All Saints: Love and Intrigue in the Stunning New Zealand Wilderness (The New Zealand Soccer Referee Series Book 1) (5 page)

Fornicator and blackmailer.
I definitely couldn’t go back to church.

‘
They
won. Ref was shite
.’ Dad’s text disturbed my bath as I soaked in hot
bubbles, balancing a book in my damp fingers. I dumped my phone on the bathmat
and ignored the next two texts, no longer interested in Pete’s legacy. Next
week would mark the first Saturday in my entire life when I didn’t watch All
Saints play. No bus ride to my father’s apartment and no sitting in the back of
some poor sucker’s car as they drew the short straw to take us to the game; my
father complaining in the front and me sighing in the back. Freedom.

“Take
that Daddio,” I murmured and punched the air with my fist, wafting the drifts
of snowy bubbles and dropping the library book into the bath. The next half an
hour involved lots of swearing, reasonable skill at fishing and then an
admission of defeat, as I exited the bath and indulged in a frustrating pass
time; patting slices of toilet paper in between each page.

“Just my
bloody luck!” I complained, shoving the sodden book in the airing cupboard and
praying it wouldn’t dry crinkly.

My phone
beeped again as I closed the airing cupboard door and padded down the hallway
stark naked. When a heavy bang sounded against my front door I screamed, all
pretense at a newfound gangstership ruined.

“Ursula!”
Teina’s deep voice sounded from the other side and I squeaked and wrapped my
arms around myself. “Open it or I’ll stand here all night!” he shouted.

I
weighed up my options, wondering why he’d say such a thing. “Wait!” I yelled,
dashing into the bathroom for my warm towel, dragging it off the rail and
swaddling myself.

Opening
the door a crack, I peered through the gap, seeing his tall shape occupying
most of the hallway. Dressed in dark trousers and a referee’s smart shirt, he
stared at me and placed his hand against the door. “Let me in.” Authority oozed
from his voice and I stepped back and let him enter.

Teina’s
hair hung on his head in a damp tangle of waves, unbrushed after his shower in
the dingy referees’ changing room. He smelled of deodorant and pinkness flushed
his cheeks after running around for ninety minutes. Taking my jaw in his left
hand he examined the marks on my face and hissed in sympathy. “I heard,” he
said in explanation. His eyes narrowed and he spoke through gritted teeth.
“Bastard. I hope you called the cops. How did he find out?”

I
wriggled free of his grasp and hoisted my towel. “No, I haven’t called the
cops.” I shook my head. “Aunty Margaret showed up and pleaded his cause. And
no, it wasn’t about us, it was over something else.”

“You’re
kidding!” The words exploded from Teina’s lips; more statement than
exclamation. “What the hell justifies bashing a woman?”

“Just
leave it.” I turned away and headed towards the bedroom, my wet curls sending
icy drips down my spine. I pushed the door closed but Teina followed anyway,
slumping on the bed, his olive fingers standing out against the white
comforter.

“Talk to
the cops,” he insisted and I pursed my lips into a rigid line. “There were
witnesses.”

“No.”

He
exhaled and ran his hands through his black hair, biceps bulging against the
fabric of the short navy sleeves. I tried to dress beneath the damp towel, my
underwear sticking to my skin. As I turned away to fasten my bra, the fluffy
fabric dived south and displayed my nakedness. I fought the urge to stamp and
scream in frustration, hauling the tired bra over my breasts as fast as I
could.

“Stop.”
Teina’s lips grazed my shoulder and he straightened the straps, his fingers
sensuous against my back as he fastened the clasp. His hands warmed the points
of my shoulders and he turned me, nestling my face against his chest.

“Ouch,”
I groaned as the bruise brushed against the hard muscle. He lifted my face with
a finger under my chin and sighed. “No, I’m not calling the cops,” I asserted
and he raised an eyebrow. “I dealt with it; he won’t touch me again.”

“And it
wasn’t because of me?” The question hung between us like a match near a petrol
bomb.

“No.” I
smirked, the action tightening the skin under my eye. “That would be worth both
cheeks.” The wide grin burst the cut in my mouth and wiped the smile from my
face. I hissed and put my hand up to my mouth.

“Is that
the bloody logo backwards?” Teina sounded amazed as he peered at the cut
beneath my eye and I nodded.

“Yeah.
Terry’s secret weapon.”

He
looked away, his eyes narrowed and his mind wrestling with an internal thought
which seemed to eat him from the inside out. “How’d he do it?” He studied the
mark as I kept my fingers pressed against the cut to stem the blood which
pooled its metallic taste in my mouth.

“He has
a ring on his finger but he wears it with the pattern on the inside. Lifetime
club members get them after they’ve played so many games.”

Teina
nodded slowly, his brain working. “Right.” He noticed me staring and snapped
his attention back to me. “You need ice on that.” He snatched my robe off the
back of the bedroom door and wrapped me up, shoving my reluctant body ahead of
him to the kitchen. Delving in the freezer produced a bag of frozen peas which
he split into two separate bags, leaving one and pressing the other to my face.
“Swap them over when that one defrosts,” he ordered, nosing in the fridge. “You
hungry?”

I shook
my head and pulled a face. “No. But help yourself. There’s stuff for sandwiches
or some left over mince. I can make you dinner if you like?”

“Na,
just keep the ice on your face. It’ll bring the swelling down.”

“Ok.” I
admired his neat bum as he bent with his head in the fridge. The tight trousers
accentuated the gentle curves and I closed my painful eye and squinted to get a
better view. Teina glanced back at me and then stood up, reaching for the
frozen peas in my hand and hoisting it higher to cover my eye.

“You’re
gonna have a black eye,” he predicted, peering at it with his brow furrowed.

“I’m not
going to the cops,” I asserted. “He’s family, much as I wish he wasn’t.”

“Hmmmn.”
Teina wrinkled his nose and delved back into the fridge, emerging with bread,
margarine and a pot of jam. He shot me a sideways look as he laid his haul out
on the counter in precise order and studied the result. “You might not have
much choice in the matter. The woman who serves behind the bar said she’d done
it for you.”

I
nodded. “Alysha. Yeah, she told me.” I wrinkled my nose. “They won’t come. I
haven’t made a complaint myself and I won’t press charges.”

Teina
raised one dark eyebrow. “You don’t have to. Assault is a criminal offence. If
he’s got previous, the cops will press their own charges.” He widened his eyes
with an I-told-you-so look. “Your face will be evidence.”

I
blinked in horror and he shook his head. “I think you’ll end up talking to them
whether you want to or not.”

“Not,” I
answered and glanced at the front door, hindered by the packet of peas which
obscured my vision. “Will you answer the door and say I’m out?”

Teina
smirked. “Don’t get me lying for you.”

“Can we
go to your place instead?” I panicked and dropped the hand holding the peas.
“Where do you live? You can hide me.”

He
stopped buttering the bread and laid the knife down, parallel to the slice. His
hesitation strengthened my misgivings and I dumped the peas next to his hand.
“It’s ok. I get it.” My heart fluttered with dread as I stalked to the bedroom
and flung the wardrobe door open. The neck of the sweater caught my cheek as I
shoved my head through, yanking my hair out of the hole and letting it tumble
over my shoulders and back in damp tresses. I finished buttoning my jeans as
Teina arrived in the doorway and leaned against the frame.

“I’m
confused,” he said, spreading his hands and searching my thunderous face
expression with wary eyes. “Yesterday you don’t want us to be seen together and
today you don’t care. Which is it, Ursula?”

“You’re
married!” I snorted, shoving my feet into socks and sitting on the bed to push
them into cowboy boots. My jeans shuddered over the boots and nestled next to
my ankles. “That’s why you won’t take me to your place. I’m such an idiot.”

“I’m not
married!” he objected, hurt making his eyes sparkle. “I told you I wasn’t and
I’m not. I don’t have a girlfriend either.”

“It was
too good to be true,” I muttered, more to myself than him. “Whoopdedoo, the fat
girl got laid.”

Teina’s
brow knitted in confusion. “You’re not fat, Ursula. What’re you talking about?”

My laugh
sounded cruel and I bit my sore lip, tasting blood as the cut reopened. I was
once.

‘
Fat
chicks don’t get boyfriends
’ my dad told me as I sat at the dinner table
and filled my face with donuts. At seventeen I decided I didn’t care but by
twenty-five it was too late. The fat chick morphed into the obese chick and
kept going until she was a morbidly obese chick. Dad married me off to Pete
believing nobody else would have me, but he hadn’t banked on a sterile marriage
leading to secret counselling. I learned about Chaotic Eating and recognised
myself in the description. Only a few stretch marks bore testament to the old
me; a silent reminder not to go back there. Hook’s Law threatened me every time
I sought to overindulge, knowing physics didn’t lie. ‘
The extension of an elastic object is directly
proportional to the force applied to it: F = k × e.’
My skin tone recovered its elasticity once, but there
was no guarantee it would again. I had no desire to wear my flesh around my
ankles like a pair of wrinkly stockings.

“Sod off!” I snapped
at Teina. “Why are you even here? You know everything about me but it’s one
way. I don’t need any more parasites in my life, thanks. I’m not shagging you,
so you might as well go.” I strode into the kitchen and snatched my keys off
the counter, flinging the soggy peas into the dustbin. “Slam the door on your
way out!” I called over my shoulder and left, ramming my phone into my jeans
pocket.

I skulked in the alleyway between streets until Alysha
arrived, scraping her alloys along the curb as she pulled up. She gasped as I
dashed out and climbed into the passenger seat, bobbing down beneath the window
line. “Bloody hell! Your face is a right mess!”

“Thanks!”
I pursed my lips. “Just drive.”

“Where?”
Alysha checked her fringe in the rear-view mirror and primped it, fluttering
her eyelashes at herself.

“Your
house?” I asked, my tone pitiful.

She
shook her head. “Craig’s home. He’ll tell your dad he’s seen you. I’m picking
that’s who you’re hiding from.”

I
thought for a minute. Who was I hiding from? “Yeah,” I decided out loud, the
memory of Teina’s confusion causing an involuntary wince. “Take me to your
mum’s.”

Alysha
pulled away from the curb with a squeal of tyres and grinned at my apprehension.
“This is exciting,” she confessed.

I rolled
my eyes and lolled out of view, the seatbelt choking me as she shot around
corners too fast. “If you’re trying to attract the attention of the cops to
force me to give a statement, it won’t work,” I grumbled.

Alysha
narrowed her eyes. “I didn’t think of that. Good idea.”

“Do it
and we’re finished!” I threatened. “I’ll never speak to you again.”

She bit
her lip and ignored me, our relationship degenerating into how it was as
children, me the sensible cousin and her the tear away. The unfairness of life
stung like a tick bite; she snagged the good marriage and I got dealt the fake.

“Craig
did well as captain,” Alysha said, eyeing me sideways. “They held a minute’s
silence before the game for Pete and one in the clubroom after.”

“He’d
have loved that,” I breathed, managing to turn my sarcasm to gratitude in the
nick of time. I struggled with the irony of the notion of silence in relation
to my husband. He barely shut up when alive and I wondered if they’d been
waiting for him to speak from the grave and give the other occupants of Hell a
break. I turned the unfeeling snort into a cough.

“You
should speak to the cops,” Alysha sighed as she slid between two cars on the
motorway in a dangerous lane change and I closed my eyes and sank further into
the seat. “Terry Saint can’t be allowed to get away with that kind of
behaviour. It’s ugly and I’m tired of it.”

“Did
they turn up?”

“Yeah.
But you’d left so Craig gave them your address. How did you get home?”

“Hitchhiked.”

“What?”
Alysha swerved as she turned to scrutinise me with disbelief in her eyes.
“Liar!” she snapped, almost rear ending the car in front as it braked.

“I
caught the bus,” I said, my tone acerbic. “Not that anyone bothered to follow
me and offer a lift or some sympathy.” I touched my cheek and felt the pain
flare. “Just hurry up and get me to your mum’s place. Nobody will look for me
there.”

Alysha
rolled her eyes. “True dat!”

I
relaxed and laid my head back against the leather seat as Alysha lurched her
husband’s expensive car around Auckland, chattering away about her son, Mikey.
I dozed off, scrunched up in the seat and woke to her ceaseless diatribe about
Craig’s leadership of the first eleven All Saints. “You don’t mind, do you?”
she asked and jabbed me with her finger to make sure I heard. “I know it was
Pete’s role but Craig’s stoked your dad asked him to captain the squad. He couldn’t
believe it.”

“Yeah,”
I mumbled. “It’s fine. He’ll do a good job.”

“I’m so
relieved,” Alysha gushed and it occurred to me she’d been jabbering about it
the whole time I slept. Guilt pricked at my chest, knowing other people still
wrangled over Pete’s death even though I’d let it go the second I stepped from
the cemetery and dusted the soil from my black stilettos. “Life goes on,” I
added, the callousness leaking through my voice.

“Don’t
say that!” Alysha snapped. “Pete’s death was a tragedy. He’d done so much for
you. Think of all the weight you lost while you were married to him and you
started running with his help. You’ve coped with everything far better than we
all imagined.”

I sighed
and rolled my eyes, keeping my face turned towards the side window. I began
running to get out of the house and once I started, discovered I liked it. I
also enjoyed being thin and didn’t intend to get fat again, just in case my
father decided to marry the obese chick off to another cousin. Paulie’s face
wafted across my vision and I shivered. The way he looked at me of late made me
wonder if they were cooking up another sham wedding in my honour.

“Wasn’t
he?” Alysha demanded and I jumped and turned to face her.

“What?”

“Wasn’t
he good for you?”

“Who?”

“Pete!
He was good for you.”

I
groaned out loud and contemplated jumping from the moving vehicle. “I’m not
talking about Pete, ok?” My voice became a squeak at the end of the sentence
and Alysha frowned.

“You
never talk about him, Urs. It’s not healthy.”

“You
just said how well I’d done! Make your bloody mind up!”

Alysha
tutted and pursed her lips. I knew that look. “It wouldn’t be too soon to start
dating again,” she said, her voice soft. “It’s been over six months.”

I
swivelled my head at speed, wondering what she knew about Teina Fox. “What’re
you talking about?”

“Paulie!”
Alysha smirked. “He said you looked gorgeous last night. We didn’t realise
you’d left until he searched for you to ask for a dance.”

“He’s
Pete’s brother.” I spat the words through half-closed lips as my stomach roiled
in distaste. Margaret’s pudgy face swam past my inner vision and I wound the
window down so as not to puke in Craig’s work car.

“He’s
loaded,” Alysha commented, an unwitting salesgirl for my father.

“Shut
up!” The words spun from my mouth in the wind and I dry retched over the sill.
“Bloody shut up!”

Alysha’s
complexion held a sickening whiteness as she pulled up on my Aunty Pam’s
driveway. She dived from the car and hammered on her mother’s door. “Mum!
Please be home! Mum!”

I
staggered from the passenger seat, my mind consumed by the thought of Paulie’s
flaccid lips making a beeline for my face. I hurled in a rose bush on the edge
of the driveway and felt the thorns scratch my face in vengeance. The
experience seemed freaky enough to be comical. I blew out through tight lips
and tried to catch my breath before remembering Paulie’s big toes with their
painful, oozing in-growing toenails. I hated feet; anyone’s feet including my
own. The next heave sent me face planting into the rose bushes with abandon.