Page 93 of Kiwi Gold

Drake had no idea where to look. As for me? I was trying to ignore this for now and focus on the rest of it, but it wasn’t working. Laila told her father, “Come sit down and tell me what happened to your face, and why you and Lachlan both look like you’ve been at a death. Please. Come explain.”

I said, “I can’t wait to hear this,” and Drake glared at me.

Laila said, “Stop talking, Lachlan.” While I was still digesting that, she sat on the couch, pulled her father down with her, and asked, “What happened?”

Drake started and stopped a few times, but finally said, “Somebody told the client I had dementia. Who d’you imagine that was?”

Laila laughed, what looked like a reflex action, then said, “Sorry, but …what?Who’d believe that?”

Drake glowered some more and said, “Not funny. I won’t get the contract now, and it was a good one. Sabotage is a coward’s tool.”

“What, it was me?” I asked. “How would it be me? When would I have said it? And who told the client thatIwas about to declare insolvency?”

“Not me,” Drake said. “I don’t need to cheat to beat you.”

“Yeh?” I asked. “Your nose tells a different story.”

Laila said, “Lachlan. Shutup.Whatdidhappen to your nose, Baba?”

He said, “Fell off the treadmill,” and glowered some more. “Not because I have dementia. Because I was going hard and I took a bad step.”

“Oh, no,” Laila said.

“Ask Lachlan about his knees,” Drake said. “Ask him that.”

“All right,” Laila said. “What about your knees, Lachlan? Ithoughtyou looked stiff.”

“Scraped them, that’s all,” I said. “While rushing to your dad’s aid.” Drake snorted, but I ignored it.

“So,” Laila said. “If you didn’t tell anybody about my father having dementia, and he didn’t tell anybody about you being insolvent—Wait.Areyou insolvent? Because I could have paid—”

“No,” I said. “Just no. I’m not insolvent, and no, you couldn’t have paid. I told you, I’m paying. If you want to feel loved, and desired, and petted, and those other things you said? There are things a man needs to do.”

“Yes,” Laila said. “Amira already reminded Baba and me how you felt about that, in case I’d forgotten.”

What?

“In fact,” she said, “I need to go check on Amira right now, because, yes, she listens.” She headed for the door, then turned back and said, “Please don’t hurt each other while I’m gone. I don’t need to clean up blood in my studio tonight, too. Not on the day Long John ate Monk’s leg, I don’t. I’ve had a hard day, and I don’t need you two making it worse.”

41

STALWART

Lachlan

Drake waited until Laila had shut the door behind her, and so did I. Then he gave me the full-bore treatment from his bruised eyes and said, “Tell the truth. Who did you say that to?”

“Nobody.” I tore my mind with some difficulty from all those things Laila had said, from the sex positions to the “love” idea, and said, “I’d have told them you were an arsehole, maybe, if they’d asked, but dementia? No. Wouldn’t even have thought of it, and I’m surprised anybody believed it. And I wouldn’t even have told them you were an arsehole, actually, since I love your daughter.”

If I’d thought his face was hard before, it was granite now. He said, “D’you expect me to believe that?”

“Well, yeh,” I said. “I do, because it seems to be true. Though what really matters to me is that she believes it.”And,I didn’t say,that she’ll have me, if I fail at this job.A thought that had my heart sinking.

Drake said, “You’ve known her, what, a month?”

I could have said, “And it didn’t even take me a week to recognize the woman she is.”I didn’t, because nothing was going to convince him but seeing her happy with me, and seeing me treating her the way she deserved. I said, “How long did you know your wife before you married her?”

“That was different,” he said.