“I’m good.”
“Yeah. Me too.”
“’Kay. I’ll be right back.”
Kevin found Brooke and Finn at various stages of getting ready for bed, but both close to being done. Their towels and swimsuits were hung up as requested. “Thanks for following my directions so well with the wet stuff. Why don’t you bring a blanket downstairs, just in case you get chilly? The sun will be down soon.”
“Will you read a story?” Finn asked.
“Sure. You can each bring a book down. I’ll see you in a few minutes.”
As Kevin walked down the stairs, he heard running water and the low tenor of conversation. Hugo and Summer were washing and drying dishes.
“You didn’t have to do that. I have a dishwasher.”
“It’s no problem,” Hugo said with a bright smile on his still-youthful face. “We’re both used to doing dishes by hand, and no one wants to face this right before bed or, even worse, in the morning.”
“True. Well, thanks. I appreciate the help. Just so you know, the little ones might be bringing a book or two downstairs for me to read.”
“Can I read to them?” Summer asked with enthusiasm.
Hugo hip-checked her and said, “Take all the fun, why don’t ya?”
“They’ll probably bring down more than one book, so I don’t think you two need to fight over it.”
Kevin liked how Hugo and Summer seemed so playful around each other. It was refreshing, but it made him a little sad too. Kevin didn’t have many friends he could relax around, let alone be so playful with. He had no one he could be so carefree around; most of his friends were more serious.
He sat there watching them and thinking about his last thought. Out of nowhere, the penny dropped. Although the last year after his dad’s death had been eye-opening time and time again, it surprised him, in yet another way, how like his father he was. Few friends. Most of Kevin’s social contacts were through work or the country club, like his father’s had been, but Kevin didn’t have siblings to rely on as his dad had. There were no calls to brothers or sisters when he needed an ear. He kept in contact with a few of the men he’d met in his parenting classes, like Mike, but he hadn’t seen most of them since classes ended. Facebook was it.
Kevin knew he’d need to fix this and somehow try to reconnect with some more friends. His entire social life while he was with Erin had been a couples social life, only doing things with other married people and eventually only married people who had kids close in age to his own. It was all so homogenous, much like the social network his dad had arranged for him as a kid before he moved to Austin and met Hugo. But having similar friends happened more out of necessity now; it was hard to spontaneously go out when you had little kids at home. That’s why Kevin had been so supportive of Erin getting out of the house in the last years. He knew she rarely had adult time that wasn’t child-focused. She’d finally found a group of friends who helped her see that her own identity aside from being a mom was important to nurture too. It was time Kevin did the same, branching out beyond his identity as a dad, a husband, and an employee.
“You okay?” Hugo asked.
Kevin looked up from the floor he’d, apparently, been staring at. “Yeah. I’m good.”
The kids trampled down the stairs like a herd of wild elephants. How two skinny kids could make that much noise always surprised Kevin.
“Go get settled on the love seats, and we’ll be out in a minute or two,” Kevin said as he started putting away the dishes Summer had dried.
On the deck, Kevin sat beside Finn, Brooke insisted Hugo sit beside her, and Summer seemed to feel right at home in a chair facing both love seats.
“You’ve got a little classroom set up right here at the lake,” Hugo teased. “You just can’t let the teacher persona go, can you? Pathetic.”
Summer mimed throwing a book at him but then sweetly smiled, showing the front of the book to the rest of them.
“
The Baffled Squirrel
by Patty Wentworth. Illustrated by Jameson Piedmont.”
Hugo and Finn started laughing, but it didn’t put Summer off. She simply looked at them and raised one brow in challenge, but that just made them laugh even harder. Ignoring them entirely, she began to read.
“There was nothing in the world that frightened Benedict. He was even known as Brave Benedict around his neighborhood and was often called upon to help his fellow squirrels solve very difficult problems. Problems like how to get to the tasty seeds inside Ms. Violet’s new bird feeder. No one knew if Ms. Violet was really her name, but the lady with the tricky bird feeder filled with the most delicious seeds in the neighborhood always grew violets near the squirrel’s favorite jumping tree, so that’s what they called her.”
Kevin watched his children’s faces as Summer continued to read the story about the ingenious squirrel who ran across tiny branches and leaped across impossibly large gaps to help his neighbors get to the tastiest seeds around. They were mesmerized because of the beautiful drawings in the book but also because of how Summer read it. She was engaging and brought the characters in the library book to life in a way Kevin had never learned to do.
“But even Brave Benedict couldn’t figure out how to get past Ms. Violet’s bird feeder baffle, and it started to really bother him. He had trouble sleeping, and food no longer sounded appetizing to him, not even the tasty, black seeds he knew Ms. Violet plucked from the center of the gigantic yellow flowers she grew. One day he nearly fell from a sturdy branch because he was thinking so hard about another way to solve the baffling problem rather than watching his step.”
The librarian had recommended the book to Kevin. He knew his children had trouble asking him for assistance at times, and he was looking for something to begin a conversation with them. Erin had been the parent they’d gone to when they needed help because she was ever-present, but after the separation, Kevin would find out about problems his children had encountered while at his house, but only
after
the fact. Rather than coming to him, they tried solving their own problems and would grow frustrated, but quietly so. When they were finally back with Erin, they would pour their hearts out to her. Thankfully, Erin talked to Kevin about the concerns without blaming him, and he’d been able to sit down with Brooke and Finn to talk about how he was there for them and would help in any way he could when Mom wasn’t around and even if she was. All they had to do was ask. The book was just another way to reinforce the message.
Going from having a dad who was barely around at all to completely relying on him for large chunks of time, minus the presence of their mom, was a huge transition for the kids. It hadn’t been easy for anyone, but it was getting better.
“The end,” Summer finished with a smile. Kevin realized he missed most of the story. “That was a really good book,” she said, looking at Kevin with approval.
“I can’t take credit for choosing it. Librarian.”
“They know their stuff. I think I’m going to buy this for the beginning of this next school year. So many of my students are afraid of asking for help in the first weeks. I think this might help them get over that hump quicker.”
Brooke yawned and scooted closer to Hugo, rubbing her head in his armpit like she always did to Kevin when getting comfortable. Hugo looked down and easily read what was happening, lifting his arm to allow her to slide closer.
Then it was Hugo’s turn to read. He opened the book Brooke had begun reading the night before and started a new chapter.
Finn laid his head in Kevin’s lap and pulled at his blanket, not quite able to get it as high as he’d like, so Kevin helped. He rested his hand on Finn’s lower back and started rubbing and patting in the soothing rhythm that always set him off to sleep.
Kevin found he was relaxing more by the second, in large part because of Hugo’s voice. He could see how Hugo made money narrating. His voice was smooth and rich, and he easily changed his intonation for each character, somehow cataloging the variations in his head so when he had to pull out that character’s voice again, it was done without a moment’s hesitation.
Finn’s muscles twitched, and Kevin looked down. Sure enough, he was out. Brooke wasn’t far from sleeping either. When Kevin looked at Summer, she was staring at Hugo with a dreamy smile on her pretty face. She caught Kevin’s eye and gave him the same smile before sighing contentedly.
Hugo finished the chapter and replaced the bookmark, looking down at Brooke. She looked up at him with sleepy eyes and thanked both Hugo and Summer for reading.
“Looks like the Pickle is down for the count. I’ll be right back,” Kevin whispered as he carefully extricated himself from Finn. “Let’s go, Olive,” Kevin said as he lifted the dead-to-the-world boy and carried him into the house, making sure Brooke followed. At the back door he stopped and waited for her as she gave Hugo and Summer each a hug, which was out of the ordinary. She was usually more reticent with physical affection. Kevin climbed the stairs and gently laid Finn in his bed where he watched his son contentedly snuggle into his pillow.
In Brooke’s room, he sat on the edge of her bed and pulled the covers up.
“Night, Olive.” He leaned in and gave her a kiss before moving away.
“Dad. Wait.”
“Yes?”
Brooke looked thoughtful, so Kevin went back and sat down on the edge of her bed, stroking her damp hair away from her face.
“I like Hugo and Summer. Do they have any kids?”
“No. No, honey.”
“Because they aren’t married? Are they going to get married?”
“They’re just best friends. And Hugo used to be my best friend when I was a teenager.”
“Good.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean good that they aren’t getting married.” Her cheeks flushed crimson beneath her pale skin, and Kevin looked at her askance. “Well, maybe I can marry him someday.” Brooke buried her face in her pillow which muffled, “He smells really good.”
Kevin had to agree, but he didn’t say so out loud.
“Well, whoever you marry, I hope he smells as good as Hugo. Now get some sleep. I love you.”
“Love you too, Dad.”
“Night.”
Feels Like the First Time
W
HEN
Kevin walked back outside to rejoin his guests, he noticed another person.
“Myles,” Kevin greeted his somewhat overly friendly neighbor. “Good to see you. Sorry I ran out on you so quickly the other night.”
“I understand you had some business with Summer’s Hugo here.”
“He’s not
my
Hugo. He’s just Hugo,” Summer argued.
Kevin laughed at both of them and looked to Hugo, who cocked his brow and tilted his head in a funny way as if to say,
Whatever, I won’t argue.
Kevin sat.
“Thanks for allowing me to steal him from you the other night,” Kevin started telling Myles, but his gaze slid back over to Hugo. “It was really good to see him after all these years, and we had a lot to catch up on. I’m actually hoping we can catch up some more in the near future.”
“How about right now?” Myles suggested. “Summer and I could go do something and give you two some more time to get reacquainted. Summer, would you like to head into town and play a round of mini-golf with me? They added lights so you can golf after dark now, and they just redid the entire course. It’s so much better than it used to be.”
Summer looked over at Hugo and seemed to have a silent conversation with him ending with her nodding and standing. “Sure. I’d love to. Kevin, I’m sure I’ll see you when we get back, but just in case plans change, I wanted to tell you it was really a pleasure to get to know you and Brooke and Finn.” She looked at Kevin directly in the eyes as she spoke and shook his hand. He stood, and she smiled. “Really.” She leaned in and kissed him on the cheek and whispered, “Be kind to him. His heart is easily broken.”
Kevin swallowed in a way he was sure resounded in the yard, but no one seemed to notice, aside from Summer.
“Shall we go, Myles?” She looked back over her shoulder as she walked and waved her fingers. “Toodles, Hugo.”
“Have fun,” Hugo said.
Several minutes of silence settled over the yard, and Kevin focused his attention on the waves on shore, which were almost quiet compared to earlier in the day, lapping rather than crashing. The night seemed calm and serene with a gentle breeze that carried the heat away just enough to be comfortable in a short-sleeve shirt and a swimsuit, which neither man had bothered to change out of.
“You were great with my kids tonight,” Kevin said to break the silence, which wasn’t uncomfortable, but since he was leaving the lake the following day, he didn’t want to waste what precious time they had together by not talking. “Thanks for that.”
“I didn’t do anything special, just played and talked to them.”
“Well, I saw something special happen. They like you. A lot. Summer too. Brooke asked if you two were getting married and was relieved when I said no. I think Brooke might have a little crush on you.”
“Oh no.”
“Don’t worry. Crushes at ten last about two weeks at most. At least with real people. Now if you were a member of a boy band or a young actor, it could go on for possibly six months or a year, if you’re lucky.”
Hugo chuckled and stood up, grabbing Kevin’s hand and pulling him down toward the water. They stood on the sand with the water covering their ankles, looking out at the darkness of the lake.
“I was going to ask you something. You called Brooke Olive?”
“Yeah. Her nickname. When she was a toddler she was a fanatic about black olives. We probably should’ve invested in an olive farm at the rate she went through them. All ten fingers were perpetually covered with black olives. Erin joked that she was going to turn into one soon, so one day we started calling her Olive. It just stuck. And when Finn was the same way about pickles, we just naturally started calling him Pickle. The condiment kids.”
“That’s an adorable story.”
“Every parent has silly stories like that.”
Hugo shrugged and squeezed Kevin’s hand. “I don’t know a lot of parents.” His voice sounded odd, but Kevin couldn’t place the emotion.