44. Slade
SLADE
PRESENT DAY
“Tate with Molly somewhere?” I ask Sullivan as I walk across the living area to where he’s sitting at his piano.
He looks at me, unfazed by me letting myself in like I used to years ago.
It’s strange how quickly some things become normal again.
How easily we slot back into some routines with more ease than others.
The conversations with my brother are coming along, and we’re getting there.
But when I knocked on his front door the day after Uncle Mal’s confession two weeks ago, Sullivan pulled it open with a scowl and told me I still had a key and I should use it.
So, if he’s expecting me, that’s what I do now. I let myself in like tonight, walking in like this is my home too.
“No, Tate’s at a work thing tonight. Molly’s gone to fetch her baby. It needs a feed before bed,” Sullivan says.
“Ah, I see.”
My brother’s lips curl a fraction, and I return his smile as my eyes slide to a photograph on a small table near the piano.
It’s of him and me on our twenty-first birthday, both looking half-cut but happy.
We were at some bar with friends. I don’t recall where, but I remember the drunken walk home with my brother after, and how my mother had rolled her eyes when we’d arrived singing, with our arms around each other on her doorstep.
She’d bundled us inside, trying to hold back her laugh as our father let his ring out and clapped us both on the backs, asking if we’d had fun.
“It was Dad’s whack on the back that did it,” Sullivan grumbles, knowing what I’m about to say.
“Sure it was.” I smirk, recalling how Sullivan had thrown up his entire stomach contents onto their carpet minutes after walking in the door. After that it’s all a blur.
He chuckles.
I drop my head to hide the way my eyes fucking mist at the sound. It’s only the third time I’ve heard it since coming back. Since Uncle Mal dropped the bomb on us, everything has felt so goddamn hard. But each day has gotten easier.
We’re finally all in it together again.
My back is to the room, shielding Sullivan from view as small footsteps pad into the room.
“Daddy!” a little voice squeals, flinging arms around my legs, a baby doll dangling from one hand.
Sullivan’s eyes snap to mine as Molly squeezes my calf, oblivious to her error.
I shake my head softly.
Not yet, Brother.
One day, we’ll sit her down and explain it all. But not yet.
I turn and look at Molly in her fruit-print pajamas.
A section of her dark curls is sticking up on top of her head like they can’t be tamed.
Her blue eyes widen as she sees me properly.
I wait for it to register that she’s run to me and not Sullivan.
But all she does is beam at me, then thrust her dolly into my arms.
“Uncle Shade burp baby.”
She slides past me, climbing into Sullivan’s lap and looks at me expectantly.
I lift the baby to my shoulder and Molly holds my eyes, entranced as I gently sway and pat the little bundle’s back, cooing to it.
Sullivan blinks, pinching the bridge of his nose and looking away.
“You ready for bed, Sweetheart?” he says, clearing his throat after his voice comes out funny.
Molly nods, her eyes still locked onto mine as I smile at her, continuing to tend to her dolly carefully.
“Do you want to read to her tonight before Jude gets here?”
I snap my eyes to my brother’s. “Me?”
He nods tightly. “She’s a trier, though. Don’t let her fool you into thinking she gets two stories. It’s one.”
“Yay!” Molly declares.
My hand stalls on the doll’s back. “You sure?”
Sullivan holds my eyes. “Never been surer.” He looks at Molly. “Good night, Sweetheart.”
“Night, Daddy.” She kisses him with an exaggerated ‘mwah’ sound, before sliding down from his lap.
She slides her hand into mine and looks at me expectantly.
“Right, okay, then.” I swallow, following her as she leads me to her bedroom. The sound of the piano being played follows us down the hallway.
Molly pulls me over to her princess carriage bed and clambers up, waiting for me to climb on beside her.
“This one?” I ask, placing the doll on the bed and picking up a book with a cartoon cover from the nightstand before getting onto the bed.
“That it,” Molly says, throwing a little arm over my stomach and snuggling into me.
I recline back until I’m lying beside her and hold the book so she can see it. The cover picture is of a dark-haired character wearing camouflage gear and swinging on a vine through a jungle.
“He an exp-or-wah,” Molly explains as I turn the cover and read.
We’re halfway through the book and the guy has already wrestled a snake, swum underneath a waterfall, and slept in a hammock beneath a starry sky.
“He really does go on a lot of adventures, huh?” I say.
“He go home at the end. See?” Molly reaches out with little fingers and swipes over the remaining pages, pointing at the dark-haired explorer on the last page, smiling and surrounded by people.
She sinks back into my side and my throat clogs with emotion.
I cough, clearing it so I can keep reading.
“There, there.” Molly rubs my chest like it’ll help.
The rest of the pages blur into one until finally I’m reading the final page to her.
The one where the explorer finally makes it home.
I close the book and let out a breath.
“It has a happy ending,” a female voice says.
I look up and spot Jude leaning against the doorframe, watching us. Her eyes are shining like she’s holding back tears.
“Yeah, it does,” I agree, gazing back at her.
She tips her head toward Molly. “She’s such a cutie.”
I follow her eyes, smiling at Molly’s little sleeping face. Her breathing has evened out and she looks so peaceful.
“Yeah, she is.” I kiss Molly on the forehead, then extract myself carefully so I don’t wake her, before making sure she’s tucked in properly, so she stays warm.
Stepping from the room, I link hands with Jude and we head back to the living area.
“Have fun on your date,” Sullivan calls, pausing in the middle of the song he’s playing.
Jude’s eyes glitter as she glances at me. “We will.”
“Where are we going?”
“You’ll see. Sinclair’s going to give us a ride. She and Denver are downstairs.”
Sullivan snorts, a smirk on his lips. “Fasten your belts.”
I tip my chin at him. “See you tomorrow.”
“Meeting starts at eight-thirty.”
“See you at eight, then.” I grin.
The piano music begins again as we walk away, and I recognize the opening bars of a different song to the classical one he was playing a moment ago.
This one’s “Unstoppable” by Sia.
“You’re really loving being back at work, aren’t you?” Jude asks as we ride the elevator down.
“I mean…” I shrug.
“It’s okay.” She grins. “You can admit it. You like being back in a suit, doing all the fancy business stuff with your family again.”
I pull her under my arm and press a kiss to her temple as we walk across the lobby toward the main doors.
“Yeah, I do,” I admit.
Going back to work at Beaufort Diamonds has been more straightforward than I thought it would be.
I guess seeing my family again was the hard part.
The work is a welcome distraction. Something to focus on that keeps us all moving forward, instead of stuck in the past. It would be easy to have spent the last couple of weeks swirling toward a black hole of regret after Uncle Mal’s confession.
But I’ve spent long enough being haunted by that day. We all have.
My father suggested I come back, just for a day to see how things have been going since I was last here. It was nice to see the team. There are new faces, of course, but still lots of people I recognize, like Arabella, who’s now Sullivan’s PA, instead of my father’s.
I knew he would take the helm as CEO one day, and what happened brought that day forward. But it suits Sullivan. He’s great at it, and I can tell he loves it. The moment he started talking about an idea he has for a new line, I took a seat in his office, and I never left.
I finally see a future again.
One I’m excited for.
“I’m glad.” Jude leans into my side. “Happiness suits you, Cowboy.”
I grin and pull her closer as we step outside.
Sinclair’s standing beside her car, trailing her fingers up Denver’s tie with a flirty smile as he watches her with a serious expression.
“Thanks for offering to give us a ride,” Jude says, causing Sinclair to break Denver’s intense eye contact.
“You’re welcome.” My sister grins. “Lenny wanted an outing.”
My eyes flick to her white crystal-coated car and I bite back my smile. It’s totally her. Completely impractical. But her.
“I thought you said it just came out of the workshop?” I say, frowning at a scrape above the rear wheel where a slash of crystals has been destroyed.
Denver’s eyes flick in my direction but Sinclair pulls his face to hers and kisses him.
“Princess,” he growls softly, keeping his face close to hers. “There’s another one?”
“Slade means that tiny bump you saw already. It’s all good, Brute.” She pats his chest and throws him a wide smile.
He presses his lips together, his jaw tightening.
She kisses him again. “Love you,” she whispers against his mouth.
He exhales and his shoulders loosen. He catches me watching him and shakes his head, his jaw softening. He knows as well as I do, my baby sister has him wrapped around her pinkie.
And the dude loves it.
My father was totally onto something with them both.
Jude and I climb into the rear seat and Denver waits for Sinclair to slide into the driver’s side before closing her door and striding around to get in the passenger seat.
My sister’s two dogs scrabble from the far side of the rear seat and into Jude’s lap, both vying for space. She laughs and strokes them both before Monty chooses to sit on me instead.
“It’s ‘cause you’re where he likes to sit,” Sinclair explains. “He likes to see out of the window or he gets sick.”
Monty stares at me, then licks my face.
“Hold it in, Bro. Please,” I say, rubbing him behind his tufted ear.
Sinclair pulls out into the traffic without checking her mirror and a car horn blares angrily behind us.