AllFreeNovel
Share Us
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 he said …” 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.”
“Rugby players always drink beer after games, though,” Isaiah said. “My dad used to drink heaps after games, I think.”
“That wasn’t really my problem,” Luke said. “I was careful after games.”
Ah. So as not to lose his head under the influence and say or do something he shouldn’t, Hayden would bet. Other blokes could be wild and stupid and get themselves into trouble, and nobody would think much of it. Using the wrong pronoun, though … much too easy, and catastrophic.
“Drinking too much can happen in all sorts of ways, though,” Luke went on, which Hayden wouldn’t have expected. “Like if your partner’s a chef. Chefs work long hours and tend to drink wine—sometimes heaps of wine—to wind down at the end of the night, and you might be keeping them company. Wine’s not really the best way to wind down, but I only found that out once I stopped trying to do it that way.”
And there was Hayden’s heart, dropping straight down again. That was why Luke had come out. Not because he was opening his heart, or whatever stupid thing Hayden had thought. Because he had somebody he couldn’t bear to hide anymore. Which was good.
“A chef is a cook,” Casey told Isaiah. “But in a fancy restaurant, with a tall hat, like in Ratatouille.”
“I know,” Isaiah said.
“Does she have a hat?” Casey asked. “The chef?”
“He’s a man,” Luke said, and his ears went red again. “Yeh. The restaurant had a Michelin star. That’s a big deal. Means it’s in the guidebook, and he had a hat and the checked trousers and white smock and all. Got to look the part, eh.”
“Oh,” Isaiah said. “Your partner was a man? Does that mean you’re gay? You don’t look like a gay person. Not like Uncle Hayden.”
Now, both Rhys and Zora said, “Isaiah,” in stereo, and Hayden laid his forehead against the table and groaned.
“Gay means …” Isaiah was telling Casey even as Rhys and Zora said it, and Casey said, “I know. We had it in school. It means boys go out with boys, and girls go out with girls, and it’s OK. Except you’re supposed to say LGTBQ, and some other letters.”
“LGBTQ plus,” Isaiah said. “You got the letters backwards.”
“There isn’t one way people are gay,” Tom said, absolutely unexpectedly. He’d spoken up even less than Marko, but then, what was he, twenty-one? At his coach’s dinner table, and sitting with England’s captain? “Not one way they look. You may think there is, because you see some people who you’re sure are gay—LGBTQ—and you assume they’re . . .”
“Representative of all gay individuals,” Hayden said. “Like me. Obviously gay. What an entertaining day this is proving to be.”
“But Tom’s right,” Zora said. “You don’t know about all the people who aren’t obvious, since you don’t go around asking everybody their sexual orientation. Because you’re more polite than that.”
“Well, if you’re Isaiah and Casey, you do, apparently,” Hayden said. “Anybody else want to come out? Anybody who isn’t obvious, that is? No? Good. I’m oddly exhausted. And I have a meeting at eight o’clock tomorrow, so …” He stood up. Enough fruitless yearning and weirdly desolate heartbreak, and definitely enough pretending to be insouciant. “Cheers for the pizza, Marko, and for the company, everybody. Hope you get it done tomorrow, Nyree.”
“What?” She sat up and blinked. She’d fallen asleep on Marko’s shoulder, apparently. “Oh. I’ll come back in the morning and finish up. I’ve had so much help today, I can do it. Kane said he’d come back.” She looked the question at Luke, and he nodded. “Good,” she said. “Two’s all I can keep busy, Tom, so I’ll just bother my brothers. Thanks for all your help. After that, I’ll sleep all day Friday, and I’ll still have Saturday morning to pack for the wedding. Heaps of time. Casey’s room has turned into a bit of a group project, that’s all, and group projects can be brilliant.”
