Just My Luck (Escape to New Zealand #5)

by Rosalind James

  Now, Hannah gave warm hugs to the two women who stood to greet her. Well, she gave one a warm hug. With the other one, they were basically reaching around each others’ bellies.

  Hannah made the introductions, then said, “Kristen, you know Kate, of course, but I don’t think you’ve ever met Emma.”

  “No,” Kristen said with a smile. “And Kate looks a little different from the last time I saw her. When are you due, Kate?”

  “The same day as Hannah,” the petite brunette told her. “And before you say anything, I know, she barely looks pregnant, and I look like the delivery room’s on standby. But believe it or not, I still have three and a half long months to go. Koti’s going to have to push me around in a wheelbarrow before long.”

  “But you’re looking great,” Kristen hastened to assure her as the women took their seats, the two sisters sitting together and immediately becoming engrossed in conversation. Ally couldn’t help casting a surprised look at Kristen, and Kate saw it and laughed.

  “Kristen and Hannah both got the tact gene,” she told Ally. “I don’t look great. I look huge.”

  “It’s just because you’re so small,” Emma assured her. She scooted around Ally to sit at the end of the group of women. “I want to keep an eye on my son,” she explained to Ally. “He thinks he’s too old now to sit next to me.”

  “I was big too, though,” she told Kate, “and I’m not nearly as small as you.”

  “Plus Koti being so much taller,” Kate sighed with a hand on her belly. “They say that doesn’t mean you’ll have a bigger baby, but I have to say I’m doubting it.”

  Ally was still a few steps behind. “You and Hannah have the same due date?” she asked in surprise. “That’s quite the coincidence.”

  Kate and Emma looked at each other and exchanged a wry glance.

  “Both due nine months after my wedding day,” Emma said. “I guess it was inspirational.”

  “Hey,” Kate objected. “It was romantic.”

  “Clearly,” Emma agreed with another smile. “It was for me, anyway.”

  “Do you know what you’re having?” Ally asked.

  “Well, a human being, hopefully,” Kate said tartly, then smiled. “Sorry. Couldn’t resist. That’s what I always want to say when people ask that question. But the answer is, a girl. Just like Hannah there, too. Pretty fun, huh? I like to think that they’ll grow up to be friends.”

  “Of course,” she went on, “both Emma’s and my lives are pretty well entwined with Hannah’s anyway, aren’t they, Em?”

  “It’s true,” the pretty blonde laughed. “Seeing as how she helped me get my job, for which I’ll be forever grateful. We work together,” she explained to Ally. “At 2nd Hemisphere, the merino company.”

  “Ooh,” Ally said. “Lucky you.”

  “I know,” Emma said happily. “I tell myself that every single day, for all kinds of wonderful reasons.”

  “And Hannah didn’t just get me a job, though she did that too,” Kate told Ally. “She also introduced me to my husband. And I’m guessing, from what I hear about you and Kristen, that she’s been at it again, huh? Or is it just a coincidence that the pair of you are dating a couple of hot rugby boys?”

  Ally laughed. “No, you’re right. Hannah introduced us. Well, sort of. I’d seen Nate before, but he didn’t exactly make a good impression. And then he kept on not making one, but somehow, he’s won me over pretty well by now.”

  “They have a way of doing that,” Kate agreed. “But here they come,” she broke off, and Ally saw the members of both teams beginning to trickle onto the field to start warming up.

  Nate was first out, as usual, and Ally’s heart did the same funny somersault it always performed when she saw him play. She wondered if you ever got used to that. Especially tonight, being here to see his first start as the new captain of the All Blacks.

  She’d spoken to him briefly on the phone earlier in the day, and he’d been his usual controlled self. Or even more so. Between his journeys away for the several days of All Blacks training during each of the past few weeks, then his regular games with the Hurricanes, she hadn’t had much time with him, and when they had been together, he’d definitely been a little preoccupied. He had to be keyed up now, achieving his dream at last. And she was so glad she could be here to watch him do it.

  “Who’s that with Nate?” she couldn’t help asking as another player in black trotted out and began running back and forth with Nate, passing the ball. Even from here, she could tell that he was put together just a little bit better than anybody else.

  “That would be Koti,” Kate said proudly.

  “Oh,” Ally said abstractedly. That was some serious eye candy. “I think you could get pregnant just by looking at him.” Then realized she was sitting next to his wife, and hastened to apologize.

  Kate just laughed. “It’s OK. It’s true. He can’t help it. He and Kristen, they’re in the Pretty People Club.”

  “If it’s your first All Blacks game,” she added, “you still have the big treat. The one that I swear could get you pregnant. The haka.”

  “I’ve heard of it,” Ally said. “I’ve never seen it, though.”

  “Well, watch and learn,” Kate said. “And then tell me you aren’t glad that you get to go to bed with one of them.”

  Ally was so surprised, she let out a little snort, and threw a hand over her mouth. “You’re as bad as me,” she told Kate with a grin. “How cool is that? I love Kristen to death, but she’s always so careful. Always so nice, you know? I’m shocking her all the time.”

  “Oh, whoops,” she hastened to say. “I don’t mean you’re not nice.”

  Kate was already laughing. “No worries. I know. Same with Hannah. And Kiwis are awfully polite too, aren’t they?”

  “They are!” Ally said with delight. “Isn’t anybody nasty here?”

  “Nobody but us, I guess,” Kate said with a gusty sigh. “Somebody’s got to inject a little snark, and I guess we’re the last resort.”

  Ally had been excited all day, especially once they’d arrived here. But nothing could have prepared her for the sight of Nate leading his team out of the tunnel at last, warmups pulled off now to reveal the black jersey that, she knew, had been made especially for this game, embroidered with his name, the date, and the venue. And, above all else, with the silver fern he wore over his heart.

  She stood with the rest of the crowd for the singing of the anthems, that much more emotion rising inside at the intensity on the players’ faces while the singer performed the New Zealand anthem first in Maori, then in English, and most of them sang along. She’d known that it mattered. She hadn’t realized how much.

  She started to sit down again once the applause died down, and then stopped. Because nobody else was. Instead, the stadium was humming, then erupting in a low roar as the All Blacks formed up in rows, the French making a line of their own to face them, hands around each others’ shoulders. But Ally wasn’t watching the French team, because one figure in black was pacing behind the front row now, beginning to shout out instructions in Maori. Liam, she registered as the rest of the men dropped into a crouch, began to slap their thighs. And to chant.

  This was the haka. The black-clad figures were slapping and stomping, faces stretched into grimaces, chanting the challenge, every movement, every expression on the big screen overhead telegraphing their intensity, their purpose, and Ally actually had goosebumps. She had a flash of what the first Europeans must have felt, leaving their ships to be met with this. Because if the ferocity of the group performing the ritual tonight was any indication, it must have been terrifying. She hoped it was terrifying the French, anyway.

  “Well, that was fun,” she sighed after the last stare had been delivered, the last “Hei!” shouted, and the answering roar of the crowd had died away, everyone finally taking their seats again. “I’ve been entertained. I’m ready to leave.”

  “I know,” Kate said happily. “That’s my
favorite too.”

  “Only because you’re always too busy looking at Koti to understand the game,” Emma teased gently.

  Ally knew what Emma meant. She didn’t need a tutor tonight, though, to see what was going on. Or to have her question answered about whether the French had been intimidated, because they so clearly hadn’t been. Nate had told her that you never knew which French team would turn up on the night, that their play was notoriously uneven, but this group had clearly come to play. Which was unfortunate, because the All Blacks definitely looked a little rusty.

  It wasn’t hard at all to see that the French were pushing hard at the breakdown, and that the All Blacks weren’t getting into any kind of smooth rhythm. The whole thing, in fact, was the kind of messy rugby that usually put her to sleep, but tonight was only making her anxious. Scrums and scrum resets, short runs followed by tackles. So few of the long sequences of precise passing that, she had heard, normally marked an All Blacks game. Instead, control of the ball shifting again and again. And then a pair of penalties within ten minutes in the wrong half of the field, first for a knock-on, then for not releasing the ball after a tackle, and France was suddenly up 6-0.

  “What’s happening?” Ally asked Kate in frustration after the second French kick sailed between the uprights.

  “France has been playing together in the Six Nations, the European championship,” Kate explained, not laughing anymore. “Whereas the All Blacks have only had those few mini training periods together. The first test of the year is always rough. It sure is tonight.”

  At last, a New Zealand try before halftime to energize the crowd again, the conversion made, and the All Blacks were up 7-6 when the teams trotted back into the tunnel. The exhilaration before the game was replaced by a more subdued mood during the break, and on into the second half. Ally did her best to hold onto her faith as the score shifted back and forth. The crowd, which had started the evening out in full voice, were still quiet, the French performance taking them out of the game.

  And then there were three minutes to play, and the All Blacks were ahead by two, the French pressing on attack. No joking even from Kate now as the All Blacks tackled again and again, fought for a ball that the French refused to turn over. The French were patiently moving the ball down the field, inside the New Zealand 22 now, and the clock was ticking down.

  “Come on,” Kate muttered beside Ally. “Come on.”

  They were going to do it, Ally thought, her heart in her throat. The defense was going to hold. The French attacked the line over and over, the seconds relentlessly disappearing on the clock. A gain of a meter, another for three. It wasn’t going to be enough. The All Blacks were going to win.

  And then the hooter sounding, time running out. But, Ally knew by now, the game didn’t end until the team in possession lost the ball, and the French still had it. One run after another, one tackle after another. And, finally, a long pass back to the French Number 10. The man lifting the ball, sending the drop-kick cleanly through the posts, a long groan from the crowd. And the French had won it by a single damning point.

  It was a quiet crowd that filed from the stands, and the five women who had started the evening so happily were no exception. Hugs all around, promises to call, and Kristen and Ally were headed back to St. Heliers with Hannah.

  “The first test match is always tough,” Hannah said, breaking the silence with an echo of Kate’s earlier words. “It’s lucky that it’s a three-game series, isn’t it?”

  But when Ally said as much to Nate the following evening, he brushed the comment aside.

  “It was ugly,” he said briefly over dinner. “Leave it at that. We’ll be putting those things right this week.”

  Ally took another look at his shuttered expression and considered trying again. But he turned the conversation, and she went along with him. The loss was still too recent, she guessed, and too raw. Well, he’d have a chance to relax tomorrow, and that had to help.

  She was wrong, though.

  “I know we talked about doing something today,” he said over breakfast the next morning. “But I should really watch the game, make some notes, get ready for the week. D’you mind if I take you home after we’re done here?”

  “Well,” she hesitated. “Well, yes. I mean, don’t you think it might be better if you took a break? I know it’s raining, but we could still take a walk, maybe. Or just stay in and watch a movie. At least for the morning.”

  “I need to do this,” he said again. Gave a sigh, and went on. “I’m going to need to focus for the test window, the last bit of the Super 15 season too. You and I’ll have a bit of time before the third test, though, as we’re playing it here, and that’s just a week away. We can do a couple nights then. And once the season’s over, before the Rugby Championship starts, we’ll have more time. Maybe you can make some plans for us. Another month or so, that’s all. Can you give me a bit of a pass till then?”

  For a month? But what choice did she have? None, she realized. And it was a little pathetic to beg somebody to spend time with you, wasn’t it? Even though she really did think that he needed a break. All right, he didn’t want to share his disappointment at the loss. But still . . . Wouldn’t it help to be with her? Didn’t he want to be with her?

  “So . . .” she said when he was dropping her at the flat an hour later. “See you next week, when you’re back from New Plymouth?”

  “Yeh,” he said. “I’ll text you, and talk to you Saturday afternoon. And I’ll see you Sunday night.”

  And would send her flowers too, she thought as she stood in the lobby and watched him drive away. He wasn’t ignoring her, not exactly. Just not letting her in.

  Anyway, she had the day off. Too bad she didn’t have anything to do with it. Kristen was with Liam, and she’d bet he wasn’t watching game film today.

  A New World

  “I have news,” Kristen said almost two weeks later. Liam had collected her from home as usual, and they were in New World now, pushing a trolley through the veg aisle. Which suited him down to the ground.

  “What’s that?” he asked, tossing a bag of spinach into the trolley and beginning to sort through the kumara. They’d fallen into the habit of cooking dinner together at his house, then watching a movie on the night before a home game, and sometimes the day after a game too, when he was too knackered to go out. A routine that was more than welcome, on this evening before the final All Blacks match against the French, the one that would decide the series. New Zealand had won the previous week’s game, but it had been too close, and tomorrow’s match was by no means a foregone conclusion.

  So, yeh. He needed the distraction, and Kristen was nothing if not distracting. In fact, sitting on the couch with her could fairly be described as torture. After their one experiment with a rom-com, they’d agreed to stick with old stuff, and some of the milder action films. Because if sitting on the couch with her was hard, watching a love scene with her . . . well, he was only human, and there were some things that were just too much to ask.

  “Remember how we were talking about how my store, how we hardly have any shoe selection?” she demanded.

  “Yeh,” he said, moving on to the meat department. “I remember. Venison OK?”

  “Sure,” she said, sounding distracted. “Anyway. While you’ve been gone, big news! I asked if I could present a proposal for expanding the shoe department, and Simone said yes!”

  He turned to her in surprise, saw her eyes sparkling. She was all but bouncing. “That’s awesome! When are you doing it?”

  “Three weeks from now. July fifth. I’ve been working on it all week, doing the research, but there’s still so much to do. All my boards to prepare, and my regular job too, of course. But it’s worth it.”

  “Boards?”

  “Oh. My presentation boards,” she explained. “Theme board, color board, line board. To show what we’d do, how it would coordinate with our clothing line.”

  “I’ll take your word for it,�
� he decided. “Though if you want to practice with me before you do it, I’d be happy. We’ll be playing here that week, so I’ll be around. You could run through it a few times. That’d help, on the day.”

  “It would,” she said. “But really? You’d be willing to do that?”

  “Course. Can’t promise to ask intelligent questions, but I’ll do my best. It’s probably not too different from a footy match. The more you practice every scenario, the more effortless you can make it look. And the more likely you are to win.”

  “I’m going to take you up on that,” she decided. “I’ll be using you mercilessly.”

  And that was another flash of imagination that didn’t do him any favors at all. Of her on top of him, using him mercilessly. Oh, yeh. He’d let her use him.

  Crikey, this celibacy thing was hard. And getting harder all the time, in more ways than one. Some days, he thought he would actually explode.

  “Heaps of work, then?” He forced his mind back with a herculean effort.

  “Yes, it is,” she agreed, “and I have to do projections, too. That’s harder, but Hannah’s been advising me some. I’m really nervous, but it’s exciting. Even if they don’t agree to it, I’m showing that I have ideas, you know? It feels like a big step.”

  “It is a big step. It’s awesome,” he said again. Reached out and gave her a cuddle, just because she looked like a little girl looking forward to a birthday party, and at the same time, like a woman who was rightfully proud of what she’d done. Because she was Kristen, and she was trying so hard, and she was getting somewhere. And because he loved her, and he wanted to touch her.

  “I’m really proud of you,” he said, giving her a kiss on the cheek, smoothing a hand over the golden hair. And that was just about enough of that, or he was going to be in real trouble. He stepped back again, cleared his throat. Bread, he thought with relief, and set out for the next aisle.