Chapter Fifty-Two #2
“Hid in the castle.”
“Hid,” Hailey repeats, her eyes widening on me, then her brother.
“For fun,” I say fast. “Hide-and-seek.”
Hailey eases.
Rocky leans on the checkout counter, looking between us too intrusively before the door dings.
“Daddy!” Winter bounds over to Jake. He’s carrying white paper bags with the Seaside Griddle logo and a lilac box of donuts. I quickly snatch them.
“Thanks, Phoebe,” Jake says before lifting Winter up, her arms already outstretched to him. Almost instantly she sinks her head against the crook of his neck. He sways her side to side so soothingly. Like he’s done since she was a baby.
She’s not bouncing around or squirming. I swear she’s this little quiet angel when she’s with Jake, especially when she’s reading with Hailey.
He leans down just to kiss Hailey in a tender hello. He whispers something to her, and Hails nods back with a little red flush. I love that my best friend got her romance. Times two.
As Jake straightens up, a protective hand on Winter’s back, the little girl looks like she’s being lulled to sleep on his chest.
I put the bags and donut box near the register. “You have to be giving her to us coked out on sugar.”
Hailey plucks a fairy-tale children’s book from the shelf. “She’s feeding off your energy.”
“We’re calm,” Rocky and I say in unison, to which Jake and Hailey look at us like we’re deranged.
We’re not high-strung. We are very mellow. Chill.
No time for them to put up a strong rebuttal, the doors chime as Trevor pushes into the store with a blonde girl in four-inch heels and the cutest baby-pink minidress.
Sidney Burke.
Yes, they are still together. Not only does she work full-time at Victoria Weekly, she lives with Trevor in the apartment across from the movie theater.
While I go behind the checkout counter, she immediately approaches me and throws a white Chanel purse on the surface. “Skank.”
“Bitch.” I unearth a pair of red Jimmy Choos from under the counter. We return our previously borrowed items. Strangely, we wear the same shoe size. More strangely, we are very good friends.
I would have never, ever, ever imagined I’d be close with Trevor’s girlfriend, but the more she hung around while Trevor had been living in the loft with me and Rocky, the more we just kind of…
clicked. There was also one tearful night when she opened up and even apologized to Rocky for coming on to him so hard.
The two of us had a major heart-to-heart that ended with tissues, a bottle of Pinot Grigio, and a burnt sheet of chocolate chip cookies that set off the fire alarm.
“You on for cocktails tomorrow night?” Sidney asks. “Val said she can come.” Valentina de la Vega also works at the paper.
“Yeah, I can make it.”
“Hailey?” Sidney asks. “Girls’ night. Cocktails at the Gulp?”
“I’ll be there.” Hailey flips through a kids’ book, but she’s smiling at the pages.
I feel that same smile in me. We’ve never stayed anywhere long enough to form bonds outside of each other, let alone being allowed to be honest to cultivate them.
For the first time, we’ve made a couple lasting friendships.
“Me too, Mommy?” Winter asks expectantly.
“Next time, Win.” Hailey smiles, pressing the book against her Black Sabbath tee and giving her daughter all her attention. “You’ll be right alongside Mommy.”
Winter smiles up at her dad and whispers too loudly, “I love Mommy.”
“Me too, baby,” he says, his blue eyes lovingly on Hails.
“Shoot.” Sidney checks the time on her phone. “I have to go, Trev. Late for work.” She swipes the heels, then kisses Trevor. He catches her hand, making her slow down, and he gives her a much longer kiss, which causes her to smile.
Cute, cute, cute. I can cop to it. Trevor might have some moves, but even thinking about them makes me want to hurl a little.
It’s not even that he’s young, because he’s not. He’s twenty-two now. It’s just…that’s Trevor. After Sidney leaves, Rocky asks his brother about his job.
A normal, ordinary kind of job.
Trevor has been refurbishing some boats at the marina for fun. He’s always been a tinkerer. Fabricating money boxes and such. Rocky loves that his little brother has chosen to fix things rather than destroy them.
Nova barrels into the bookstore like he’s escaping a zombie apocalypse. “There are way too many fucking people out there.”
“It’s summer,” we all say.
I go to the merch wall. “You just need a Jason Voorhees machete.” I pluck off the plastic weapon. “Tell the sweaty zombies to fuck off.”
“Fuck!” Winter shouts.
I point at Nova.
He points right at me.
“You said it first,” I contend.
He groans out, “Fuuu…dge.”
“Nice save, Winchester,” Rocky says with one clap.
Now Hailey points at her brother. “You are just as bad.”
“What?” Rocky grimaces, then turns to Trevor, who’s nodding while stabbing his pancakes. “Oh come on, I’m not that fucking—”
“Ah.” I point my fake machete at him.
“Fine. Whatever.” The three of us might have been born inside a swear jar.
Winter waves heartily at Nova until he acknowledges her with a nod and a “How you doing, Winter?”
“Happy, happy,” she says certainly.
Nova gets soft and reddened in the eye. It’s probably why she often tells him, “Happy, happy.” I think she knows it makes her big strong uncle ooey-fucking-gooey.
“Was the boat ride almost teary, teary?” Hailey asks me, knowing it can go in either direction.
“Meh, she was fine.” I hang up the machete and grab a plastic wooden stake out of a bin near the Buffy merch. Then the bell dings.
Oliver pushes inside with two trays of coffees and a contagious smile. Realizing we’re all here, he grins. “Saved the best entrance for last.”
Hailey collects the trays from him, and she rises on the tips of her toes to kiss Oliver. He nuzzles extra-playful kisses in her hair. So sweet and endearing that she has trouble hiding a smile.
Winter wiggles down her dad’s body. “Uncle Olly!” She circles Oliver’s legs with bright giggles.
“She’s moving so fast, I can barely see her,” Oliver says. “Whoa. Whoa. She’s no match for me though. I’m gonna get her.” She shrieks into belly laughter before he’s even snatched her around the waist. He holds her upside down. Her pigtails flopping.
She’s grinning from ear to ear.
“Anyone seen Winnie?” He looks around, swinging her side to side. “Where’d she go?”
“I’m right here!”
“Oh my gosh. There she is. An upside-down creature.”
“Girl,” she corrects.
“A girl.” He gasps. “I’ve never heard of a girl before.”
“Mommy’s a girl.”
“That’s right.” He tickles her toes. “How clever you are.”
She giggles so happily.
I like looking over at Jake whenever Oliver is with his daughter. He wears this soft reverence in his eyes that even the best con artists would have trouble manufacturing.
Once Oliver sets her down, she tugs on his pant legs. He squats to her height. “Yes, baby?” She hugs him extra tight, then whispers in his ear. He holds her little hand and asks, “You know where it is?” She nods. “Okay, go find it. Hurry.”
Winter races down the aisle. We all keep one eye on her, even if we’re acting like we’re not.
Oliver goes to the checkout. “Another one bites the dust, apparently,” he says, plucking a coffee out of the tray. He hands it to Jake. “The van Hoffs just moved out of the Burkes’ house.”
I didn’t love oh-so-very-snooty Mrs. van Hoff, who had far too many “suggestions” to “improve” Victoria Country Club, so I’m not incredibly heartbroken. Still…“That’s the fifth family that’s moved in and out.”
“Cursed.” Rocky raises and lowers his brows.
“Bad energy, probably,” Oliver says, hanging an arm around Jake and sipping his own coffee. No one mentions the third family we ran out of Victoria. They made the van Hoffs look saintly.
Trevor washes down his pancakes with coffee before saying, “Tear it down.”
“It’s one of the historic homes,” Jake says. “It can’t be demolished.”
Rocky tips his head. “We could if it has a rotten foundation.”
“But it doesn’t.”
“Obviously.” Rocky blinks hard with widened eyes of annoyance. “We could say it did.”
“No,” Jake decrees.
Oliver grins over at him. “So honest. So pure.”
“Not a bad thing,” Jake replies. None of us disagree.
Jake and Oliver have this intense stare-down that ends with Jake clasping my brother’s jaw and stealing a strong kiss.
I smile, especially seeing Oliver grin against Jake’s lips. If anyone asks them what they are—which they inevitably do—the three will simply say they’re life partners.
She’s still Hailey Thornhall, and Jake was adamant that he didn’t want Winter to be a Koning or Waterford on paper. Despite the prestige of being a Koning, he’d rather not saddle her with a name related to a family that he never cared for.
They landed on Winter Thornhall. A name so fake sounding to me that I instantly fell in love the second Hailey said it.
Especially because it’s real.
Winter comes racing back with the little book, but instead of veering straight for Oliver, she skids to a stop in front of Trevor first. She hugs his legs, then he crouches down and feeds her a tiny piece of pancake.
“Mmmmm,” she says to him with a gleeful scrunched nose, then opens her mouth wide for another bite. I’m not sure who loves Seaside Griddle’s sweet potato pancakes more. Her or Trevor.
Rocky catches my attention as he leans too confidently, too coolly, too darkly against the checkout counter. Arms loosely crossed. He’s hot.
And perfectly unsuspecting prey.
I twirl my plastic stake like I’m Buffy as I stalk toward him. “You won’t see me coming,” I warn.
“Because my eyes aren’t right on you,” he says.
“You better watch out.”
“I’m terrified,” he deadpans.
I whirl around in a cool maneuver, about to stake him in the heart, but Rocky disarms me so quickly by seizing my wrist and spinning me around. Just as swiftly, he pulls my back against his chest and cages my arms against my breasts with his flexed biceps.
My pulse spikes in the best way, and I’m glad my back is to him because my grin is too fucking wide. I naturally rest my weight against my Rocky, and his arms stay wrapped so tightly around me.
His Phoebe.
Not letting go.
We end up staying in this protective, loving embrace while Winter licks her syrupy lips and returns to Hailey. She waits patiently for her mom to take her hand, then they sit on the floor together. Winter scoots between her mom’s legs as Hailey opens the little picture book the toddler found.
As soon as Hailey sees the book, she looks up at Oliver with raised brows, both of them pierced. Yes, she wears most of her piercings. “This one again?”
“Can’t knock a girl for loving spiders, Hailstorm.”
That makes us all smile in a way.
Winter already starts to sing, “The itsy bitsy…” She trails off, waiting for more of us to join in so she’s not all alone, and we collectively carry the tune of “The Itsy Bitsy Spider”—some more theatrically than others. Rocky is practically monotone.
“…spider climbed up the waterspout,” I sing, doing the hand movements with Winter and Hails. “Down came the rain and washed the spider out.”
Winter’s favorite part comes next. She stretches her arms in the air. “Out came the sun and dried up all the rain!”
“And the itsy bitsy spider climbed up the spout again,” we sing and then clap and holler like it’s the best damn song of this generation.
Don’t let him fool you; Rocky is very happy. We all really, really are, and it becomes even clearer, more vivid, more burrowing when Hailey asks Winter, “How old are you?”
“Two and a…a half!”
My smile hurts.
“Can you tell everyone your name?”
“Winter.” She looks up at her mom, then around at all of us. She proudly picks herself up off the bookstore floor. Hands twiddling, her bright innocent smile bursting. “I’m Winter Thornhall.”
We applaud, and I try to keep the emotion at bay.
But it’s a futile battle when she spins to Hailey and says, “You’re Mommy.
” Then she points at Jake. “Daddy!” She rocks on her heels toward my oldest brother.
“Uncle No-va.” Her big gray eyes sparkle on Oliver.
“Uncle Olly!” She spins around. “Uncle Trev.” She giggles.
“Uncle Rocky.” Then her big beautiful eyes are on me. “Auntie Phoebe. I love you.”
“I love you, too.” My voice breaks.
“Don’t be sad, Auntie. Why are you crying?”
I intake a sharp breath. “Your Auntie Phoebe isn’t sad,” I say while Rocky rubs my wet cheeks before I can. Hailey shares my tears, and we smile at each other into a soul-filling, beautiful laugh together before I tell Winter, “I’m so happy you know who we all are.”
The truth still finds a way to overwhelm me, even in the smallest of moments in the quirkiest of towns. I can’t think of a better life than this one we all made together.
Honestly.