Epilogue
brODY
5 months later
“I t is beautiful out here.”
Soft sand crunches beneath our feet as we walk across the beach, loaded down with towels, snacks, umbrellas, and a bag filled with Katie’s toys.
“And this isn’t even one of the best beaches,” Julia giggles, playfully elbowing Nia in the side.
“Mommy, can I get shells?” Katie begs with her best pouty lip and her hands wrapped so tightly around the handle of a plastic bucket that her knuckles are beginning to turn white.
“If you stay close,” Nia tells her.
As Katie races down the beach, headed for the shoreline, the four of us find a nearby patch of sand to settle onto. We lay out towels, blankets, and a cooler filled with snacks and beverages before Nia and Julia work to strip out of their clothing to reveal their bathing suits underneath.
Popping open the lid of the cooler, Julia reaches in to produce a plastic jug of tequila and a stack of disposable cups.
“Public consumption is illegal in the state of Florida,” I comment, arching a brow.
“B,” Tripp laughs, “no one gives a shit as long as you’re not an idiot about it.” With a hard pat to my shoulder before he sits down, he says, “I’d tell you to relax and have fun, but I don’t think you’ve ever done either of those things.”
“I’m on the beach and I don’t have my cell phone with me,” I argue as I drop onto the ground next to my brother, leaning back onto my forearms.
“Yeah,” Nia says, “but how stressed are you about not having your phone?”
As I shoot her a warning glare, she bursts into a fit of giggles, scrambling toward Julia in order to hide behind her. Tripp erupts into laughter at her comment, throwing his head back.
“That was awesome,” he cackles.
His laughter comes to a stop as a look passes between himself and his wife. Julia whispers something to Nia that I can’t quite make out before handing her a plastic cup filled nearly to the brim with what now resembles a margarita.
Quiet conversation passes between the two of them as Tripp reaches into the bag next to him for a pack of cigarettes and a lighter, which seems to have been the unfortunate subject to his doodling.
“Bam, I’m stealing your girlfriend so we can bond,” Julia announces, taking Nia’s hand in hers.
“Bring her back in one piece,” I tell her as the two of them hurry off. Nodding toward his wife, I ask my brother, “Are you two alright?”
“We’re fine.”
I study him as he taps a cigarette from the pack in his hand and rests the filter between his lips, pulling a lighter to it before inhaling and blowing out a stream of smoke.
“Your kid’s about to do a trick,” he tells me, using his chin to gesture toward Katie.
“If she comes over here, that goes out,” I order.
He laughs with a shake of his head as he pulls in another puff of his cigarette, turning his head to blow the smoke away from me.
Near the water, Katie shouts for all of us to watch as she throws her arms out at her sides and starts to spin wildly in a circle, fast enough that I worry she might make herself sick if she doesn’t stop. Even still, I can’t help the laugh that bubbles out of my chest.
She’s been having such a great time here with ‘Uncle T-Mo and Aunt Jules,’ we may have to put in the effort to make this a regular vacation for her.
As she comes barreling toward us, Tripp quickly shoves the burning end of his cigarette into the sand next to him to smother it and prevent smoke from lingering in the air. Turning his head to the side, he blows the smoke in his lungs against his arm to keep it from blowing toward her.
He really is a great kid. I wish his life would have been more kind to him.
“Did you see me?” Katie shouts as she approaches.
“Yeah we did,” Tripp tells her, lifting his hand to high five her. “That was sick.”
“You’re purple,” I say with a gesture toward the small patch on her forearm. “Come here, please.”
As I reach for the bottle of sunblock next to me, she extends her arms so I can reapply it for her, replacing the UV-detecting patch on her arm as I do. Nia – and nearly everyone else – tells me that it’s overkill, but I disagree with them on that.
While I apply sunblock to her left arm, Katie uses the right to reach for Tripp’s hand, turning it over inspect all of his visible tattoos. I worry for a moment that some of them might be too scary for her, but she seems unphased by the disturbing images.
If anything, she seems to really like them.
“I wanna have pictures, too,” she tells him. “You and Brody have pictures. That’s not fair. I want some.”
“I have some temporaries at the shop,” he shrugs. “We can get you inked up and get you on a bike.”
“No,” I say. “It’s bad enough that you ride those things.”
“Relax,” he laughs. Turning his attention to Katie with a playful smile, he says, “Did you hear me say the engine would be running?”
“Nuh-uh,” she giggles.
With a quick high five between them, she’s off, darting back toward the water and the bucket she’d previously abandoned in her search for sea shells to bring home.
Julia and Nia join us moments later with their nearly-emptied margaritas in their hands. Julia drops onto the towel next to Tripp as Nia settles herself into my lap, reaching behind her to run her fingers into my facial hair.
My arms wrap around her waist as I breathe in the smell of her sunblock, laced with just a hint of fruit and tequila.
“I love it here,” she sighs. “I wish we could stay longer.”
“Our door is literally always open for you guys,” Julia tells her. “Please come any time. We’d love to have you back.”
“Convince her to accept the promotion that she was offered, and we’ll be back to celebrate,” I say, tightening my hold on Nia.
“It’s not a big deal, it’s—”
“It is a big deal,” I scold her. “Your worth is being recognized in a department that you’ve already been running for months.”
It’s been nearly two full weeks since Nia was offered the position of charge nurse for the emergency department at her hospital, and I’m thankful that they’ve given her time to consider, because if they hadn’t, it would have been an immediate no.
She’s come far, but she still has work to do on her confidence and in seeing her value. This is something that she deserves, and by the time that we touch down onto the tarmac, I expect her to have a yes ready to offer them.
We spend a few hours under the warm Florida sun, watching Katie splash in the water, do silly tricks, and fill her bucket with an impressive amount of sea shells and dried sand dollars before we pack up our things and head for a quick stop into Tripp’s tattoo studio.
Katie is a ball of giggles as he helps her climb into his chair before slipping on a pair of gloves and loading her arms down with all of the temporary tattoos that he can track down. Superheroes, unicorns, ghosts, and airplanes litter her skin alongside a photo of her favorite Paw Patrol character that Tripp asks Nia’s permission to draw for her with a permanent marker.
As we leave the shop, my arms wrap around Nia’s shoulders, holding her body close to my chest while we move down the length of the sidewalk. Her fingers lightly scratch along my forearms, her head leaning back against my body.
This is the first Easter weekend that I’ve spent with Nia and Katie, and it’s the first one that I’ve spent with Tripp in more than a decade. I don’t find it to be entirely coincidental that the two are happening at the same time.
My mother is less than thrilled that we came out here. She’d rather have me drag Nia and Katie to an Easter Mass that they don’t want to be involved in or the brunch that follows, which would almost be guaranteed to be unpleasant.
I’ve given myself permission to not care that she isn’t happy about it.
I’ve given myself permission to do a lot of things when it comes to my families; both the one that I was born to and the one that I’ve built for myself.
Pieces are still missing, and I’m not sure that I’ll ever get them back, but as I hoist Katie into my arm, kissing her on the cheek as her arms drape around my neck; as Nia pivots to wrap her arms around my middle, I can be incredibly grateful for the pieces that I have.