The two of them, walking into the wind, drinking in the sights and sounds and smells of the sea. Perfectly at peace. Perfectly happy, because they were together.
May Surprise
Four months later
Will walked out of the locker-room showers with his towel wrapped around his waist. “Shove over,” he told Koti James, because the big centre was, as usual, taking up more than his share of the bench.
“Bugger off,” Koti said lazily. “Some of us need space.”
Will snorted, feinted, and threw a punch that Koti caught in a hand, and they stayed like that, palm to palm, doing some impromptu arm-wrestling. A few seconds of stalemate, and then Will was pushing Koti’s arm slowly back until his elbow bent too far and his hand banged against the wooden cubicle.
“And some of us need more space,” Will said. “Shove over.”
“Try it when we’re both sitting down next time, cuz. And I’ll show you who’s boss. That was me with one hand tied behind my back. Still almost won, didn’t I.” But Koti shoved over.
Will grinned, toweled off, and pulled on his warmups. Messing around like that was stupid, maybe. It was juvenile. But it was fun.
He grabbed his mobile out of his duffel to shove it into his pocket, but paused at the sight of a text from his agent showing green on his home screen.
WTH have you been doing. Call me ASAP.
Will blinked. What the hell had he been doing? Nothing, that was what. Well, nothing that could have got Ian in a lather. He’d been training and playing rugby, just like always. Not doing too badly at it, either. He’d been head down, bum up all season long, ever since he’d come back from the States. He’d come back fit, he was in form, and he’d just been told that he’d been selected for the All Blacks’ June series against England. He was going to be an All Black at last. What more was there?
He thumbed his mobile, shoved down to the end of the bench, turned his back on the banter and male laughter surrounding him, and rang Ian.
“Will.” The exasperated sigh came clearly down the line. “Why? Were you born stupid?”
“What?”
“I’d say you got pissed and forgot yourself,” Ian said, “but there are too many of them for that. You can’t have done it all in a day. What could possibly have possessed you to pose for nudie pics, and then to let them be posted to some porn site? A brainless moment posting a selfie, that I could see. Don’t get me wrong, I’d still tell you that you were a bloody fool. But this? What were you thinking?”
“Wait. Wait.” Will was having a bit of trouble breathing. “I didn’t use my name. And it isn’t porn. It’s just…suggestive. But it’s got out?”
A snort was the response to that. “Too right it’s got out. And I know what it is, because I saw it. Everybody saw it. You didn’t have to use your name. You’re a public person, with a very public face. Can’t believe I’m having to explain that to you. One person finds out, tells somebody else? You’re a red-hot sensation, and not the kind anybody wants. What’s the first thing I said to you when you signed with me? The first thing I say to everybody? Nothing is private online. We’d better get your story ready, because this has ‘disgracing the jersey’ written all over it.”
Will tried to focus. “What story could there possibly be that would explain it? Other than that I had my head up my arse?” When he’d thought about it since arriving back in the goldfish bowl that was the life of a rugby star in New Zealand, the whole thing had seemed like a dream, one he’d tried to forget. It had been stupid and irresponsible. He’d known it even at the time, he’d done it anyway, and here it was, back to bite him.
“Well,” Ian said, “I have a couple ideas. And meanwhile, no comment. I shouldn’t have to tell you that either, but who knows? Absolutely no bloody comment.”
***
Three hours later, Will was holding the phone to his ear and counting the seconds until the ringing finally began. Three rings. Four. He calculated times. Ten P.M. in Vegas. He should have waited, but he couldn’t stand to wait. He needed to know.
“Hello?”
“Faith? It’s Will.”
“Will?”
“Yeh. Will. Your model.” She didn’t even remember him? He’d ruined his life with her, and she’d already forgotten?
“What—where are you?”
“Wellington.”
“Um…Oh. New Zealand.” She took an audible breath. “The capital. Why are you there?”
“Because I’ve got a match tomorrow.” What did that matter? “What I need to know is, did you do it?” He was trying to control his temper, but it was getting away from him again at the idea of it.
“Did I do what?”
“Did you leak it?” he demanded. “Did you tell somebody it was me on that site?”
“Of course I didn’t tell anybody. Who would I tell? Who would even care?”
“All of En Zed and half of Aussie, that’s who. It’s blown up over here.” He’d thought the site hadn’t had a hope. It was still hard for him to believe it had gone global enough for somebody in a nation as small and remote as New Zealand to see it. But judging from the number of stories that had been uploaded, the number of votes for those stories, and most of all, the subscriber count—something had happened. It had gone viral, and, yes, it had gone global.
“Oh, my gosh.” She did sound genuinely surprised, but he wished he could see her face so he’d know for sure. He thought of her that last night on the roof, of him spilling his guts to her, and of how soft her eyes had been as she’d listened. Surely she wouldn’t have done this. Surely not.
“That’s why the uptick in subscriptions,” she was saying. “It’s been doing pretty well, with the contest and all, but the past day or so…That’s you? And, what? That’s really a big deal? Why? We haven’t even showed that much yet. Hardly any of the special stuff.”
He groaned. “Oh, bugger. The special stuff. What’s up there already, the writing—it’s nasty. Thought you said it was going to be romance.”
“Erotic romance. Which means sex.”
He passed that one by, because she didn’t have to tell him. All he’d say was, women were so much dirtier than he’d ever imagined. If those authors actually were women. He had his doubts. “And you didn’t tell anybody else it was me?” he pressed. “Not your mum? Not Calvin? Because Calvin would’ve sold me out in a heartbeat.”
He could hear the testiness in her voice. “Of course I didn’t. I told you I wouldn’t. What do you think I am?”
“I didn’t really think so,” he hastened to say, “but I had to know.”
“Well, now you know. It wasn’t me. I’m sorry if it’s a problem, but, Will…”
“I know.” He sighed. “You don’t have to say it. My own bloody fault. And I signed a release.”
“Well, yes. I wouldn’t have put it quite like that, but, yes.”
“There it is, then, and I have to do something about it. Could I pay Calvin not to put any more up, d’you reckon? Or better yet, to take the whole thing down?”
“No. I’m sorry, but no. I really doubt it. He’s got visions of a million dollars, now more than ever. Not possible, unless you have a million dollars.”
“Well, not right to hand, I don’t. The damage is done already anyway. So it’s Plan B.” And he started to tell her what that was, doing his very best to convince her that she wanted to be part of it.
It had sounded like out of the frying pan and into the fire to him, but Ian had been convinced that it was the only way, and the consequences were too dire.
“You need to give a reason for it,” his agent had said. “Some reason. It only has to be for a couple weeks, and then it’s over. A few photos, a few strategic mentions in the press, and you’ve weathered it. Otherwise, you could be looking at playing overseas, and I’m not joking.”
“It can’t be that bad,” Will had managed to say over the pounding of his heart. What had he been thinking? He hadn’t been thinking, that was what. He’
d lost his focus, lost his discipline, and look where it had landed him.
“It’s going to be just that bad. You haven’t spent enough time in En Zed, if you don’t know that. In Aussie, maybe it wouldn’t have been. Maybe. In the States, obviously not. They don’t much care what their sportsmen do over there, long as they can play and aren’t actually in prison. You want that kicking job, I can ring them again. Go back over there, and you can pose for all the dirty photos you like. But New Zealand rugby? The All Blacks, especially? Think they’ll want this? Think your selection’s going to stand for the June series? I’ll tell you, mate. It’s not, not without some damage control, not with the reputation you’ve already got. You want to take care of that family of yours? Either I start looking into an overseas club, or we come up with a reason, and a plan.”
“That’s a stupid reason, though. And a stupid plan.”
“Well, then, that’s perfect. Because it was a bloody stupid thing to do.”
An Unexpected Journey
“You’re what?” Bella demanded.
It seemed like that was all anybody was saying these days. Even Montclair had gotten excited. He was turning in circles, yapping at the tone in Bella’s voice.
Faith picked the little dog up, snuggled him into her lap on her mother’s cream-colored couch, and stroked his whisper-soft fur. Snuggling with Montclair looked like all the comfort she was going to get tonight. “I’m taking an unexpected vacation to New Zealand,” she repeated.
“You don’t take unexpected vacations. This is about Will, isn’t it? Wasn’t he from New Zealand?”
“Yes. To both. Yes, he’s from New Zealand, and yes, it’s about him.”
“But you said you hadn’t slept with him, so why on earth would you go visit him?” Bella fixed Faith with her gimlet eye. “Don’t you go chasing after that man,” she warned. “That’s the very last way you’d ever get him.”
“I’m not actually an idiot.” Faith was flushing a little now. “I’m not chasing after him. He’s chasing after me. In a way. Although not that way.”
Her mother continued to stare at her suspiciously. “In exactly what way? Don’t you dare lie to me, because I’ll know. I want the whole story, and I want it now.”
“You know,” Faith couldn’t help pointing out, “I’m twenty-seven years old.”
“And I’m forty-nine, and I’ve known more men than you’ll ever be able to shake a stick at. Your point?”
“All right. I’m sharing. Not because I have to, but because I’d rather you heard it from me. I’m going to New Zealand for two weeks to pretend to be Will’s girlfriend.”
Her mother, for once, seemed lost for words, so Faith continued. “Because of the modeling. He’s in trouble. I didn’t tell you this before, because he asked me not to, and there was no reason to break his confidence. He’s a rugby player, and apparently he’s supposed to behave himself. And he didn’t.”
“He’s a pro athlete,” Bella said slowly. “And it matters that he modeled? Or did he do something else? Is he gay?”
“Gay? No. Don’t be ridiculous. Will?”
“Only thing that makes sense,” her mother said with a shrug. “I didn’t get that off him. I’d have said the complete opposite, but who knows? Sure what it sounds like to me. Why would anybody care about a few pictures?”
“It’s different there,” Faith tried to explain. “That’s what he says. And the site—the pictures aren’t so bad, but the stories—some of them are pretty risqué. And I guess the press is having a field day, and it means he might not be selected for the All Blacks—the all-star team. The international team. Which is a very big deal, money-wise and…everything-wise.”
“And in what possible way does it help that you go over there?”
“Because then he can say that he did the modeling as a favor to me, because he was going out with me. I’m there two weeks, then I go home again, and everyone finds out we broke up, because that’s the kind of heartless witch I am. I used him for the pictures, and I’m going to dump him. I’m American, of course—from Vegas, even—so that helps with the heartless part.”
Bella snorted. “That is the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard.”
“Well,” Faith admitted, “I thought so, too. But…” She took a breath, and said it. “He’s paying me. About five thousand dollars’ worth, by the time you count the plane fare, and I can use it. This is my change-my-life move,” she hurried on, seeing her mother’s mouth opening. “I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. It’s my big break, and I want to take it. I can still do the Roundup work while I’m there, and I can do the marketing for Calvin’s site, too, even though he’ll have to use another assistant. And I get to go to New Zealand, and I really want to go to New Zealand. I really want to. I want to see the ocean, and…and everything.”
She knew that her mother wouldn’t understand the yearning for space, for the ocean, for peace. For what Will had talked about, that night on the roof. For a lake, and mountains, and a sky full of stars. “I want to go somewhere and do something,” she tried to explain, “and this is my chance. It’s perfect, don’t you see? As long as you can cover the apartments.”
“Paying you?” her mother said in alarm, as if she hadn’t heard anything else. “No. There’s a word for that, and you’re not doing it. If you need money, I’ll give you money.”
“It’s not your choice, Mom,” Faith said with a sigh. “And there’s no sex involved. He told me so. It’s acting, that’s all.”
Which hadn’t been the greatest thing she’d ever heard, Will hastening to assure her that it would only be for show. But it was that much more reinforcement, too, would keep her from wishing for more, or, worse, trying for something he wasn’t willing or able to give. It would be two weeks with him, and then she’d be going home. With an unbroken heart, because she wasn’t stupid. But being cast as the villain? Could she really do that?
Yes. She could. Sure, she liked Will too much for any of it to be completely comfortable. But she’d lived next door to him for weeks already and had kept her head. She could do it again. For three thousand dollars and a trip to New Zealand? You bet she could. She could take Hope and Hemi there after all, because she would have seen it for herself, and what she had told her mother was true. She wanted to go.
“Why didn’t he ask the girl he modeled with?” her mother wanted to know. “Sounds like a much better cover story to me. He was in love with one girl, so he took dirty pictures with another girl? If a man told me that, it wouldn’t fly for a minute.”
“That would have been a little awkward, seeing as Gretchen’s about six months pregnant.”
“No. Really?”
“Yeah. I’m sure if she hadn’t been, Will would have asked her. But she is, and he didn’t.”
“All right. If you’re going to go, you’re going to go. But I still think,” Bella said, looking shrewdly at Faith, “that you’ve got more feelings about that man than you’re letting on. So if you go, you’re going armed.”
“Armed?” Faith laughed. “What, I’m going to have to shoot him to keep him off of me? I don’t think so.”
“That’s not the kind of armor I mean. You’re halfway there already, but…when do you go?”
“Next week.” The butterflies fluttered low in Faith’s belly at the thought. “Eight days.”
“Eight days,” Bella said with satisfaction. “Plenty.”
Family Party
Will’s grandmother eyed the straggle of weary arrivals coming through the big pneumatic doors. “I think they’re starting to come out,” she told her family. “At least those look like Yanks to me. Talia, go over and get your brother.”
Will’s fifteen-year-old sister looked up reluctantly from her ever-present mobile. “What?”
“Go get Malachai,” Will’s mother said. “Your Kuia’s asking you.”
Will’s sigh was lost in the echoes of the Auckland Airport arrivals hall. He hadn’t counted on a welcoming party for Faith, b
ut here they were all the same. His mother, brother, and sister were varying degrees of reluctant, but his grandmother, as always, had carried the day.
Malachai slouched towards them behind his sister, who was already on her phone again. His flat-brimmed hat sat askew on his head, at some angle that was meant to be gangster, and to hide that he was well and truly hung over. As if Will wouldn’t have noticed the bottles in the bin of the front hall when they’d stopped to collect him along the way, or the general state of the flat his brother shared with mates near Auckland University. There’d been a party last night, and last night had been Sunday.
Pity his mum wasn’t hung over. She had her arms crossed against her chest, spelling nothing like welcome.
When he’d rung her the previous week to explain about the photos, he’d faced a deafening silence, and when he’d told her about Faith, it had stretched out for so long, he’d had to say, “Mum? You there?” He wasn’t doing too well with the women in his life, and that was the truth.
“You’re telling me,” she said slowly, “that you’re in love with some Yank girl you knew for a couple weeks, who got you to pose for dirty photos.”
“Aw, see,” he said, trying to laugh, “when you say it like that, it sounds bad. She didn’t ask me to. It wasn’t her fault. It was my idea. Her job depended on it, you could say. And it wasn’t so bad. All pretty tame, really.”
“I saw them. They’re not that tame. Not tame enough to keep you out of the naughty chair. What were you thinking?”
A question for the ages. “I guess it’s just love,” he tried. “Which is why she’s coming out.”
The frost down the line was so clear, he could swear his phone was turning cold in his hand. “She may be coming out,” his mother said, “but don’t think we’re going to come running to meet her with open arms, because she sounds like nothing but trouble.”
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