Half an hour later, my new drawers are filled with my belongings. Decorative plants and lamps are arranged on top, and my room looks cosier, brighter, and effortlessly charming, exactly as I imagined it, all thanks to the man who has gone above and beyond to help bring my vision to life.
“I don’t know how I’ll ever thank you enough, Kaden… and you too, Jason,” I say, glancing between the two of them. “Everything I could ever hope for has been made possible because of you. I’m so deeply grateful—I truly don’t know how I could ever repay you.”
“Well, all that work has built up quite an appetite. Perhaps we can all go out for something to eat?” Kaden says.
“Or… you guys could stay for dinner, and I could whip up a nice homecooked meal for us,” I suggest instead.
“Can never so no to a homecooked meal,” Jason says.
Kaden smiles and nods. “Count us all in.”
I get straight to work in the kitchen, preparing my beef and mushroom pie—a trusty family recipe that never fails any guests. Meanwhile, the boys have taken over the living room, constructing what can only loosely be called a city with Zac’s magnetic blocks. From the sounds of hysterical laughter,playful shouting, and the occasional crash, I’m guessing it’s… coming along… mostly intact.
I’m rolling the pastry dough into the pie dish when heavy footsteps approach from behind. Assuming it’s Kaden, coming to check that I haven’t burned the kitchen down, I turn, only to find Jason standing on the other side of the island.
“Need a hand?” he asks, hands buried deep in his pockets.
I glance over my shoulder at the meat filling cooling in the pan, then down at the pastry before meeting his gaze. “Um… I think I’ve got it covered. You just go on and relax.”
“I’m kind of banned from the living room. They kicked me off the team because my gorilla-hands kept knocking the blocks over.”
A soft chuckle escapes me. “Well, happy for you to join me.” I motion to one of the bar stools, and he sinks comfortably into the chair.
“Can I get you something to drink? I don’t have any beer, but I have sparkling water, peach iced-tea, and some orange juice.”
“I’ll have a peach iced tea, if that’s alright?”
I nod and head straight to the fridge, grabbing a bottle of iced tea and sliding it over to him. He twists off the lid and takes a hearty sip. I return to the stove, pouring the meat filling into the pie dish and carefully rolling the pastry over the top, sealing the edges with a fork. After brushing it with egg wash and cutting a few small slits to let the steam escape, I slide the pie into the oven to bake for thirty minutes. All the while, I could feel Jason’s gaze on me.
When I turn back around, ready to wipe down the countertop, Jason clears his throat and shifts slightly in his chair.
“I’ve been meaning to talk to you… properly. In private. But it feels like there’s never a right moment, is there?” he says quietly.
“Oh? What did you want to talk about?”
He briefly looks over his shoulder at Kaden, stretched out on his stomach on the rug, the boys sprawled opposite him, fully absorbed in a game of Snap after abandoning the magnetic blocks.
“I guess I just wanted to get to know the person my best friend seems to be spending a lot of his time with. And I don’t mean that in an overprotective way. In fact, I love seeing the friendship you two have built. I’ve never seen him so...different. So determined. So hopeful. So happy.
“He’s come a long way from the man who showed up on my doorstep almost two years ago—broken and on the verge of giving up on life. I’ve known him since we were kids, and we’ve stood by each other throughout the years. I’ve watched him get up to all kinds of mischief, give generously to others, fall in love, reach success in his career, and help raise my son as if he were his own.”
I gaze down at the cloth in my hand, my fingers curling into the fabric as I listen quietly to Jason speak about his friend with such warmth and pride. If anyone understands Kaden better than himself, it’s the man sitting right across from me.
“I love him like a brother. He’ll always be family to me. And just like all families, they’re bound to disappoint you sometimes. He’s made terrible choices in the past—choices that have hurt some people. But I also stood by as his own heart was shattered by a painful betrayal. And the hardest part of it all, was watching him spiral to the point he was slowly killing himself.”
Those last few words echo in the air between us, and suddenly, I’m struggling to swallow and breathe.I knew Kaden had suffered too; I just hadn’t understood how deep it ran. I stay silent, sensing Jason isn’t finished just yet.
“Kaden is far from perfect—just like the rest of us. But what most people don’t see is the guilt, and the deep, relentless remorse that consumed him when he betrayed his wife and destroyed his marriage. They don’t see the agony he carried when he learned that the baby he had loved from the moment she was born was never his. He had lost everything he once cherished, enough to strip any man not only of his hope, but of himself as well.”
The thought of Kaden enduring loss after loss, then slowly losing all hope and reason to live, sends an all-consuming ache deep in my chest. Unshed tears gather in my eyes, and the struggle to hold them back falters, until they slip unbidden down my cheeks.
“Every morning, I woke up with the same fear—that me or Jake would find him lifeless and unresponsive in my guest bed. That the day would finally come when I lost him for good.” He shakes his head, as if trying to dislodge thememory from his mind. “There were a few times I thought I already had. I felt helpless… like I couldn’t reach him anymore. And I knew threatening him with rehab wouldn’t fix it. It would only push him further away.
“But somehow—miraculously—he found his way out on his own. I don’t know what the tipping point was, or what finally pushed him to turn his life around, but one day he came to me and said he was going to get professional help. That he was going to work his damn hardest to do better—to be better. And he meant every word. He got the help he so desperately needed. However hard it was, he showed up. He did the work. He made real progress. And he hasn’t let me down since.”
“Is there a reason why you’re telling me all of this?”
“Because it may not seem obvious to you right now, but that man back there,” he gestures towards Kaden, who’s being playfully wrestled to the ground by two hyperactive boys, their laughter and shrieks filling the room, making both Jason and me smile with warmth.
