Page 45 of The Player in New Zealand
But I was not here to take it slow. I had a little more than two months left working for him, and then I’d be leaving the bar, hopefully with a great recommendation from Nina. There was no taking it slow. Taking it slow meant, like... dating.
I wasn’t interested in dating, especially when I would be back in Boston before the end of the year.
Unfortunately, our morning was booked with a brunch with Tane and Nina’s mother. The lobby of the hotel was no place to tell someone that you wanted bangifits, so I thanked Tane for my to-go coffee and trailed after him to the parking lot. A few minutes into our drive, Nina called with some kind of family-logistics crisis, so I sipped my coffee in silence as I listened to Tane’s one-sided conversation. When we pulled into the driveway of his family home, the front door opened and Emily waved to us. Tane pulled the phone away from his mouth. “Do you mind going in? I might have to go take some cousins to the airport.”
I made a face. “Just me and your mom?”
He shot me a grin. “No worries, my mum loves you.”
I got out of the car and tried to look excited to be alone with Tane and Nina’s mom.
“Claire!” Emily wrapped me up in a big hug. “I’m so glad you could join us for brunch, too. Where’s Tane going?”
I turned around to find Tane’s truck backing out of the driveway. He held up his hand and mouthed,Five minutes.
I stuck my tongue out at him, pretty sure it was bad form to leave your girlfriend—even a fake one—with your mother when they’d only met the previous day. But thankfully, it was Emily, and she’d been pretty awesome so far—even with the pressure to pop out grandbabies way too soon. If I were a real girlfriend, I’d have some opinions to give on that.
But for now, I turned back to Emily. “He and Nina have had to shuffle some errands around. I think she’s running late.” I stepped into the entryway of their home and looked around.
“You know,” Emily said with a sparkle in her eye, “I’ve got some baby photos of Tane to show you, if you’re interested.”
I perked up. “And maybe some embarrassing stories?”
Emily chuckled. “Oh, so many. Let me pull out the photo albums!”
A few minutes later I was sitting on the floor of the living room with five photo albums spread out around me. The room was a relic to Tane’s and Nina’s lives. Photos of them both hung everywhere, but I paid extra attention to Tane’s. His life was documented from baby photos to youth rugby to professional team photos. Family photos showed the two of them with a much-younger Emily and a large, gruff-looking man, a spitting image of Tane.
When the man himself finally walked in, followed closely behind by Nina and her family, Emily got up to kiss and hug everyone—grandkids first—and Tane got a good look at the photo album on the floor.
His eyes bugged out. “Mum! You’re showing her the naked baby photos?”
Emily swatted her son. “It’s nothing she hasn’t seen before.”
I held up the photo in question. “You were so small, Tane. Look at that little thing.”
He rolled his eyes and huffed good-humoredly, bending down to give me a quick peck on the lips. Nina cackled behind him.
“Don’t be too smug,” I told her. “I’ve already seen the pictures of you after your at-home haircut.”
“Mum,” Nina whined.
“It’s your fault—you’re late. If you’d been here on time, we would be eating and not killing time by looking at pictures.”
“Well, then technically, it’s Nora’s fault. She’s the one whose nappy exploded on me.” Hemi bounced the toddler on his hip.
The albums were abandoned as we moved toward the kitchen. Emily gave us all jobs and directed me and Hemi to pull dishes out of the warm oven while Tane and Nina set the table and a full English breakfast was laid out.
Everyone paused while Emily said a quick blessing in Maori and then we dug in. Tane was back to playing the dutiful boyfriend, but now, with last night’s kiss between us, he was even more affectionate. I felt myself falling back into the comfort of the kisses and touches and it was all too easy. I was happy to keep up the ruse for Emily, but I tried to remind myself that we needed to have the Talk.
“How is the bar doing?” Emily asked at one point. The question made me realize how good of a job Tane and Nina had done keeping their family life separate from their work life. There had been no talk of the bar the entire weekend.
“Good,” Nina told her. “Claire’s even been helping us by introducing a new cocktail menu. She’s talented.”
I flushed under the compliment and Tane’s hand wandered over to my thigh, giving my jean-clad knee a quick squeeze.
“They are really good,” Hemi agreed.
I stared at him. “When did you come and have one and why didn’t I get to serve it to you personally?”
