Where Sea Meets Sky

When I come back around the corner, I see Keri and Kam at the top of the rise, thankfully not where we had sex, and waving at us to follow them. I grab Josh’s hand and we go.

No one seems very suspicious of me and Josh going missing for a while. When we get back to the house, only my mother is at the kitchen door, eyeing us warily, but when Keri and Kam, bless their innocent hearts, tell her that they found us talking, that probing look of hers goes away.

Ah, poor mum. If and when she finds out about me and Josh, she’s going to have a conniption. I’m not sure if the fact that he’s not staying in the country for long will be a good thing or a bad thing for her, in this case.

Keri and Kam are nice kids, and they seem to get significantly older each time I see them. I’m always surprised to see them taller and dressing differently, but they’re easygoing and lighthearted. A bit like Amber in that respect, though they’re from different sides of the family. Keri and Kam are also more closely connected to their Maori heritage than I am. It’s nice to have those little reminders of where I came from.

My uncle Jeremy is a riot, though. He and my uncle Robbie, whom I borrowed Mr. Orange from—and now think a lot differently of, thanks to his porn collection—are brothers, born ten years apart. That said, they’re pretty much the same, right down to their laugh. Robbie is more subdued because he’s the older sibling and smokes more grass, while Jeremy is the loud one, but they’re both nutters. We’ll see my uncle Robbie when we go up to the Northland to spend New Year with my grandfather—he takes care of him, even though my grandfather is strong as an ox.

“Ever been to a hāngi, bro?” Uncle Jeremy asks Josh as we sit down to the wide kauri wood table my father made.

Josh shakes his head. “I don’t think so.”

Uncle Jeremy laughs and has a swig of his beer. “Then you haven’t. When you go up north, you’ll have one, aye? Robbie will make sure of that. So will Pops. How about the hongi?” Josh only stares so my uncle winks at me. “We’ll let Pops deal with that one.”

Josh looks utterly bewildered by all these Maori terms but he’s taking it in stride. He starts talking about funny Canadian stuff, to which Jeremy cracks up. I look at Amber, who’s drinking our own pinot noir and flushing at the cheeks, clearly enjoying herself. It’s weird to think that in a few days she’ll be flying to Australia on her own. I wonder if she can hunt down Nick and kick him in the nuts for me.

Though it’s not quite the roast my mother has planned for Christmas Day, it’s still a feast of roasted vegetables and homemade steak and onion pies. She’s always been very good at stuffing us silly, which is probably why it’s a blessing that my aspirations turned from art to physical fitness. I was already starting to go a bit doughy in the stomach, hips, and thighs when I was a teenager.

The thought that my physical fitness might no longer be as crucial to my daily life begins to eat away at me. I try to focus on whatever my family is talking about, especially what Josh is saying, but my thoughts keep going to the fact that when I eventually emerge from this vacation haze, I’m going to have to face cold, hard reality, and Josh’s cock won’t be there to distract me from it.

My mother loves to ask questions at the worst possible time, so it shouldn’t surprise me when she says loudly and primly at the table, “Gemma, how is it going with you and Nick?”

“Is this the Aussie rugby player?” Uncle Jeremy asks, and I raise my brows, startled that even he knows about Nick.

I give my mother a steady look while the internal debate rages on. To tell the truth or not tell the truth, that is the question. I glance at Josh, and though his face is impassive, I know what he wants to hear.

I sigh and say, “Well if you must know, Nick and I aren’t seeing each other anymore.”

“Good,” Uncle Jeremy says as he shoves pie into his face. “Aussies are no bloody good.”

The Aussie and Kiwi rivalry is about as heated and constant as the Canadian and American one, but this has nothing to do with it. I eye my uncle. “It didn’t end because he’s Australian.”

He shrugs as if to say it should have.

“What happened, dear?” my mother asks, and I can’t read her tone. It’s flat, like she could go either way. So I tell the truth.

“I’m not really sure what happened. It’s a bit of a long story, but the gist of it is, he was an ass and became more of an ass on the trip. Possessive, paranoid, and just—”

“He was a shithead,” Amber speaks up, her eyes wide and earnest. “Like, totally. Gemma kicked him to the curb.”

That wasn’t exactly true but I’m adding another round of Christmas presents for this girl.

“An ass?” my mom repeats, and there’s a bit of a smile on her face. She smoothes her blond bob back behind her ears and hides her mouth with her hand. She’s smiling.

“What’s so funny?” I ask her.

Her eyes, light and playful, dart over to Auntie Jolinda before coming back to me. She composes herself and folds her hands daintily in front of her. “Oh, Gemma. I can’t say I’m all that surprised. He struck me as an ass when I first met him.”

That was the only time she met him, too. She was in Auckland visiting and came by the gym. Nick was a little brusque with her but he was that way with most people. Most people I brought into his life, anyway. Anyone who benefited him personally was always a different story.