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He had an idea of her destination, but he wouldn’t follow. It wouldn’t be fair, especially since he’d seen firsthand how close to the surface her pain sat.
Brodie returned inside and ordered a pastry and a cup of coffee from the bakery. Rather than go home, he drove across the highway, parked on Moonstone Beach Road, and sat watching waves crash on the shore.
There were surfers out this morning, waiting to catch a ride in the bone-chilling Pacific Ocean. Even in a full wetsuit, Brodie wouldn’t have joined them. Maybe he would’ve ten years ago, but when he surfed now, he preferred the warmer water found a couple of hours south, closer to Santa Barbara.
“Don’t be a pussy,” his brother Maddox had said the first time Kade invited him along to their favorite surf spot.
Kade had smacked Mad that day and told him to leave Brodie alone. He’d glared at Naughton too, daring him to tease their youngest brother.
Kade was nine years older than him, six years older than Naughton, and three years older than Maddox. Brodie was twelve the first time his brothers had brought him along on the forty-five-minute drive from their ranch on Adelaida Trail, over the rolling hills of Highway 46, to Moonstone Beach.
“He watches, Kade. You don’t take your brother in when it’s nigh fifty degrees in that water.”
Kade had winked at Brodie. “Yes, Ma.”
His brother had been home on leave for two weeks and was flying out again the next morning. Brodie had begged Kade to let him go with them. The words he’d said to him that day would haunt him in the years that followed.
“I never know if you’re coming back. You promised to teach me to surf. What if this is our only chance?” It made him sick to recall his callousness. He was only thankful his mother hadn’t heard.
The first time Brodie had heard Kade mention retirement was after he’d been seeing Peyton for several months. For three years, his rotation had been two months on, two months off. It became increasingly difficult for him to return to duty when his two-month leave came to an end. The mission was no longer his top priority. Peyton and her two sons had become more important to him.
Brodie scrolled through the photos on his phone, looking for the last one with all his siblings. His father had taken it the Christmas before last. Two months later, his parents answered their door and heard the devastating news every parent with a son or daughter serving in the military prayed they’ll never hear. Kade had been killed in action.
Brodie considered looking through the contents of the box his mother wanted him to deliver, but he didn’t. It felt too much like an invasion of their privacy. Instead, he got out of his truck, took the rickety steps down to the beach, and sat on one of the boulders dotting the shoreline.
The cold wind and sand stung his face, and he buried his hands in his jacket pockets. It was many degrees warmer at his family’s ranch, forty miles inland, but today, he welcomed the chill of the ocean air washing over him. It reminded him he was alive. His brother wasn’t, but he was, and that meant he had a promise to fulfill.
Brodie glanced up and saw a black BMW pull into the parking lot at the opposite end of Moonstone Beach. It was a common car in the little seaside village, but there was no mistaking the woman who climbed out of it.
He watched Peyton take the steps leading from the asphalt lot down to the beach. When she reached the area near him, he waved. Surprisingly, she waved too. More surprisingly, she approached.
“I owe you an apology,” she said. “I could give some lame excuse, but the bottom line is, I was rude to you, and I’m sorry.”
“I’m sorry too, Peyton. I honestly didn’t expect to run into you at the market.”
Rather than at him, Peyton looked out at the sea. “I’m sure you think I shouldn’t act this way.”
“Your reaction is none of my business.” Brodie wished he could see her eyes. Even if she’d look in his direction, her dark sunglasses hid them from view.
“Kade made our ma promise I’d deliver this to you if anything happened to him.” Brodie pointed to the plain cardboard box sitting on the ground near his feet.
Peyton put her hands in her jacket pockets. For a minute, he thought she’d walk away again. Instead, she leaned against another boulder.
“I know it makes me seem like a terrible person, but I don’t want it.”
“You might change your mind someday.”
“Your brother knew me well enough—at least I thought he did—to not do this.”
Brodie waited to see if she’d continue. They sat in silence but for the steady rhythm of the waves.
She took several deep breaths, but didn’t speak, so he did. “Tell me why he wouldn’t have done this, Peyton.”
He watched as she took three more very-intentional deep breaths, then turned to face him. Again, he waited for her to speak, and again, she remained silent.
Finally, Peyton shrugged her shoulders and stood. “I’ll see ya around, Brodie.”
He didn’t follow her down the path and didn’t move from his spot until long after he saw her drive toward the highway that would take her back to town.
