Page 111 of Playing for Keeps

Char was someone who’d been in the background of my life growing up, someone I hadn’t paid much attention to because Luke was always my main focus.

Until that night.

And afterwards? After Theo was born, we’d lived together for a while. Partly it had been a survival thing, so neither of us had to look after a newborn on our own.

From the outside, I guess it had looked as if we were trying to make our relationship work. But it had stayed purely platonic. We were like roommates, raising a baby together. I’d sometimes got the vibe that Char wouldn’t have minded if something more happened between us, but she’d never pursued it.

And a whole lot of other crap had happened that year besides Theo being born. It had been my second season with the Marauders and I’d just started to get regular game time when I injured my calf. I’d been desperately focused on rehab, panicking at the idea that if my professional rugby career failed then I wouldn’t be able to provide for my son.

When Theo was a year old and Char told me she thought we should get separate places, I accepted it without question.

I watched her now as she talked, pride seeping through me.

Char deserved all the success in the world. Having a baby at eighteen hadn’t exactly been in her life plan, and while I’d done everything I could to help her, I knew her life had been derailed more than mine had. How awesome was it that she was getting back on track and achieving her dreams?

But as a round of applause followed her speech, my happiness faded into worry.

How would Char feel if she knew what was happening between Luke and me? That wasn’t just the million-dollar question, it was the squillion-dollar question. At the Easter egg hunt, I had thought I’d glimpsed her looking upset when she saw Luke and me laughing together.

I fingered my necktie, which suddenly felt as if it was choking me. Char was the mother of my child. I really didn’t want to upset her.

But I was finding it hard to see a path forward where that didn’t happen.

Another woman spoke briefly, then the formalities were over.

I forwarded Char the video of her speech and used the excuse of being on my phone to check the time. The New Zealand game was about to start. Surely it was okay to watch some of the match? After all, streaming services had been invented for this reason, right? So you could watch your secret boyfriend play his first test match for New Zealand while you attended an exhibition of art by his twin sister who was also the mother of your child.

Fuck. What I’d said to Luke the other day was true. We would seriously be Jerry Springer rejects.

I found a quiet corner and signed into the app, getting the live stream going just as the team lined up on halfway for the national anthem. The camera panned past Luke and he was barely opening his mouth to sing, his jaw was so tight. My heart clenched for him.

I knew Luke would be on the bench to start, so I put my phone back into my pocket, taking it out to sneak glances only occasionally as I did the mingling thing. I stuck close to Char because I knew she sometimes struggled in social situations, but tonight she seemed to be in her element, chatting enthusiastically to everyone who approached her.

When I checked the rugby at the thirty-minute mark, the ball was kicked into touch and New Zealand made some substitutions, and suddenly Luke was running onto the field.

There was no way I was missing this.

I sat on a two-seater couch tucked away in the foyer area. The camera zoomed in on his face just before the restart. I could see the tension all over it.

This was Luke achieving his lifelong dream. I knew how scared he was of fucking up.

“What are you doing, Daddy?” Theo was suddenly by my side.

“Watching Uncle Luke.”

“Can I watch too?”

“Of course.”

Theo snuggled in next to me and we watched as Luke got his first touch of the ball and made about ten meters of ground before offloading it to Tyler Bannings.

I breathed out a breath I hadn’t even realized I was holding.

Char came into the foyer. “There you are!”

I chewed my fingernail. “Ah…yeah, I’m just watching the rugby.”

Char’s eyebrows folded together. “Is Luke playing yet?”