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“Sorry about that, Louie.”
“About what?”
“Leaving the way I did.”
He shook his head and patted her hand.
“Thanks, Louie.”
“Who’s Brodie?” Jamison asked on their drive home.
“He’s Kade’s brother.”
“Oh.”
“I miss Kade,” Finn said from the rear passenger seat.
“I do too, buddy.” Peyton looked over at Jamison sitting next to her. “You okay?”
“Miss him too,” Jamison whispered.
“It’s okay to feel sad, Jamie. You too, Finn. I do.”
“Maybe Brodie will wanna hang out with us,” Finn suggested.
Peyton cringed but had to admit she’d momentarily thought the same thing.
“Don’t be dumb,” Jamison scolded his brother.
“Hey, now. There’s nothing wrong with wishing someone could replace someone else you lost, although it rarely works out. We loved being with Kade, and we miss him. We wish he was still here, but he isn’t, and his brother is. Remember they’re two different people, Finn.” Peyton glanced over her shoulder to make sure he was paying attention.
He was looking out the window. “I get it, Mom.”
When it came time for bed, Finn didn’t want her to read a story. He wanted her to tell him about Kade. Some of the stories she told were real, and some were embellished. To Finn, Kade would always be the superhero who saved the world from the bad guys.
Reading with him was one of the things she missed most. They’d shared a love of it. They could sit in the same room for hours, both with books in hand, no conversation necessary between them. When he’d leave on a mission, Peyton read whatever he left behind. His taste in literature had been vastly different than hers, but she’d learned a lot about him, and what he did, from the novels he chose to read. Some of the stories she told Finn came from them.
When she checked on Jamison after Finn fell asleep, she found him asleep too.
Her boys needed a man in their lives. They had her dad, but they only saw him on the weekends. She thought about living in the guesthouse full time, but the forty-five-minute commute every morning and night would wear her out. She could hardly manage the five-minute drive home after the tasting room closed.
After washing her face, brushing her teeth, and climbing into bed, Peyton closed her eyes and pictured Brodie sitting on the boulder on Moonstone Beach.
He couldn’t have been waiting for her. Couldn’t have known she’d decide to take a walk after she stormed out on Alex. So what had brought him to the spot where she and Kade often sat and watched the sunset?
She drifted to sleep, and unlike every other night, when she dreamed about Kade, tonight she dreamed about Brodie instead.
The next morning, while she was making breakfast for Jamison and Finn, her phone pinged with a text alert. It was a message from Brodie, asking if he could see her today.
Why?
I’d like to talk to you.
Not sure.
She thought it over for a few minutes, then sent a text to Alex, asking if she’d mind if Peyton skipped their morning run.
Morning what? her friend replied, then added, JK, you know I’d rather sleep.
