Page 128 of Just Come Over

Which was when Koti James called out the words and the team formed up into rows. When Rhys pulled her into his side, and they turned and watched as twenty-three men in blue uniforms crouched low, then began to slap their thighs and stamp their feet like they could shake the very earth with their conviction.

Koti, pacing between the rows, issuing the commands in a voice that carried past the noise, and the team chanting, loud enough and low enough to be heard all the way up in the stands, or all the way through the soles of your feet. Hands slapping against forearms, feet coming down hard.

A celebration. A song of praise. And a launching. A haka for the coach, and for her. A haka to remember.

“Hi aue hi!”They yelled out the final words and stood there, sweating and spent, fierce, then came forward to shake Rhys’s hand and give him a slap on the back. The crowd was making some noise around them, but Zora barely heard. She pulled Casey into her, crouched down, gave her a cuddle and a kiss, and told her, “Now we really get to be a family. Always.”

Rhys had his arm around Isaiah, who’d clearly been in on the whole thing, and the team was surrounding them, shaking her hand, now. Overwhelming her. Putting a stamp on it forever.

You didn’t need public approval, no, but if you got this moment? You took it.

Finn was there, too. He gave Zora a kiss and slapped Rhys one more time on the back, a blow that would have sent another man flying, beamed, and said, “Congrats, mate. When you get a haka like that to seal the deal, I reckon she knows you mean it.”

“Uncle Rhys always means it,” Isaiah said. “He’s like Horton the elephant. He meant what he said, and he said what he meant.”

Casey was very nearly jumping up and down. She said, “You are, Dad. You’re igg-zackly like Horton!”

Rhys lifted her into his arms, and Zora’s heart filled so much, it could have lifted her off the ground. Casey threw out a hand like the pint-sized drama queen she was and declared for the cameras, “He meant what he said, and he said what he meant. And he’s always faithful. One hundred percent!”