Book 25 Resilience After Dark #6
The next day, Cindy gives her grandmother, Adele, a haircut and tells her about the migraine the night before.
They’re grateful for the new medicine that kept it to a one-night episode instead of the multi-day affair they used to be.
Cindy updates Adele about her new roommate and crush, Jace.
Cindy describes Jace as very good-looking in a bad-boy kind of way, with sleeve tattoos and muscles on top of muscles.
Adele says her grandfather, Russ, was a bad boy back in the day.
“He was—and is—the sexiest man I’ve ever known.
If you’re going to spend a lifetime with a man, make sure he does it for you that way, or you’ll have nothing but trouble. ”
“You’re not advocating premarital sex, are you, Gram?”
“You wouldn’t buy a car without test-driving it, would you?”
“Gram!”
“Well, would you?”
Cindy wants to die from laughter and embarrassment. “No, I wouldn’t.”
“Then you shouldn’t shackle yourself to a man without making sure he’s bringing his A-game in every possible way, especially in the bedroom. Or the backyard. Or wherever floats your boat. Just don’t get caught by the police if you’re outside.”
“Have you had a stroke I didn’t hear about?”
Adele’s laughter echoes through the shop. “Don’t be a fuddy-duddy, Cynthia.”
“Does Mom know you had a stroke and didn’t tell us?”
“Your mother is well aware that her mother may be an old lady, but she’s still got gas in her tank.” Giving Cindy a saucy look in the mirror, she adds, “Your grandfather is also aware.”
“Lalalalalala, I can’t hear you.”
Mac should’ve let his father come with him for the vasectomy.
He’s in a lot of pain, and he has to wait until the medication wears off to drive himself home.
After talking to Joe and finding out that Maddie started a Mac’s Vasectomy group chat with his family, he needs to get home to find out what’s being said about him.
He’s not looking forward to the kids climbing all over him, but he wants to get home for rest and ice.
Maddie sent Kelsey home when she heard Mac was on his way home.
He arrives to find Thomas chasing Hailey around, while Mac toddles behind them.
Hailey sees him and lets out a shriek as she runs for him.
“Easy, honey. Daddy is hurting.”
“What did I tell you, Hailey?” Maddie asks. “We have to be gentle with Daddy tonight.”
“Sorry, Dada.”
Mac leans in to kiss the top of her head. “That’s okay. Will you take care of me?”
His baby girl nods and reaches out her hand to lead him to the sofa, releasing him so she can move the dolls, trucks and Legos on the cushions and throw them on the floor with the rest of the toys.
“I’d ask how it’s going around here, but I can see,” Mac says as he lowers himself gingerly to the sofa.
“Could I borrow your phone for a sec?” he asks Maddie.
“Sure.” She pulls it out of her shorts pocket and hands it to him. “What’s wrong with yours?”
He punches in her code. “It doesn’t have the Mac’s Vasectomy group chat on it, because I wasn’t invited to participate.”
She lunges for the phone. “Mac! Give that back to me!”
Despite the pain, he holds it out of her reach. “Not until I see what my lovely wife has been saying about me.”
“It’s all in good fun.”
“There is nothing good or fun about what I endured today.”
Jeff Lawry really likes Kelsey Gordon. He floats next to her in the water behind the Sand & Surf as the sun dips toward the horizon.
He has so many memories of moments just like this one during the magical summers he and his siblings spent here as kids.
Now, like then, he doesn’t want to leave when the summer ends.
He doesn’t want to leave Kelsey, but he has a job and an apartment in Florida that he needs to get to.
He keeps hoping something will happen so that he doesn’t have to leave.
He asks Kelsey about the possibility of her moving with him to Tampa, but she promised Mac and Maddie she would stay until the twins turn one.
Everything about her does it for him—her smile, her pretty face, her curly reddish-gold hair and her sexy body—but more than anything, he’s attracted to her sweetness.
She’s the nicest person he’s ever met, except for maybe his mom and grandmother.
In a way, she reminds him of them and how they never have a bad word to say about anyone.
Well, except for his father, that is, but they all have bad things to say about him.
She doesn’t want him to give up his job but says she’ll miss him when he leaves.
He’s relieved to know she has feelings for him, too, but hopes he won’t spoil everything by sharing the truth with her. “I, um, I told you I’m the youngest of seven, right?”
“Yes, and I feel like I know your siblings from the way you talk about them.”
“They’re all great, but we went through a lot growing up.
Our dad, he wasn’t a good guy, and it was hell.
It got even worse when everyone else moved out, and it was just me.
I got messed up with drugs, and when I was fourteen, I tried to kill myself because I honestly felt there was no way out of the addiction and depression with years ahead of dealing with him. ”
“Oh, God. Oh, Jeff. I’m so sorry you went through that—and when you were so young.”
He worries that might’ve been a deal breaker for them, but she assures him it isn’t. He asks her not to see anyone else while he’s gone and promises her the same. But now, he’s determined to find a way to stay with her. Leaving her, even for the year, feels impossible.
John helps his mom clean up after dinner and mentions how nice it is to see her and Charlie happy together. She agrees it’s wonderful to be happy and asks about him. “Are you ever going to tell me the truth?”
John feels like he’s been hit by a hot arrow to the chest. “About what?”
She tips her head and raises her brows. “About everything. Do you think I don’t know what you’re trying so hard to hide from me? Or that I won’t understand or won’t support you the same way I always have?”
John is so shocked, he has no idea how to respond.
She comes closer to him, puts her hands on his shoulders and looks up at him. “We’re no longer living in Mark Lawry’s house.”
“Thank God for that,” John says with a nervous laugh.
“That means we’re all free to be who and what we are, including you.”
He hears what she’s saying and understands the deeper meaning behind the words but can’t bring himself to reply. It has become second nature to him to hide from the truth, which means he has no idea how to broach the subject, even with the opening his mother has given him.
“If you want to talk about it, I’m here. I love you unconditionally, now and forever.”
She will never know what those words mean to him.
Hope Martinez puts Scarlett to bed and finds Paul and Ethan watching a Red Sox game. Paul is always so patient with Ethan, answering his endless questions with kindness and love. She looks to Paul, who turns down the TV and gives her the floor as they discussed earlier.
“I wanted to talk to Ethan about his dad getting out of jail.”
“Oh,” Ethan says.
“As you know, he’s agreed to allow Paul to adopt you.”
“That’s still happening, right?” Ethan asks, seeming unnerved.
“It is,” Hope says, “but your father has requested the opportunity to see you, just once. I believe he’d like the chance to apologize for everything that happened. Paul and I have talked about it, and we think the decision should be yours.”
Ethan thinks about it for a minute. “Do I have to see him?”
“No, you don’t.”
He looks at Paul. “What do you think I should do?”
Hope isn’t at all surprised that he wants Paul’s opinion.
“If I were you, I’d want to see him and hear him out so I could move on with my life without any regrets, but I want to add that if you think it would be too upsetting for you, then you shouldn’t do it.”
“What about you, Mom? What do you think I should do?”
“The part of me that still has a lot of feelings about what he put us through wants you to tell him to go to Hell.”
Ethan laughs at her unusually harsh language.
“However, the part of me that will always be grateful to him for giving you to me thinks that maybe we could give him an hour and then close the book on that chapter of our lives for good.”
“An hour is really no big deal, right?” Ethan asks.
“It’s nothing in the grand scheme of things,” Paul says.
“As long as you know that you’re my dad, that you always will be, I’ll see him,” Ethan says to Paul.
John meets Cindy at the Beachcomber. “It seems to me,” Cindy says to her brother as she slides a red checker forward, “you’re usually here when a certain man is performing.
” John told her about the blowup over his relationship in Tennessee a while ago, which had surprised her at the time.
But with hindsight, a lot of things make more sense since they had that conversation.
“Maybe. Maybe not. So, something kinda huge happened earlier.”
Cindy looks over at him. “What?”
“I came out to Mom, or I should say, she asked me when I was going to.”
“She did? Oh, my God! So, she already knew?”
“She said she’s always known.”
“Wow, Johnny. That’s amazing. What did she say? What did you say?”
“The other night, I ran into Niall when I was out for a run and invited him back to the house for dinner. We had a nice time with Mom and Charlie, and she asked if I’m going to see him again. She said it like it was no big deal when I was shocked.”
“I’m sure you were.”
“She said…” His eyes fill, and he quickly looks away.
Cindy puts her hand on his arm. “What did she say?”
“That she loves me unconditionally, now and always.”
“Aw, of course she does. We all do. Will you tell the others?”
“Eventually.”
“Maybe you ought to just send a text and get it over with in one fell swoop.”
“Like, just text them and say, ‘Oh, by the way, I’m gay and always have been’?”
“Why not? It won’t change anything for them, and it’ll change everything for you.”
“You really don’t think it’ll change anything for them?”