Just Not Mine Read Online Free PDF Page A

take for lunch, what we’re out of. Another list. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, what do we need?” He sat back down at the table. “Come on and help me make it.”
    So that had been not too bad, though he’d got home and realized they were out of coffee, and nearly out of eggs as well, and had had to go straight back again. He was glad to have been invited to dinner tonight, and even gladder that he’d been able to bring the kids, because he didn’t know what he’d have done with them otherwise.
    “I don’t have a babysitter,” he ’d told Koti when the other man had invited him a couple days earlier.
    “Do you need a babysitter?”
    “I do now. Alone with my brother and sister for a bit.”
    “No worries. Bring them along. Heaps of kids. Your two’ll make nine all told , counting the babies. I’ll get an extra pizza, and we’re all good.”
    Hugh had accepted gratefully, and C harlie and Amelia had been borne off into the nether regions of Koti’s house by Ariana, Hemi and Reka’s eldest, with a proprietorial air that suggested Amelia might have met her match.
    “Whoa. New blood. Nobody told me there were going to be so many big fellas,” Nic said now as Will Tawera, 1.95 meters of hard-kicking, hard-tackling No. 10, came through the ranch sliders onto the deck together with Finn Douglas.
    Hugh offered a handshake and a word of welcome to Will, the Blues’ much-hoped-for new acquisition from the Queensland Reds, here in Auckland to discuss a deal for the following season. Hugh meant to do his bit to woo him, because they needed Will. The loss of Hemi this year at first-five, the critical No. 10 position that provided a team with its on-field general, had been a blow from which the Blues hadn’t yet recovered. The addition of Will, along with Hugh’s own ongoing help in shoring up the forward pack and providing a bit of leadership to a young squad, could make next season look a much brighter prospect.
    He could see what Nic had been talking about, too. Will was one of the good-sized breed of 10, and there was even more of Finn than there was of Will. The deck was suddenly looking a bit crowded with rugby muscle.
    “Speak for yourself, Nico,” Koti said. “The rest of us aren’t intimidated by a couple of blokes with a glandular disorder and a suspicious slope to their foreheads. Just because you’re such a scrawny fella.”
    “I am not scrawny,” Nic said. “I am a lithe and nimble fullback. Bashing it up the guts may be the only way a muscle-bound centre like you knows how to do it, to say nothing of the forwards, but those of us with more finesse can pick our routes with a bit more brainpower. And I’ve got the best boot here, I’ll just point out. Barring Hemi, of course. Wouldn’t want to go up against you even now,” he told his former No. 10.
    “ Nah,” Hemi said. “I’m retired. I don’t have to prove it anymore. I’ve earned the luxury of sitting back and criticizing.”
    “ Cheers, Nico,” Will complained. “You mean the best boot except Hemi and me.”
    “ Oh, yeh?” Nic said with a grin. “You want a competition for that goal-kicking spot, you know what you need to do.”
    “ No argument from me either way,” Finn said. “Because my kicking’s always been shocking. And I’m not a forward anymore, am I, slope to my forehead or otherwise. My job now is cracking the whip on you lazy buggers, and I do my best to be an equal-opportunity taskmaster. How’s your head, Koti, by the way?”
    “You know,” Koti shrugged. “Getting there. Be ready to get stuck in when training starts up again, and I’ll be on the Tour, no worries. But first, family time. You bring the kids?”
    “Yeh. Jenna took them on back to find the pizza. I should warn you, Nico, Harry’s got a big Lego book with him he wanted to share with Zack.”
    Nic groaned. “Exactly what he doesn’t need to see. Going to break me. He can hardly find a path to his bed as it is.”
    “ How the mighty have