Declan claps his hands.
“He loves surfers. We watch them on the beach in San Francisco every weekend,” Zoey tells us. “I can’t get him to watch two seconds of a hockey game. Even when I tell him Daddy is on the ice.”
“So we raise a surfer not a hockey player,” Jude says with a shrug. “As Dad would say, ‘As long as they’re happy, we’re happy.’”
As we all head to the beach, minus Holden because I make him take a nap so he his flu doesn’t get worse, I’m struck by how much like Dad Jude is. I never realized it before. Yes, he and Dixie look the most like him, physically, but I never really stopped to notice the other ways they were like him. Jude, right now, with Declan, is Dad reincarnated. And it doesn’t make me cry. It fills me with joy.
So much joy, I’m almost drunk on it and I reach over and hug my brother while we watch Declan play chicken with waves as they roll up toward him. Jude hugs me back and lets out a shocked laugh. “What the hell is that for?”
“For being a good dad,” I reply. “And a decent brother. But trust me, you won’t hear that again so enjoy it.”
“You’re a good sister too,” Jude replies, and I act like I’m flabbergasted, gasping loudly and smacking my chest with my hand. “Even if you run away from home and hook up with my employees.”
I push my hair back from my face as the wind picks up. “I hooked up with my teenage nemesis. That’s even worse.”
“Yeah, it would be if he was still old Holden,” Jude says. “But he clearly isn’t.”
“You knew that.”
“Nah, I didn’t. I took a bit of a risk when I hired him.” Jude shoves his hands in the pockets of his jeans. “But if you fell in love with him, then I know he’s a good guy, just like I thought. You’ve always been an incredible judge of character.”
I smile proudly at that. Jude and I aren’t usually the type to have moments like this, and I suddenly find myself hoping that changes. This should be the first of many. He leaves my side and begins chasing Declan around the beach. Zoey comes over and gives me a side hug. “You’re good?”
“I’m getting there.”
“So is Jude. But he worries about you,” Zoey says as the wind twist and twirls her auburn hair off her shoulders.
“I don’t worry about him because he has you,” I say as Declan claps when a surfer glides across the water on a white tipped wave. “And he doesn’t have to worry about me because I have Holden now.”
“I need to hear more about this,” Zoey says, smiling. “He used to scare the shit out of me and I didn’t scare easy. But the guy I met today, he is definitely different.”
I nod. “I was thinking we could have a barbecue tonight and maybe invite his sister and her son. I have to tutor him this afternoon, so they’ll already be here.”
“I don’t see why not,” Zoey replies.
Everything is perfect for the rest of the day. Zoey, Jude and Declan take a nap after lunch. Holden rests most of the day, but I can see him getting stronger every time I check on him. This flu is definitely on its way out.
After their nap, Jude takes Declan on a nature walk through the woods while Zoey and I do a grocery run for barbecue supplies. At the store, Zoey asks me if I want red or white wine with dinner and it makes me realize it’s been days since I had a drink. That’s normal. Before my dad died I didn’t drink a lot—definitely not a bottle a night. I’m back to normal…but yet I’m different.
When Bradie and Duke show up, I invite them for dinner and Bradie accepts. She hangs out in the cottage with Holden and everyone else while I tutor Duke in the trailer. When he’s done with his homework and aced the fractions flash cards I’ve been doing with him, I decide to let the cat out of the bag.
“You know who is inside my cottage right now?” I ask him.
“Holden,” he replies innocently.
“Holden and my brother, Jude.”
Duke looks stunned. “What? Really? Jude Braddock?”
“Yep.”
“Can I meet him? Please?” He is bouncing in his seat and it makes me laugh.
“Of course,” I say and stand up so he can slide out of the bench behind the table to stand too. “In fact, you and your mom are going to stay and have dinner with him, and us.”
“This is the best day of my life!” Duke proclaims and then he hugs me, so hard and fierce that he almost knocks me backward.
“Come on.” I open the trailer door and he jumps out and scrambles up the steps to the cottage as fast as his legs will take him.
