Page 10 of Just for Me
“True,” Hayden said. “Though in New Zealand, you say ‘skint.’ Means you’re waiting for payday. And, of course, you can be broke no matter how much money you make. All you have to do is spend more than you make, and hey presto, you’re broke. Or skint. Or both. Also, Isaiah, you could consider this important detail. Rugby doesn’t last that long. If you’re a lawyer, your career can last until you’re seventy. Longer, if you like, and you’re getting more experience all the time, hence better compensated. That means ‘paid more,’ Casey. Whereas in rugby, you’re done when you’re thirty or possibly thirty-five, if you’re very lucky. After that, you have to find something new to do. Coach, maybe, like Isaiah says. Buy a restaurant, hang your old jerseys behind glass on the wall, and probably go out of business. Very unstable industry, restaurants. Or you could talk about rugby on TV. That always seemed like a good job.”
“Depends how well you talk,” Luke said. “You could do it, I reckon.” Hayden laughed in surprise, and then wondered if it was an insult. Luke’s face had lost the wooden look, though. His eyes were warm, in fact, and fixed on Hayden, and he lost his breath again.
His hopeful heart, turning toward that warmth and strength like a sunflower turning toward the sun.
Or maybe Luke was amused because Hayden had just implied that he was bound to fail dismally as soon as he retired. Which could be soon, now that he’d come out, because had any active player ever come out?
No. Whoops. Not too tactful, but Luke still looked amused, so maybe he just thought Hayden was charmingly clueless. Hilariously rude. Something like that.
“A scientist is more like a lawyer,” Casey said. “You can be a scientist until you’re old, because scientists in movies always have white hair, and kind of crazy hair. That’s good, Isaiah, since you want to be a scientist. You don’t like to brush your hair, either. Except that I don’t think scientists make very much money, and you want to make lots of money. That’s the bad part.”
“You have to be a scientist and also invest,” Isaiah said. “I think buying houses would be the best for investing, because people need houses to rent, and Auckland doesn’t have enough. You should probably invest,” he told Luke. “If you have extra money from playing rugby in France.”
Luke actually smiled. “Thanks. I’ll keep that in mind.”
“Do you speak French?” Isaiah asked. “Because it’sFrance,”he told Casey. “And they speak French, not English.”
“I do,” Luke said. “My French is pretty good after eight years, actually.”
“You don’t talk very much,” Casey said. “So maybe you don’t need to know too many words.” And Luke smiled some more.
Definitely hot, strong, and kind. Hayden was going to be lost here pretty soon.
Get it together,he told himself.Have a drink or something.
“Fair point,” Luke said, just as Rhys came out again with the beer and held a bottle up to him. “No, thanks,” Luke said. “I’m good with water.” And Hayden thought,Wait, what?
“Keeping up your fitness, eh,” Rhys said, sitting down and offering one each to Marko, Tom, and Hayden. Hayden found himself waving it off, which annoyed him, but he couldn’t help it. He was a mirrorer. It was science. You had mirror neurons in your brain that responded the same way whether you did a thing, or watched somebody else do a thing. He had empathy. Why was that bad?
Or he was just an impossible people-pleaser, whichwasbad. He was going with the mirror neurons.
“Maybe you’d like to mention your giving up to some of the boys at the wedding,” Rhys said. “My players, anyway, though we’ll give Marko a pass as he’s getting married.”
“Cheers,” Marko said. Almost the first time he’d said anything. He’d mostly just sat there looking dark and amused. Well, he was a flanker, like Rhys had been, and flankers tended more toward action than words. Bashing the other fella and poaching the ball, seemed to be the idea. Fierce, you could call flankers. Or hard men.
Luke was different. Strong and solid and deliciously brooding, yeh, but without as much of that … edge. Of course, what did Hayden know? Nothing, that was what.
“I’m not drinking much these days,” Luke said.
Hayden assessed him. “No?” He wouldn’t have said it if he hadn’t wanted to talk about it, would he? He didn’t go around spilling his guts, it was clear.
“No,” Luke said.
“Why not?” Casey asked.
“Because I’d been drinking too much,” he said.
“Oh,” Isaiah said. “Because you’re an alcoholic.”
“Isaiah.” Rhys’s voice was quiet, but it was firm. “No.”
“Your family’s here, though,” Casey said, “because Nyree is your family. She can do a nintervention, if you’re an alcoholic. I saw it on TV.”
“Casey Moana.”That was Rhys, and Casey looked startled. She probably didn’t hear that voice much, or see that face. Hayden had only seen it on TV himself, and he’d never heard the voice. “Both of you,” Rhys said. “Luke doesn’t need an intervention. Even if he did, that would be his business, and maybe his family’s business, but definitely not ours. And you don’t tell somebody that he’s an alcoholic,” he told Isaiah.
“But hesaid …”Casey began.
“It’s OK,” Luke said. “Good to hear, maybe, for kids. I’m not an alcoholic, because I can still have a beer without wanting more. I just don’t want one. I decided to see what it felt like to be sober all the time, and I found out I liked it better.”
