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“When did I ever tell you life was about being happy?” Grant asked.
“You didn’t,” Kane said. “That’s why I said it.”
Grant’s voice was rising. “You aren’t saying this to anyone outside the family,” he told Luke. “You aren’t sharing it with anybody in rugby. You’d never hold up your head again.”
“Too late,” Luke said. “I already did.”
“He shared it with me,” Rhys said, “for one.” He was beside Kane now.
“And you’re telling me you wouldn’t show him the door pretty smartly, if he was one of yours,” Grant said.
“That’s what I’m telling you,” Rhys said. “New Zealand Rugby’s committed to diversity. I got a memo about it. You probably did too.”
Grant’s face had gone brick-red, and the eyebrows were practically standing up on their own. “And is France? Is England? Who’s going to be willing to strip down in the sheds with him? Who’s going to be packing down with him in the scrum? Would you?”
Rhys shot a measuring look at Luke, and Luke stared back at him and tried to breathe. Rhys asked, “Grabbed anybody’s bum in the showers so far, mate?”
A gasp from Miriama, and a bark of a laugh from Kane. Luke’s jaw relaxed a fraction, and he said, “Not yet.”
“They’re pretty safe, you reckon?” Rhys asked.
“I reckon so.”
Grant said, “PC crap. You know what this is as well as I do.” His finger was out now, nearly stabbing into Rhys’s chest. “It’s signing his death warrant in rugby.”
“If it is,” Rhys said, “I’d say that’s his risk to take. Whatever you think, whatever you feel, don’t you think he’s felt it and thought it already?” He asked Luke, “How long have you known you were gay, would you say?”
“Since I was five or six,” Luke said.
Miriama gave a little moan, and Grant said, “Not possible.”
“Yeh, Dad,” Luke said. “Possible.”
Another voice. Nyree’s. Marko was with her, and their half-sister Kiri, too. “Luke?” she asked. “Mum? What’s going on?”
Miriama opened and closed her mouth, then said, “Luke is, ah … having a word, darling. It’s a bit fraught at the moment. No need to worry. Five minutes.”
“Five minutes?” Grant said. “Five minutes? Five minutes before you leave, is what it is,” he told Luke. “Spoiling your sister’s wedding, spouting this rubbish.”
“No,” Nyree said. “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 moaned. “No. Your beautiful day.”
“My day’s still beautiful,” Nyree said. “My day’s more beautiful. 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, but you’re not the one who gets to choose.” She told Kane, “Though you’re probably doing all right so far, even though you’re not a Highlander. Still in the South Island, so that’s something.”
“Cheers,” he said. “But I may make a move to the Blues, because … there’s Victoria. 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.
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, though—I don’t really know her at all. She’ll show herself to me, and to Marko, bit by bit, and I’ll only have two jobs. To teach her, and to love her.”
