Free Just for You by Rosalind James

think?”
    “Just with Joseph, and the kids, and half the rest of En Zed,” Reka reminded her. “Everyone’ll be in the same boat, surely. Missing the whanau, helping each other out. They’re still Maori, aren’t they. You’ll be having a hangi before you know it. Roast kangaroo.” She grinned at her cousin. “I hear it tastes like chicken.”
    “Doesn’t,” Ana said with a reluctant smile. “More like venison, if anything.”
    “There you go.” Reka had found the marker, was filling a box with books and toys. This wouldn’t be too bad, not really. A couple hours, and she’d have Ana sorted. It was a good move. Families were meant to be together.
    Ana finished feeding the baby, put him down for his nap, and Uncle Matiu came in from his garden and took Tai back to the bedroom, and it went faster with the two of them working, though Ana was still quiet, subdued. Overwhelmed, Reka thought.
    “Need to tell you something,” Ana said abruptly when they were nearly finished.
    “Tell ahead.” She hoped Ana wasn’t going to confess something Reka didn’t need to hear.
    “It’s about Hemi.”
    “Hemi?”
Reka sat back on her heels, her box forgotten.
    “You know he had a game last night.”
    “Yeh. I saw it, at the Duke. Much as I could.” Because she’d had a shift, and the bar had been busy. “They won. Preseason, though, doesn’t mean much, he said.”
    “Well…” Ana was fussing unnecessarily with a pile of baby onesies. “You know my cousin Joann, on my dad’s side.”
    “Not so much.” Now Reka was confused.
    Ana waved a hand. “Yeh. Third cousin, I guess she is. Well, she’s got a friend from school days, a bit of a party girl. Joann rang me today from Auckland, told me her friendwas meant to meet her for breakfast this morning, and begged off. Said she was out late at a party last night. Quite the piss-up, she said.”
    “Uh-huh,” Reka said. “And this is about Hemi how?”
    “It was a party with some of the Blues,” Ana said, still not looking her in the eye. “After the match, and Hemi was one of them. Joann was just telling me, you know, the way you do. Chatting. Gossip.”
    “Oh.” Reka forced herself to start her packing again. “Well, I guess they do have some parties.”
    “I hate to tell you this,” Ana said. “Been asking myself over and over what the best thing is. But if it were me, if it were Joseph…And knowing what happened before.”
    “Just tell me,” Reka said, the cold beginning to seep in. “Come on.”
    “She said, Joann said her mate said, that it was late, and she thought Hemi’d gone. And then she was upstairs, in the toilet, and two girls came out of a bedroom. Half-dressed, she said. Talking about him. About…being with him, in there.”
    “Two girls,” Reka said, her hands still moving mechanically, heedless of the ice that had gripped her heart. “Not even one.”
    “Yeh. Well, he’s a sportsman,” Ana said. “Worse, he’s an All Black. Could be they all do it. Could be their partners just put up with it, who knows. But I thought you should know. I thought I should tell you. I’ll never forget how he saved Tai, and I’ll always be grateful to him for that. But…”
    “Yeh. Thanks.” Reka turned away, pulled another box towards her, and set her chin. “Let’s finish this. I have work tomorrow.”
    “And Hemi coming, don’t you?” Ana asked tentatively. “What are you going to say to him?”
    “Dunno. But I’m sure I’ll think of something.”

    She’d done it again, she raged at herself as she walked home across the garden, when she permitted herself the luxury of thinking about it, and wished she hadn’t. Let herself fall, just like the last time, just like she’d done so many times, and how stupid was she, tokeep making the same mistake over and over and over again? Falling for a handsome face and a fit body, mistaking heat for warmth, urgency for connection, and paying the price. Always paying the price, because