“Uncle Colt!”
I turned just in time to brace myself. Ocean hit me somewhere around the hip. I got my arm around him before I lost my footing completely.
“Hey, buddy. Where’s your sister?”
River came at a more measured pace across the patio.
“Hi, Colt,” she said shyly.
“Hey, River.”
“We found a jellyfish,” River said. “A dead one. It couldn’t hurt us.”
“How big?”
She spread her arms to a width that would have been impressive even for a living jellyfish. “This big. Mom made us leave it alone.”
“Mom was right.”
“I really wanted to touch it,” Ocean said.
“I’ll tell you what,” I said. “After dinner, if it’s still there, we’ll go look at it from a safe distance.”
Dinner was the kind of meal that took two hours to eat because nobody was in any hurry to stop talking. We haddragged extra chairs onto the back porch and set up the big table outside because the evening was too good to waste indoors. Summer was fading, and even though Southern California didn’t get cold, there was something about losing the long days.
I sat between Summer and River, which meant my left side was occupied by the woman I was in love with and my right side was occupied by a small person who kept stealing shrimp off my plate when she thought I wasn’t looking.
“How’s that shrimp?” I asked and looked at the little thief.
She chewed slowly. Swallowed. “Good,” she said.
I laughed. Summer was watching from my other side. I pointed at River’s plate.
“Eat your own,” I said. “I know where you live.”
River giggled and went back to her own food with complete shamelessness. I shook my head and reached for my drink.
By the time Becca started clearing plates, I felt like I’d won something. Some prize only a select few knew about. A prize given by life but it was never advertised. You just had to stumble into it. Once you found it, you won.
Gideon caught my eye across the table at one point. Just a look. The kind that said he saw everything. I held his gaze and nodded once. He nodded back. He knew exactly what that prize was. He’d found it once and it looked like he’d stumbled into it a second time.
I helped carry dishes inside and got shooed out of the kitchen by Becca, who told me I’d done enough and that she had a system. Summer appeared at my elbow with two glasses, a paper bag, and a look that said she had a plan.
“Beach?” she said quietly.
“Yeah.”
We grabbed two folding chairs from the rack on the side of the house. I carried them both down the path through the dune grass, Summer walking ahead of me with the wine glasses heldcarefully in both hands, her bare feet moving through the sand like she’d done this walk a million times before. She knew every inch of this place.
We set up at the waterline where the sand was still warm from the day but the breeze off the water was cool enough to make it perfect. The ocean was calm tonight. The small waves barely making a sound when they reached the shore. I stretched my legs out, crossing my ankles in the sand. She handed me my glass.
“Contraband,” she joked as she poured the wine into my glass, then hers.
“I think it’s smart you guys don’t drink in front of the kids,” I said.
“It’s not a forever thing,” she replied. “Just until the kids are a little older and feel settled. Comfortable. We don’t want them to ever feel like they’re in danger.”
“I get it. I’ll honor your wishes.”