“What in the world are you doing up there so early, sweetie?”
She sighed. “Thinking.”
Praying. Trying to gather the courage to reach for a life full of the adventures she’d once dreamed about. But she didn’t say that to her mom. She couldn’t. PKs didn’t do that sort of thing, after all.
“Your father said something about going to Assateague today. You want to join us?”
Assateague meant the beach, climbing the redbrick lighthouse again, and at the Island Creamery, eating the best ice cream on the peninsula. “Coming.”
She hurried down the stairs. A perfect day spent with those she loved most. She loved Mondays.
* * *
Pulling into the driveway, Jax immediately glanced next door. Darcy’s SUV was parked there, but her father’s compact car was missing. No signs of life at the bungalow.
But it was Monday, of course. Darcy’s favorite day. His lips curved, and his gaze skirted to the backyard oak, its branches visible above the roof of the house.
“Gwandma?” Brody piped from his car seat.
Jax’s mother stepped onto the porch and waved. He’d spent the day fleshing out his ideas for expanding the business, while Brody sat in front of the television set.
He unhooked Brody’s harness. Not good parenting, but when he’d tried initiating a game of catch, his son had refused. Without Darcy, Jax remained a no-go with Brody.
When his grandfather came outside, Brody went ballistic with sheer joy. The toddler was glad to see everyone—anyone—but his dad. The optimism Jax had felt only last night faded.
He had a long way to go before he earned Brody’s trust. Jax’s gaze flitted toward the tree house again. A long way before he regained Darcy’s trust, too.
Throughout dinner, his attention wandered. Anna, her husband, Ryan, and their baby daughter had also come for the impromptu cookout. The backyard buzzed with the soft, fluted tones of his mother, sister and Charlie’s wife, Evy.
Grandpa Everett had a surprise gift for Brody. His tanned little legs pumping the pedals, Brody rode the new Big Wheel along the brick path. Baby Ruby happily rocked in the baby swing Evy kept for her. Charlie and their dad speculated which pitcher would lead the Nationals to a victorious season.
Jax’s thoughts were next door as they’d often been the last summer he lived here. When car lights swept the Parks’s driveway, he swallowed against a rush of feeling, refusing to give in to the clamoring of his pulse.
He rested his hands on his stomach, his feet crossed at the ankles, a picture of nonchalance. But he didn’t fool his mother. He never had.
Anna’s family left soon after. Charlie and his dad went inside to watch the last inning of the game. And Evy begged for the honor of giving Brody a bath before putting him in the Spider-Man pajamas Jax had brought, anticipating a late night out.
No skin off his nose if she wanted to grapple with his son in the bathtub. But Brody would probably be a perfect child for everyone except his father.
Jax started to help his mother clear the table, but she shooed him away. “I got this.” Her gaze slid next door. “I’m sure you can think of something to do with yourself for a little while.”
It was his mom who’d asked him to go invite the little girl next door to join them for freezer pops that long-ago day. The lime-green had been Jax’s personal favorite, but thereafter, he’d given it up for Darcy.
His mother stacked a few plates. “Probably lots to discuss. Among other things.” She gave him a sweet smile. “You two were thick as thieves, especially that last summer.”
Jax flushed. His mother had known about that, too? He’d been eager to take on the world. Yet despite his outward bravado, he’d been inwardly conflicted about leaving home. Not unlike most eighteen-year-olds, he supposed.
His mother nudged him. “Back where you began. Best place to start.”
Maybe she was right. Maybe if he really hoped to start over, he had to begin where he’d left off. Where everything had unknowingly derailed for him.
Bypassing the abandoned Big Wheel, he stuffed his hands in his pockets as he tromped across the grass. Darcy didn’t give herself enough credit. With her get-over-yourself common sense, he’d felt safe confiding his secret fears and aspirations.
He’d told Darcy things he’d never understood about himself until he heard the words coming out of his mouth. She was a good listener, easy to be with and fun.
Still a girl, though, and other than the dude Anna constantly hung out with in those days, his sister’s best friend. Anna had eventually found happiness with that dude, Ryan Savage, but only after intense heartache due to the too-young death of her first husband.
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