Page 81 of Just Say Christmas
“No.” Nyree was beside Hayden, Marko and Kiri behind her, the whole group forming a sort of flying wedge of protection now, though Hayden and Nyree would go down hard in the first tackle. Oh, well. Moral support counted, he hoped. “Luke’s not leaving. I don’t want you to leave, either, or Mum, and if you have to, I’ll be sorry.”
“Darling,” her mother said. “No. Your beautiful day.”
“My day’s still beautiful,” Nyree said. “My day’smorebeautiful. Everybody in it is telling the truth. That’s beautiful.”
“The truth isn’t beautiful,” Grant said.
“Depends how you look at it,” Nyree said. “My truth is, and here it is. Luke is gay. Kane’s in love with Victoria. I’m married to Marko bloody Sendoa, forever and ever. Maybe none of that is what you’d choose for us.” She told Kane, “Though you’re probably doing all right so far.”
“Cheers,” he said. “But I may make a move to the Blues. Could want a chat,” he told Rhys.
“Oh, bloody hell,” Grant said.
“Yeh,” Nyree said. “That’s three of us, then. Who knows? Maybe Kiri won’t disappoint you. What do you think?” she asked her sister.
Kiri said, “I don’t know. But I don’t want Luke to leave.” Brave of her, Hayden thought.
Nyree told Grant, “Maybe I know how you feel, a bit. I’ve got all sorts of dreams for this baby in my belly. I feel like I know who she is. The truth is—I don’t really know her at all. She’ll show herself to me, and to Marko, bit by bit. Day by day. And I’ll only have two jobs. To teach her. And to love her.”
“Easy to say,” Grant said. “When you don’t know anything about it.”
“Not easy at all.” That was Rhys again. “I do know something about it, and I can say. Not easy at all, and the only choice there is. What are you going to do otherwise? Throw your son away?”
“Throw both of your sons away,” Kane said. “It’s a package deal.”
“I did my best for you,” Grant said. “All I ever did was my best.”
“You did, Dad,” Luke said. “And so have I.”
A long moment, stretching out forever, and Nyree said, “And then you paid for me to go to Uni, even though I never studied anything worth learning, so who knows, hey. Change is possible.”
“That’s true,” Miriama said. “And Nyree’s grateful, darling. So am I.”
“Anyway,” Nyree said, her cheerfulness possibly forced and possibly not at all, “if you want somebody to do what you say, I reckon you should get a dog. Words to put on top of the wedding cake. Or, in this case, the pavlova.”
39
Laid Bare
RHYS
That scene had been tense, Rhys thought, but it had needed to happen. There was a moment, afterward, when Grant had looked around like he couldn’t believe he didn’t have more support than this, been met by silence, and stalked off, with Miriama scurrying after.
She’d work on him, Rhys had no doubt. Quietly. Subtly. Grant was one of those blokes who couldn’t stand a woman telling him to his face that he’d been a dickhead. She’d have to convince him that hehadn’tbeen one, and that what he actually wanted to do now was . . . whatever she’d decided on to ease the path back to his sons.
Too much work. He’d rather take the news like a man.
For now, he gripped Luke’s shoulder and said, “Well done, mate,” and Luke stared back at him and couldn’t quite answer. Like when you’d won the game, but it had been too tense, had mattered too much, and you couldn’t feel anything but relief that it was finally over and you could set the burden down.
Rhys moved on, then, to Hayden. “A bit fraught, eh.”
“Well, yeh,” Hayden said, and blew out a breath. “Just a bit.”
“Nothing like laying yourself on the line, either,” Rhys said.
“Oh,” Hayden said. “You noticed. What can I say. Seemed like a good idea at the time. But then, you know something about taking risks. Can’t have been easy telling Zora how you felt.”
“Yeh,” Rhys said slowly. “I’m trying to remember how thatdidhappen. Should’ve been harder than it was, probably.”
