Chapter Twenty-Three
Twenty-Three
On the morning of my thirtieth birthday, Mia and Kitty woke me with an enthusiastic round of “Happy Birthday,” then pinned me down and wrangled a sleep mask over my face.
“Don’t look so scared, Aunt Jo,” Kitty said.
“It’s not like we’ll strand you somewhere,” Mia said, grabbing me by both hands and lifting me to my feet.
I rolled my eyes, which the girls didn’t see, thanks to the sleep mask. “It wouldn’t be the first time you’ve ditched me.”
“Which turned out great,” Mia said. “You should thank us.”
“Can I at least put on shoes?”
“You don’t need them,” Kitty said.
When we stepped outside, I recognized the grit of the concrete walkway, the five steps up to the beach, and the squeak of the gate, so it didn’t surprise me when the ground turned to sand beneath me.
“Okay,” Mia said. She released her grip on me after we’d walked down the beach a few hundred feet, the ocean growing louder with each step. “Mask off.”
I lifted the mask from my face. The sunrise stretched out like a halo above the horizon, and when my eyes adjusted to the light, I spotted a long table draped in heavy seafoam-green cloth: a breakfast buffet of all my favorite things, including chocolate chip waffles, pitchers of orange juice (Drunken Joeys, too, from the looks of it), and a birthday cake in the middle of the table, the frosting blush pink. A beach picnic of my very own.
“Wow,” I said, taking in the food and the people standing around it: Nina, Ollie, Alex, and Greyson. Alex and Greyson shouted, “Happy birthday!” while Nina and Ollie shouted, “Happy birthday, bitch!” and, “Happy fucking birthday!” respectively.
I pulled Mia and Kitty into a hug. “You did all this for me?”
“There’s still one more surprise,” Kitty said.
I turned at a tap on my shoulder, my breath catching in my chest at the sight of my sister standing before me. I barreled into her, the two of us nearly toppling into the sand. “You’re here!” I said, bursting into tears and not caring who heard.
“Happy birthday, Jo,” Beth said. She held me tight, and the two of us cried into each other’s hair, rocking from side to side.
There was so much I wanted to say, but I could hardly speak. “You’re here!” was all I could say, over and over, unable to let go of her.
“Okay, okay,” Mia grumbled. “Enough of the lovefest, I’m hungry.”
Beth put her arm through mine and sat beside me at the table. With my sister on my left, and Alex to my right, so many of the people I loved surrounding me, I couldn’t stop smiling. If only Mr. Silicon Valley could see me now.
Beth gestured to the table. “This is beautiful,” she said. “I knew my daughters were crafty, but I didn’t know they were this crafty.”
“We’re not,” Kitty said. “Nina and Alex are.”
“You girls have always been great at delegating,” Beth said.
“ ‘Delegating’ is a nice word for it. Those two are bossy,” Nina said.
Beth laughed. “I can’t argue with that. You two bossed poor Samson all over the place.”
Samson’s name was a prick of pain, especially today. But instead of dulling the sting of it by steering the conversation elsewhere, I let it flood through me until it dissolved like sugar under the tongue, no longer solid, but still there.
“It’s true,” I said. “Kitty, remember when you tricked him into putting your laundry away by telling him you’d left a twenty-dollar bill in your pocket and he could keep it if he found it?”
“You were so upset when he wised up to that one,” Beth said to Kitty.
“Yeah,” Kitty said. “But it was nice while it lasted.”
Beth looked around me to Alex. “Thank you for taking such wonderful care of my sister on her birthday, Chef Alex.”
“Mia and Kitty promised me fifty bucks,” he said. “But I’m guessing that’s not happening.”
I nudged him with my shoulder. “I’m teasing,” he said. “I’d cook you a birthday breakfast for only twenty dollars.”
I swept my gaze around the table, the same glow of happiness I’d felt at my dinner party washing over me, only stronger.
I rolled my eyes at Nina and Ollie’s bickering and the apron Alex gifted me, then shook with laughter at the birthday song and dance written, choreographed, and performed by Mia, Kitty, and Greyson.
Alex made Beth and me cry when he brought out a second cake for Samson, decorated in ferns, and flowers, and even a Venus flytrap.
After singing a tearful “Happy Birthday” to him, Mia, Kitty, Beth, and I shared our favorite Samson memories.
When we’d finished eating cake, Beth took my arm in hers. “Walk with me?”
“There’s nothing I’d rather do,” I said. We left everyone behind, heading toward the pier like we had when we were kids.
“I still can’t believe you’re here,” I said. “And Mark?”
Beth sighed. “We’re still figuring things out. I don’t know what will happen.”
We walked in silence, and I remembered the dozens of walks I’d taken with her over the years. When we were kids, the distance had seemed eternal. Two whole miles. One there, one back. “I miss Samson,” I said.
Beth squeezed my arm. “Me too.”
Our feet disappeared and reappeared in the water, and I let my courage build with each wave until I was ready to ask her the question that had rolled around in my mind all summer. “If you’d known what was going to happen, would you do it all over again? Was it worth it?”
“Are you kidding?” She stopped and made me look back the way we’d come.
Mia, Kitty, and Greyson were doing handstands with Nina again.
I wondered if Beth and I were imagining the same thing: summers past, what it would be like if Samson were here.
He’d probably do a better handstand than all the girls.
“How could it not be worth it?” she said.
“I’d do it a thousand times if I could.”
Nina, Greyson, and Mia burst into cheers after Kitty successfully held a handstand for a good five seconds. The good, the bad, how could you untangle it? It was impossible. So why not take the good where you could get it? “Yeah,” I said. “I think you’re right.”
—
After the beach picnic ended, Beth, Alex, and I sat on the beach with the girls, facing the water.
Kitty rested her head on my shoulder. “I wish we didn’t have to go.”
“I wish you didn’t, either, but your mom wouldn’t listen when I told her you were too cool for school.”
“It’s true,” Beth said. “You’re not.”
Mia rolled her eyes, then put her arm through mine. “We’ll be back soon.”
“Thank God,” Greyson said. She flopped onto her back in the sand. “I think you should all move down here. Can you imagine if we were in the same class, Kitty? But either way, I guess we’ll see a lot of each other from now on.”
The girls convinced Beth to take them to the pool one last time, leaving Alex and me alone on the beach.
“You know what’s funny?” he said.
“What?”
“I haven’t actually taken you on a real date yet.”
I leaned away from him. “You’re telling me all those times we carted around a van full of teenagers weren’t dates?”
Alex grinned. “I know it isn’t the way most guys do it, but I prefer not to have my thirteen-year-old daughter with me when I take a woman out.”
“And why’s that?”
He shrugged. “I have a feeling it would kill the making-out-at-the-drive-in vibe I’m going for.”
“So that’s what we’re doing? I figured you’d want to cook a romantic dinner together.”
He laughed. “Don’t take this the wrong way, but that sounds a little too stressful for a first date. Maybe after you’ve had a few cooking lessons.”
“Oh, do you know a good chef or something?”
“I might.”
I eyed him. “I’ll think about it.”
“Think about what?”
“Going out with you.”
“You’ll think about it?” Alex said. “I haven’t even asked you.”
He leaned back on his hands and turned away from me to stare out at the water again. I watched him, waiting. After a full minute of silence, I bumped his shoulder with mine. “Well, are you going to do it?”
He turned to me as if he’d only just noticed I was there. “Going to do what?”
I rolled my eyes, and that almost smile lit up his face. “Are you free tomorrow night?” he said.
I shrugged. “I might be.”
“How would you like to see a movie and make out in my van?”
I mirrored his posture, leaning back on my hands. “I guess that sounds all right.”
We fell silent, and as I looked at Alex, I marveled at how twelve weeks ago he’d been a stranger.
Nothing more than a man I’d kissed in a bar and told myself I never wanted to see again.
But what amazed me more than the thought of how quickly he’d become part of my life was the thought of him ever having been a stranger at all.
“What?” Alex said, catching me staring at him.
“Close your eyes,” I said.
“Why?” Alex asked, but he closed them anyway.
Instead of answering, I leaned in and kissed him, exactly as I had the night we met.
“Wow,” Alex said when I pulled away. “If this is the reaction I get by asking you on a date, I’m really excited for the actual date.”
I moved closer, resting my head against his chest. “Don’t get too excited. That’s just how I say hello, remember?”
He wrapped his arms around me and pulled me close. “Do you say hello to everyone like that?”
“Nope. Just you.”
“Well, then,” Alex said. He pressed a kiss to my temple. “I hope there are a lot more hellos where that came from.”
“Me too,” I said.
I hoped for more than I could count.