9. Eli
A fter Peter left, Eli went back to work with Jonah, where they were underway on the unfinished apartment. Wiping sweat from his forehead, he surveyed their progress on the skeletal framework of the space. Two-by-fours framed the walls, the rough subfloor creaked underfoot, and open windows let in the warm Florida breeze.
When finished, this addition to the house would consist of two bedrooms, a living area with a small kitchenette, and a large full bath. When he’d drawn out the specs, he knew it was a brilliant use of the are above the three-car garage. It had rental income potential or could add wonderfully livable space and privacy—a working office, a mother-in-law’s suite—for whoever bought the house.
If they sold it.
He felt his heart tighten on the subject again. Part of the appeal of keeping this beach house, at least when Vivien approached him with the idea, was that he could open it up to the Wylies as frequent—regular?—guests. A place where he and Kate could meet often and nurture their budding romance.
But if Maggie’s beef with the other family was that deep and painful…could they do that? Worse, could he pursue the kind of relationship he wanted with Kate?
Jonah looked up from the bright pink fiberglass insulation he was measuring for the day’s work. “Heavy sigh there, dude. Is there a problem with that electric schematic?”
Eli inched back from the box on the wall. “If there was, I’d have to call the electrician who installed it, since I’m not licensed for that. But it’s good. I’m just…thinking.”
Jonah’s gaze stayed direct, his hazel eyes narrowing as he regarded Eli. “You’ve been weird today.”
Eli gave a snort. “You’ll have to define weird.”
“Not as happy as usual,” Jonah replied without missing a beat.
He missed Kate, that was why, but he wasn’t sure how to—or if he should—explain that to his son.
Instead, he picked up a Yeti of cold water, taking a drink as he collected his thoughts. “Hey, nothing can bring me down if you’re around.”
“No pressure or anything,” Jonah cracked.
“I don’t mean to put pressure on you,” he said quickly. “I know I did a lot of that in the past and it cost me.”
Jonah shrugged. “I was a pain in the butt who didn’t want to be an architect.” He grinned, looking like that seven-year-old kid Eli remembered more than the thirty-year-old man he was. “Now I’m the pain in the butt who wants to be a chef.”
“Speaking of, any word from the Culinary Arts program?” Since he’d learned about it and applied, Jonah’s whole mood had lifted. He’d been in regular contact with Carly, his girlfriend in California whose pregnancy was the impetus to his decision to pursue a career as a chef.
“I’m supposed to find out if I made the first cut today. We’ll see if I…” He finished lining up a strip of insulation and held up the measuring tape, snapping it noisily. “…measure up.”
“Oh, please. You will.”
“Thanks to that letter of recommendation from Kate,” Jonah said, then he looked up at Eli—and kept staring.
“What?” Eli said when it became uncomfortable.
“Nothing. It’s just…your expression changes when her name gets mentioned. I like to watch for it.”
Eli gave him a vile look and cursed his lousy poker face. “Keep measuring and cutting, if you don’t mind. Otherwise, we’ll never get the insulation in.”
“Yeah, yeah. I hate this part, anyway,” Jonah said. “When I worked those summers for Uncle Ryan, I did more drywall than anything. I can’t wait to get to that. Is he still officially my uncle, by the way? Or do I just call him…Ryan?”
“I don’t know,” Eli said. “Just Ryan. I think Vivien and Ryan’s divorce papers are being signed this week or next, so that’s good.”
“Good?” He lifted his brows. “Is a divorce ever good?”
“Well, I think Aunt Vivien will be much better off,” he said. “And”—he gave a sly smile—“not alone for long.”
“What does that mean?”
“Peter was just here and if all went according to plan…he made a date with her.”
“Oooh,” Jonah dragged out his reaction. “Romance in Destin. Didn’t see that twist coming.”
Eli smiled. “She always liked him but was a little too young those summers we were here.”
“Huh.” Jonah rolled the cutter over the insulation with a deft touch.
“Nice work on that, Jonah.”
“Thanks.” He lifted the perfectly shaped insulation. “Let’s get this bad boy in place.”
They worked in comfortable silence for a while, the rhythmic sounds of construction filling the space, but Eli could feel something unspoken lingering between them. Finally, Jonah broke the quiet.
“Hey, Dad, can I ask you something?”
Eli looked up, sensing the shift in tone. “Of course. Anything.”
Jonah hesitated, his gaze flickering toward the main house. “Do you think it’s true what Aunt Crista said? That Kate and Tessa’s dad is responsible for your dad dying? Should I call him Grandpa? I never met the guy.”
“Just…Roger.”
“Okay then, Roger. I mean, I don’t feel like it’s any of my business, but it’s, uh, awkward. And now she’s back and no one is mentioning it, so…what do you think?”
Eli ran a hand through his hair, feeling the weight of the question. “I don’t know. And I don’t—” He was about to say “care” but that wasn’t true. He cared a lot. “It’s hard to imagine, but is it fair that the sins of the past should affect the people of today?”
Jonah lifted his eyebrows. “Is that from the Bible?”
“Honestly, I don’t think so.” He frowned. “Maybe. Look at me. I’m so busy, I can’t remember scripture.”
Busy obsessing over Kate, he thought, but didn’t add that. He merely made a mental note to stick his nose back in the Word of God, where he got his best life advice.
Jonah tucked some insulation in the kitchen wall. “Whatever happened, it must’ve been pretty bad for the hatred to still run this deep.”
“I guess,” Eli said, turning to the next pile of insulation.
“So how does this whole old feud affect things with Kate?” Jonah asked.
The question made Eli pause and wonder if this wasn’t where Jonah had been headed all along.
“Things with…there are no ‘things’ with Kate. We’re friends and…” His voice faded in the face of Jonah’s look.
“I wasn’t born yesterday,” Jonah muttered.
“I know when you were born,” he said. “I was in the room.”
“Then be real with me. You and Kate have something good, huh? It’s more than just a friendship and after-dinner walks?”
It had started with friendship and after-dinner walks, Eli mused. But the chemistry, attraction, and bond had formed fast and furiously. He could still remember their one and only kiss.
Eli felt a soft smile tugging at the corner of his lips. “Yeah. It really is good. It’s amazing, actually.”
Jonah’s expression shifted ever so slightly. Eli caught it—a flicker of emotion, a moment of hesitation. “That’s…that’s great, Dad. I’m happy for you.”
Eli’s heart cracked at Jonah’s tone, like there was something more behind his words.
“Well, don’t celebrate yet. We live thousands of miles apart, and my mother would…” He tapped the electrical box on the wall next to him. “Blow a fuse and burn the place down—literally, I’m afraid—if she found out I’m in love with?—”
He caught himself, but it was too late. Jonah’s whole face froze in shock. “Wait… what ?”
Eli held up a hand. “Hey, it’s early days and it’s just an expression and I don’t even know…” Lying was not in his nature and God hated it. He sighed. “Yeah. I might have fallen in love with her. Or I’m on my way. And she doesn’t know that yet, but she will.”
Jonah stared at him, then turned away, his jaw tight as he suddenly gave all his concentration to the utility knife he had stabbed into the pink fluff.
Eli stepped closer, sensing his son retreating inward. “You okay?”
Jonah swallowed hard, toying with the knife, visibly fighting an emotion Eli hadn’t seen from him in years.
“Yeah, man, yeah, of course. It’s just that…it seems sudden. I mean, she was here for, what, three weeks? Four?”
“I’ve known Kate for thirty years.”
“Long before Mom,” he murmured.
Oh, boy. That’s where this was going. “Not too long. We said our last goodbyes to the Wylies in 1995, I started my last year at Georgia, and met Mom pretty early that fall.”
Eli closed his eyes for a second, remembering the first time he’d seen Melissa DuBois walking across Tate Plaza. He was broken those months—his father under investigation and being charged with crimes Eli didn’t understand, his heart still bruised from Tessa’s thoughtless rejection of his love.
Melissa—Missy, as she was called by her friends—was the brightest thing he’d seen for months, and he just wanted to bask in her glow.
“Hey, it’s cool, Dad,” Jonah said. “I don’t expect you to be alone forever. It’s just…”
“I’m not alone,” he said simply. “I have two great children, awesome sisters, and a mostly great mother.”
“And memories of Mom,” he said, his voice thick.
“Plus the certainty that I’ll see your mother again,” Eli added.
Jonah’s head whipped up as his tool came to a halt. “You can’t be sure of that.”
“I am,” Eli said.
“She didn’t…she wasn’t…” He shook his head. “I don’t believe in religion anyway, and neither did she.”
Jonah didn’t know that Melissa had started to open her heart to the Lord. She just hadn’t gone public, and she wasn’t one hundred percent sure, but she had been reading the Bible the night before she died.
Surely, when that Cessna was spiraling toward Earth, she’d accepted Jesus in her heart. Surely .
But now was not the time to debate that. Not when Jonah had that look in his eyes, that grieving, aching hole in his soul that had not been evident—at least not frequently—since he’d arrived here.
Jonah carried his grief like an old, tattered jacket—worn, familiar, something he couldn’t bring himself to let go of.
His heart clenching, Eli reached out, resting a firm hand on his son’s shoulder. “Jonah, no one could ever replace your mother. She was the most incredible woman. She gave me you and your sister. And she will always be my soul mate.”
Jonah nodded, but his eyes were damp. “I know. I don’t mean to be childish about this. You deserve to be happy, and like I said, Kate is awesome. She was a natural at the mothering thing. I mean, I’m not sure I’d have stayed here, and I’d have never had the nerve to apply to culinary school if not for her. It’s just…”
Eli exhaled, knowing exactly what his son felt. Even after nearly fifteen years, Jonah carried it with him every day. “I know, Jonah. I miss her, too. Every single day. That will never go away.”
“Yeah.” Jonah’s jaw clenched, his hands tightening into fists. “I guess it’s just hitting me hard with the anniversary coming up.”
Ah, yes, the pain of April. Melissa had died on April twenty-fifth, fifteen years ago.
He hated the day, loathed the anniversary and the memories and the reliving of the loss. He still couldn’t stand to see azaleas in bloom, bursting in springtime wonder all over the south.
The last time they’d kissed it was in front of a massive pink azalea in their front yard which seemed to explode overnight.
They’d been so delighted with how it looked, and as they held each other on the front walk, his last words were telling her to be careful on that flight today. As if she could control…whatever had gone wrong.
Yes, he despised the day when it rolled around, and it was just a few weeks away.
“I know it’s hard this time of year,” Eli said, his voice steady. “It’s hard for me, too. But hey, we have each other now. That’s more than we’ve had in a long time.”
“Yeah, and that’s on me, man. I was the one who stayed away.” Jonah swiped some of his near-shoulder-length hair back. “I always go back to Atlanta on that day, just so you know.”
“You do?” Years had gone by without seeing Jonah. And he’d been there? In Atlanta?
“I go to her grave. First I make sure no one’s around, which is why you never saw me. But I go every year and talk to her.”
Eli let out a soft groan, not even knowing what to do with that information. Jonah had been in Atlanta, at Melissa’s gravesite, and Eli hadn’t known it? Her death had gutted all of them, no doubt about it, but, somehow, it hit Jonah harder than everyone else.
He lifted his arm, wanting to hug his son.
“Hey, no mush on the worksite,” Jonah joked, backing away. “I need to put my hours in here to pay back your generous loan. You strong enough to bring that drywall up from the garage, old man, or do I have to do it for you?”
Eli knew a solid change of subject and a well-placed joke to derail the conversation when he heard one.
He huffed. “Please. I can carry two sheets at once.”
“Then time’s awastin’, Mr. Lawson. I’ll finish the insulation.”
But Eli couldn’t walk away from this moment that easily. Instead, he reached over and gave Jonah’s shoulder another squeeze.
“I’m proud of you, son,” he said gruffly. “Taking Carly’s pregnancy and her ultimatum so seriously, coming here, finding this new passion for cooking, working for it. Doing what you have to do to be ready to be a father. Your mother would be proud of you. And so am I.”
Jonah took a slow breath. “Thanks, Dad.” His phone buzzed and he looked relieved as he pulled it out of his pocket. Relief gave way to a huge smile and a soft hoot.
“Well, look at that, will ya? Northwest Florida State College. Make my dreams come true, please.” He grinned at Eli and tapped the phone, walking into the other side of the apartment. But without wall insulation, Eli could hear every word on this end.
“Yes, ma’am, this is Jonah Lawson speaking.”
Eli looked skyward. “Father, he needs this. Please. Put him in the program where he belongs, where he will flourish, where he might find?—”
“An interview? Of course, I can definitely do that. I’m pretty open so…”
Yes! An interview! He’ll crush an interview!
After a long silence, he heard Jonah exhale sharply. “Uh, yes… yes, sure. I can do that. I’ll see you then.”
But he didn’t turn around or throw his fist in the air or do a dance on the sub floor. He just stood there with his back to Eli, then slid the phone into his jeans pocket.
“Did I hear you say…interview?” Eli asked.
Very slowly, Jonah turned, shocking Eli with tears in his eyes and no color in his face.
“Yeah, I got an interview. Actually, several of them.” Jonah’s voice was hollow.
“Son, that’s ama?—”
“On April twenty-fifth.”
Eli’s stomach sank. “Well, you know you’ll have some serious power in heaven helping make sure you?—”
Jonah swallowed hard. “I should have said no. I don’t know why I didn’t say no.”
“Jonah! You can’t say no.”
“I told you, I always go to Mom’s grave that day. I talk to her. I…bring food.” He shook his head and swore under his breath. “I can’t let her down. She expects me.”
And he didn’t believe in the afterlife?
Keeping that to himself, Eli took a step closer. “Mom would understand, Jonah. It’s unfortunate timing, but we can find other ways to honor her. She would want you to do this interview. She’s cheering for you.”
Jonah was quiet, then nodded. “Yeah. I know. I’ll do it.”
Eli placed a firm hand on his son’s back. “I’m here for you. I’m with you. If you want, we can go up the day before or the day after.”
Jonah’s eyes just shuttered. “Whatever. Let’s get this insulation done. I’m sick of breathing it.” He wiped his eyes as if that’s what caused the dampness, and Eli let it go, totally understanding the pain.