“Beck and I never really got to work with Dad, you know. To you and maybe to Gray, maybe this is a legacy you’re carrying on, but to Beck and me, it’s been us. The four of us, working together.”
“He’s got a point,” Gray said. “Dad was a builder and we learned the ropes with him, doing jobs around town. He kept a roof over our heads and we learned to pound nails. He was a good man and a good provider. But this…this company with the excellent reputation—the company that’s known throughout New England as the guys you want if you have a summer place in this area—that’s us. You came in and you kept it going as we came up, and together we’ve built something Dad would be damn proud of. Butwedid it.”
Nick swallowed the lump of emotion in his throat and had to blink a couple of times to clear his vision. “We did.”
“Plus, you don’t look old enough to be our dad, and the name really confuses people,” Theo yelled down.
Nick laughed while Gray tried not to choke on the mouthful of beer he’d been in the process of swallowing. There was a time, when Theo was very young, that he’d actually thought his middle name wasyou’re too much.
“Theo, you’re too much,” was something almost every single resident of Wayward Harbor had said to the youngest Slater at some point in his life.
“We’ll need new hoodies,” Nick yelled back. “And if we can spend money rebranding the company, we sure as hell can afford to get the original supplier back.”
“Done,” Theo called, and then they heard his window slam closed.
Gray snorted. “Remember the time he leaned too far out the window, trying to eavesdrop on our parents, and he fell out of the window, rolled down the porch roof and fell into the rosebush?”
“I remember it took Mom, like, an hour to pick the thorns out of him with tweezers because he wouldn’t sit still.”
They sat in silence for a few minutes, listening to the night sounds, and then Nick pushed himself out of the chair. “It’s been a long day, so I’m heading up.”
“Don’t forget to brush your teeth again.”
“Funny.”
“And Nick,” Gray said as he was pulling open the screen door, “we all know we can lean on you. Do all of us a favor and figure out you can lean onus, too, okay? And if there’s something you want, go after it. We’ve got you.”
That lump in his throat was back, so he just nodded and went back inside.
Chapter Twenty-One
Did anybody else get a scone from Scuttlebutt, Spirits & Scones this morning? Mine tasted weird.
First comment: Mine, too, and they’re usually so delicious!
Willow Brown: I’m so sorry! My shelves got moved around and I accidentally used the wrong ingredient. Please stop by anytime and have a delicious one on the house!
Third comment: Did you make Lavinia mad again?
—Wayward Harbor Online Community Group
“Ijust want to say that woman in the pictures did nothing wrong. I knew she didn’t recognize me, and I gave her my middle name. I deliberately misled her, and even though drinking that coffee in public was our only interaction, I know she was harassed online. I can only apologize for the harm my actions caused her.”
Lucy snorted and handed Taylor’s phone back to her. Reese Noonan’s public statement was too little and too late.
“It won’t change anything that happened, but maybe it’ll help going forward,” Willow said. “Trolls are bored by personal responsibility, so they’ll move on to somebody else, and you’ll be free to start over in Miami.”
Miami.
At some point during the night, while watching her tree twinkle away the darkness instead of sleeping, Lucy had finally admitted to herself why barely half of her stuff was packed and she still hadn’t messaged Sydney to ask her to get the spare room ready and give her an ETA.
Once she left Wayward Harbor, her relationship with Nick would be over. And maybe he’d never held her hand in public or put a label on what was between them, but that didn’t change the fact it was real.
She loved him. And she didn’t want to leave him.
But she couldn’t stay if he didn’t feel the same. It would hurt too much.
The one thing Lucy knew for sure was that if Nick asked her to stay in Wayward Harbor, she would.