.” Netta lifted her chin, though she couldn’t quite meet his eyes. “The Griffin name is mud now. People won’t even look us in the eye.” The loose skin around her throat wobbled as she swallowed hard. “Won’t be so bad for me during the next two weeks since Kyle’s offered to pay for me to go into a detox and wellness retreat. And after that, I’m going to put the farmhouse on the market and maybe move to Sydney. I’ve a couple of good friends there and it’ll be a fresh start, somewhere where no one knows who I am. But the boys…”
“Have got more to worry about than a few raised eyebrows and snide comments,” Eric said.
Tui’s heart gave another thud against her breastbone at the sound of Kyle’s name, and she quickly took a sip from her glass of water to stop the flush of heat rising on her face.
Matt shot him a quelling glance and leaned forward, bracing his elbows on his knees, his shoulders slumped. “We didn’t come here expecting forgiveness for what my brother did both then and now. What he did was unforgivable, and the way the rest of us, including my grandfather, behaved all these years was unacceptable.”
“Why are you here, then?” Sam asked.
Squished between her brothers, Tui felt the hard bunch and release of Sam’s arm and leg muscles as he, too, leaned forward, ready to spring into action should Eric or Matt show even the slightest aggression. Given both men’s beaten-down expressions, it seemed unlikely they’d come to stir up any trouble.
“First,” said Eric, ‘to offer whatever free labor you need to help with the cleanup and rebuilding of your house. We’re not builders, but we want to chip in where we can.” He slid a sideways glance at his younger brother behind Netta’s back and a quick nod passed between them.
“We also wanted to offer your family first option to buy our share of land,” Matt said.
Her dad’s jaw sagged. “You’re selling your family’s land?”
Matt shrugged. “I’ve enrolled as an adult student at Auckland University. It’s time for a change.”
Tui watched Eric’s mouth stitch together but give him a small nod of agreement.
“And Eric?” Tui’s mum said softly. “Why are you wanting to sell your share? What about the hives? Your herd?”
A look of raw grief passed across Eric’s face before he covered it with a stoic grimace. “I was only good for doing the hands-on stuff with the bees; I’m not manager material. That was Dave’s job.” His nose wrinkled. “And he’s not going to be around for a while, so why hang onto it with Mum and Matt gone?” He slumped back into the couch, tilting his gaze up to the ceiling as if he were bored to tears rather than close to the edge of them as Tui suspected was the case.
“Make us a fair offer on the herd,” said Matt, “and we’ll take it.”
She couldn’t keep her mouth shut a moment longer. “What about Kyle? Is he selling up everything, too?”
Kyle’s brothers slid side-eyes at each other again.
“Uh, yeah,” Eric said. “He’s taking over all the legal legwork about closing down Griffin’s Honey since he’s the majority shareholder, and he says he doesn’t want the land.”
“He’s going to put the money from the sale of it into a savings account for you and the baby.” Netta dipped her chin toward Tui’s midriff, as if there was another baby in question.
She leaped to her feet. “This is ridiculous. I don’t want his damn money, I told him that.” She narrowed her eyes at Kyle’s mum. “And why are you moving to Australia where you’ll miss out on being this baby’s grandma? Over some small-minded, should know better, gossipy individuals? It’s as ridiculous as Kyle saying our child would suffer growing up because of his tarnished name—as if that’s the most important thing instead of him being around while our kid does grow up.” This time it was her turn for the lip wobbles, and thanks to those damn pregnancy hormones, her eyes filled with tears.
“Crap,” said her brothers in unison, both of them lunging forward to reach for the box of tissues.
“Kyle walked away from being in this child’s life?” Netta said as Tui plucked a tissue from the box and blew her nose. “We thought you sent him away. That you didn’t have feelings for him.”
“Oh, I have feelings.” Tui sniffed, bunching the tissue up into her fist.
She felt Sam and Isaac subtly edge to the far ends of the couch, giving her space in case she started chucking missiles around.
“Lots of feelings,” Sam muttered. “Lots and lots of feelings that we keep hearing about whether we want to or not.”
She flicked her foot out and kicked his ankle. “Shut it, Sammy.”
She redirected her attention to the three Griffins, all staring at her in expectation. “I’m in love with him, and I told him that in hospital. But he still walked away from me.” She couldn’t stop her hand drifting down to her stomach yet again. “From us. I guess his feelings for me weren’t permanent.”
“I don’t believe that for a second,” Netta said. “He didn’t become the man he is by quitting at the first sign of things getting tough.” She screwed her face up. “And as much as it would’ve pained me a few weeks back to admit, Kyle loves you.”
“Yeah, he loves you. Even I can see that,” her dad chimed in. “For once I agree with a Griffin.”
Netta cut him a glance, and lo and behold, her dad actually cracked a grin.
Something a little bit like hope swooped around her stomach.
“What I don’t understand,” Eric said, shattering the hopeful moment with a tone filled with snark, “is why you’re moping around waiting for a damn Hallmark moment, instead of beating some sense into my brother.”
Tui blinked at him. “You mean me?”
Eric shrugged, jerking his hands apart. “Who else? He wouldn’t listen to us.”
“Did you try to talk to him?”
“More than once,” Matt answered. “Told us he’d deck us both if we didn’t stop bugging him about you.”
Eric smirked up at her. “Not even your brothers’ threats budged him.”
“What?” She whirled around in time to see Sam sliding off the end of the couch with a kid caught raiding the cookie jar sheepish expression. “Sam!”
“Bathroom break,” he said and bailed.
Isaac stayed put, arms folded, faux nonchalance in place, though he watched her warily. “I spoke to him yesterday. Stubborn bastard, even though he’s miserable.”
“Pathetically miserable,” Eric added. “He’s preparing to go back to the city and turn into a crazy cat lady.”
> “You mean he’s still in Bounty Bay?” Tui was pretty sure her voice had come out at a pitch high enough that only Hari and Kuri, who were napping on the back deck, could hear.
“Still at Griff’s, far as we know,” Matt said.
Her stomach flip-flopped and her legs felt like jelly. Kyle was still here, practically next door. Did she have it in her to beg if he’d truly made up his mind that they couldn’t be together?
Beg, bribe, or break his kneecaps—whatever it took. The thought made her smile.
“So.” Her dad slapped his hands on his knees and stood. “Who’s driving her?”
“This is nothing like a Hallmark movie,” Tui grumbled, squeezed between Matt and Eric in the back seat of Netta’s little car. “For starters, I don’t know why we’re all going to Griff’s.” Her gaze flicked to the side mirror and her brothers’ two vehicles following behind in convoy, loaded up with the rest of the Ngata tribe.
“Because we’re whānau now,” her ma said from the passenger seat, pretending she was comfortable entering enemy territory for the first time in well over a decade. “And your young man needs to understand that we’re all prepared to stand up for whānau.”
Right.
Tui slanted a glance at Eric, waiting for a caustic comment to drip out of his mouth. But instead, he caught her glance and gave her a wry smile and an eye roll. And if she didn’t know better, she’d think it was almost an accepting eye roll.
Progress, huh? It was a Christmas miracle after all.
She gave a little internal eye roll of her own and composed a quick group text to her friends.
Tui: I completed the 3 date challenge, but it didn’t work out quite like I thought. Three dates with Kyle isn’t enough, I want a lifetime.
Dots appeared as someone typed a reply.
Tori: Awesome! You’re officially disqualified, cuz!
Petra: Knew you two were in LURV. I approve.
Allison: Can’t wait to hear all the deets. Go get ’im!!!
Tui chuckled and slipped her phone back into her pocket. She wished she was half as confident as her friends about how this confrontation would turn out. With her luck, Kyle would either have left for Auckland or he’d be holed up in Griff’s place, refusing to come out.
She hoped for the latter, as dealing with stubborn men was kinda her jam.
She was related to three of the most stubborn members of the male species, all of whom would be happy to camp outside Griff’s place with her and wait Kyle out.
Let’s hope it wouldn’t come to that.
Kyle was dragging his feet to avoid the inevitable, and he knew it.
He’d checked every room in Griff’s house twice to make sure he hadn’t overlooked something that could be thrown in the dumpster headed for the landfill, or something he’d forgotten to pack that needed to go back to Auckland. He pulled a face at his reflection in the living room window and the view of his loaded SUV beyond. He guessed he’d put it off long enough, though what the hell for…
Tui.
Her name was a constant ache, a wound that showed no signs of scabbing over. “Lovely analogy,” he said into the silence.
The sound of an engine pierced the silence, and he swore, recognizing the whine of his mother’s car. Figured, though. He’d had Eric and Matt riding him the past few days, not to mention a brief visit from Tui’s brothers that was far less friendly than the previous time. They could all say whatever the hell they liked; he’d done what was best for Tui and the baby. He strode to the front door, ready to confront his mum head on. Good luck to her if she thought she could change his mind.
He flung open the door as his mother’s car pulled up alongside his SUV, then caught sight of the two big vehicles arriving behind it. Sam and Isaac’s vehicles. Great. They parked, Sam on the other side of his ute, Isaac right behind so Kyle was effectively blocked in, and killed the engines. His mother had brought reinforcements. Sneaky.
Kyle planted his feet on his deck, braced his spine, and folded his arms. Sneaky, but he wasn’t budging.
The back door of his mother’s car opened and Eric climbed out, smirking at Kyle as usual before reaching a hand back inside the vehicle to help whoever was sitting in the center seat out. Hairs rose on the back of his neck, and the sensation of barbed wire wrapping around his gut made his hands close into fists. He knew it was her even before she emerged, because every cell in his body went on high alert, the power of his wanting her almost knocking him to his knees.
Across the short distance between the car and Griff’s front deck, Tui’s dark eyes seemed to gleam with purpose. This wasn’t the same woman he’d left in her hospital bed, the woman who hadn’t fought to point out the biggest flaw in his logic. This was the woman who’d captivated him in Rarotonga, then given him no option but to fall deeply, irrevocably in love with her in Bounty Bay.
He should take two giant steps back, close the door, and batten down the hatches. Hurricane Tui Elizabeth Ngata was on the warpath. He swallowed hard, watching as she smoothed down the skirt of her dress, her intense stare never leaving his.
The biggest flaw in this logic, he thought as car doors opened and his and Tui’s family emerged, was that without her, he was a man with one flipper, going under for the final time. She was so deeply ingrained in his heart that he’d stay under until he couldn’t last another moment and needed to breathe her in once again.
But that was his burden to shoulder, not hers.
“I was just leaving,” he said as she walked to the foot of the steps. “I need to get on the road to Auckland before rush hour hits.”
“You’re not leaving.” Tui lifted her chin and her dark hair tumbled down her back, strands catching in the sunshine and gleaming like the wings of the bird she was named for. “And neither am I.”
“There’s nothing for me here.”
She mounted the first step. “I respectfully disagree.”
He managed to hold his ground, but it was tough. She smelled like heaven and looked even better, the small smile curving her lush mouth a diabolical distraction.
“Tui,” he said desperately as she climbed a second step. “We’ve already discussed this.”
“Again,” she said, “I disagree. Someone came into my hospital room with a bullshit story about not being the man I thought he was or the man I deserve, but I’m pretty sure that was a drug-induced hallucination. It couldn’t possibly have been you.” She reached the top step and strode forward so she was toe to toe with him.
He glanced over her shoulder at their audience. His brothers and his mother were leaning against the hood of his SUV, bracketed either side by Tui’s parents, brothers, and sisters-in-law. Their expressions ranged from what he thought was we’re rooting for you two kids to poor guy, he doesn’t stand a chance, but overall, there was some kind of…unity.
What the hell?
Tui dragged his attention back by hooking her fingers through the belt loops of his jeans and tugging him close. The touch of her body against his was a pure jolt of adrenaline—the good kind. He sucked in a ragged breath and raised his hands to cover hers with the intention of gently removing them from his hips. His body refused to cooperate, and instead of removing her hands, he gripped her wrists and pulled her even closer.
“It couldn’t have been you,” she said softly. “Because the father of my baby, the man I trust to hold my heart and protect it for the rest of my life, the man I love with untamed wildness, once said to me, ‘Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, today is a gift.’” Tui rooted him to the spot with the passion of her gaze. “You’re that man, Kyle Griffin, so stop worrying about what other people will say in the future and love me today. Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth, eh?”
Bubbles of laughter brewed in his chest, but before he could release them, she rose on tiptoe, cupped his jaw with both hands, and pressed her nose to his. Hongi. But this time he could see in her eyes it wasn’t a greeting or a goodbye.
“Two souls sharing
the same breath,” he said.
“Exactly.” She smiled her knee-weakening smile up at him. “I love you.”
“I love you, too,” he said, sliding his arms around her waist and ignoring someone’s wolf whistle. “And loving you has got nothing to do with Kyle Junior or what an amazing mum you’re going to be.”
“I kinda figured that once I stopped being so terrified of how I felt about you.” She rested her forehead against his shoulder. “These next few months are going to be tough for our families, with your brother’s arraignment and a lot of hard decisions to be made.”
He nodded, inhaling the sweet, spicy scent of her hair. “We have each other to lean on, and a grumpy ginger cat wanting to come back home to Bounty Bay.”
She laughed and arched back to look at him. “Beaker’s homesick? I thought he hated it here.”
“He hates it less than being separated from you. And since I don’t see a problem designing eco-homes in Bounty Bay, I think I can kill two birds with one stone by moving up here and putting all my energy into helping Beaker convince you into marrying me. What do you say to that?”
“I’ll tell you what I say to that,” she said, and twisted in his arms toward their families. “Hey, Sam,” she called. “I’m about to ravish my future fiancé up against the wall—hold my beer, will ya?”
To the background noise of laughter, whoops, and shouted encouragement, Kyle swept Tui off her feet and kissed his sea witch.
Thoroughly.
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Tame Your Heart: A Small Town Romance (Bounty Bay Book 6) Page 31