Just My Luck (32 page)

Robbo shot a glance across at her. “Bloody Captain Fantastic,” he said with resignation. “I should have known.”

“Well, yeah,” she admitted. “That is who it is.”

“And he doesn’t mind you going out with me for the day?” Robbo asked. Looking a little nervous, she realized.

“I don’t think he’s going to come around and beat you up, if that’s what you’re worried about,” she said with a smile. “I’m allowed to have friends. If you still want to be friends, that is.”

“I’m allowed to have friends,” she told Nate the next day. Feeling a whole lot less loving towards him than she’d been when the huge vase of tulips—at least three dozen of them, in shades of red, orange, and yellow that just made her happy—had been delivered to the gym that morning. Which had been completely over the top, and she’d had to take the bus home, sit with the gigantic bouquet in her lap, barely able to see around it. And had felt like maybe he really did care after all. That maybe this thing could work. Especially when she’d read the note.

To my s.s.

From your s.s.

I miss you every day and every night.

Please let me try harder.

She’d thought she would melt right there, right in the middle of the noisy gym, surrounded by sweating men, wishing one of them was the
right
sweating man.

But now, standing in her flat with him, the flowers overwhelming the little coffee table, she wasn’t even sure she wanted to go to dinner with him, let alone anywhere else.

“I said no other people, and I meant it,” he said, looking furious, and dangerous, and much too sexy. And totally and completely exasperating.

She sighed. “Robbo’s a
friend.
I’ve told you about him. You’re
gone,
Nate. I wasn’t working, and I wanted to do something fun. So I went out with a friend and did it. Something I was
thinking,
at the time, I’d like to take you to do. But you weren’t there, were you? I’m sorry I wasn’t available when you called me, but I can’t just hang around all the time and wait for you, you know. As you’ve gone to some trouble to remind me, I’m not exactly central to your life. I can’t put my own life on hold for you. And I won’t.”

“Not asking you to put your life on hold for me,” he muttered. “Just . . . can’t you make some girlfriends? Do . . . girl things?”

“I don’t like to do girl things! What, am I supposed to go get my hair highlighted or something? Have a . . . a pedicure? Go shopping? I do outdoors things. They’re what I do. You know that. And the people I do them with often happen to be men. You can either accept that, or you can forget it. This isn’t Saudi Arabia, and I’m not some weak flower who’s going to be overwhelmed by whatever male is in my vicinity. I’m allowed to speak to men, I’m allowed to spend time with my friends, and you’re being ridiculous!”

This was a whole lot easier, she realized, when she could be mad instead of sad. Maybe she should thank him for being so damn unreasonable.

“Bloody hell.” He ran both hands over his hair, held his head for a moment. Blew out a deep breath. “Right. Start again.”

“I felt bad,” he said, looking up. Wearing his most determined expression. “Because talking to you before the match means a lot to me, and you weren’t there. I worried that you’d given up on me. And then finding out you were with somebody else, that made it worse. Because I meant what I said on that card. I want to try harder. I want to be a better boyfriend. Try to put you higher up the list, do the right things, make you feel . . . cared for.”

He still couldn’t say “loved.” She didn’t miss that. But what he had managed to say . . . it was pretty good.

“I’m sorry I wasn’t there for you,” she said through the lump in her throat. “I felt like a fool after you left, after what you said. Hanging around waiting for you to call me like I’m sixteen years old, sitting in my room looking at the phone, wishing it would ring. If you’d told me it mattered, if we’d worked out a time . . .”

“That’s me,” he said immediately. “That’s me taking it for granted you’d be there, not thinking about you enough. I won’t do that anymore, I promise.”

“Then,” she said, feeling the tears rising again, “I promise that I’ll be there to talk to you. Even if I have to take a break from swinging through the treetops to do it. With my friend.”

“Right,” he said with a sigh of relief. “But I want to meet this Robbo again. I’m going to pop by tomorrow, get Mako to come in with me and do a bit of climbing.”

And stare the other man down, he promised himself. Make sure he got the message. But just now, he had a girlfriend to hold, and kiss, and somehow persuade to give him another chance. Because he needed to be with her tonight, and tomorrow night. And every day and night afterwards that she’d have him.

All Black Attack

“Wow,” Ally said when she’d followed Kristen and Hannah down the row of seats in cavernous Eden Park, a sea of black tonight, except for the occasional tricolored flag.

“It’s pretty overwhelming, isn’t it?” Hannah agreed. “And the stadium isn’t even full yet. But an All Blacks game is always special. The French are tough opponents, too, and everyone knows it.”

Kristen and Ally had flown to Auckland for the game. Not even that big a hit to her extremely modest budget, Ally thought happily, since Hannah was chauffeuring them, and putting them up as well. Not for the first time, Ally blessed the day she’d given a nervous, shaky Kristen her first climbing lesson. Because just about everything good in her life right now had come out of that day.

Hannah had urged them both to stay, since Drew was in the Bay of Plenty, talking about coaching opportunities for the next season. “Come hold my hand,” she had pleaded. “It’s going to be so strange to watch a game and know that Drew’s not part of it.” And Kristen and Ally hadn’t been a bit hard to convince.

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 2
^nd
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.