Chapter 38
NADIA
TEN MONTHS LATER
The late May sun cast a golden sheen over the Garners’ backyard, warming the concrete surrounding the pool to a temperature that made bare feet dance in search of cooler spots.
Nadia paused just inside the gate, her hand settled on Thomas’s lower back.
His muscles tensed beneath her touch, a subtle restlessness she’d grown accustomed to over the past months.
“You okay?” she asked.
He offered a tight smile. “Just haven’t seen everyone together like this in a long time.”
“Me either.” She could hear laughter and splashing from the pool. Ian’s deep voice bellowing “Marco!” followed by a chorus of high-pitched “Polo!” replies. Conversations overlapping in the casual cadence of longtime friends.
“They invited us.” Nadia squeezed his waist gently. “Everyone wants you here.”
He nodded, though the line between his brows didn’t ease. “Let’s dive in.”
Nadia took his hand as they rounded the house and crossed the backyard oasis, the sight before them overwhelming in its normalcy given the upheaval of the past decade.
Ian stood waist-deep in the pool, blindfolded with a wet towel as he lunged with outstretched arms toward squealing kids.
Nick manned the grill alongside James. Both had beers in hand and were deep in conversation.
Kristen and Aimee moved between the outdoor kitchen and a large table laden with side dishes, paper plates, and plastic cups.
Standing on the pool deck near the shallow end, Natalya bounced a sixteen-month-old Zelie on her hip, the toddler’s copper curls framing a face that was all her mother.
Thomas shifted his weight as they walked, a habit he’d developed since the shooting.
There was a slight hitch to his gait now, only noticeable if you knew to look for it.
The physical scars in his arm and leg still bore a pinkness, but the memory of those terrifying days they’d been on the run, and the first seventy-two hours after surgery in the hospital would always remain fresh in her mind.
Nick spotted them first. “Nadia! Tom!” He raised a spatula in greeting. “Get over here!”
Thomas hesitated, his hand closing tighter around Nadia’s.
“Go on. I’ll say ‘hi’ to everyone.”
“You sure?” he asked.
She kissed his cheek. “Positive.”
Nadia watched him walk toward the grill, noticing how Nick immediately pulled him into a side hug, as if the years of absence had been mere days.
James hugged him next with brotherly pats on his back.
The three of them, childhood friends now in their forties, stirred something bittersweet in Nadia’s chest.
She made her way over to Natalya, who brightened at her approach.
“There you are!” She greeted Nadia with a one-armed hug, the baby sandwiched between them. “I was starting to think you two got lost.”
“Traffic on the 101 was terrible,” Nadia explained, tickling Zelie under the chin. She’d been living with Thomas at his house. Every so often they stayed at her house when she had business to do in town, so she had yet to sell it. Zelie giggled and reached for her. “May I?”
“Please. My arm is about to fall off. She’s getting so heavy.”
Nadia scooped the toddler into her arms, inhaling the sweet scent of sunscreen and baby shampoo. “Hello, Zel-belle.”
She and Thomas had connected instantly with Natalya when they’d visited Kauai for Christmas.
It had been the first time the entire extended family had been together.
Claire had even convinced Lisa to join them.
Watching their mothers bond, and Natalya’s dad, Gale, flirt with the two older women, had been amusing and heartwarming.
Almost as much as watching Thomas and James surfing with James’s sons.
Two brothers rediscovering their way around each other, their places in a family that had been shattered and hastily glued back together.
Zelie squirmed in Nadia’s arms and pointed insistently toward the ground. “Down! Down!”
“Okay, little miss independent.” A girl after Nadia’s own heart. She set Zelie on her feet, holding a chubby fist as she took wobbly steps on the concrete.
“You’re still a natural,” Natalya observed with a knowing smile. “You and Tom still set on not having your own?”
Nadia laughed, shaking her head. “We’re perfectly content being the fun aunt and uncle.
Between your three, Kristen’s three, and Aimee’s two, there are more than enough kids to spoil.
” It was a conversation she and Thomas had on more than one occasion.
Neither felt the need to add to their extended family.
They had each other, and that was enough for them.
“Burgers are up!” Nick shouted across the yard. “Kristen, tell the kids!”
Kristen headed toward them, clapping her hands when she reached the pool’s edge. “Lunch time, everyone! Out of the pool!”
Aimee beckoned Nadia and Natalya. “Better grab food before the horde descends.”
Nadia guided Zelie back to her mother and joined the adults gathering around the grill. She gave Thomas a plate and his arm slipped behind her, his fingers sliding to rest in the back pocket of her shorts. He followed her over to the makeshift buffet line.
“Thanks for coming,” Aimee said quietly, spooning potato salad onto her plate.
“Wouldn’t have missed it,” Nadia said. She shared a smile with Aimee.
The past year had been filled with careful conversations, tearful confessions, and a gradual rebuilding of the trust that had been fractured. There were still tense moments, but they were learning to navigate around the wounds with the kind of care that came from nearly losing something precious.
Everyone settled around the tables with loaded plates.
Conversation flowed as easily as the lemonade Aimee’s daughter poured.
Thomas, seated between Nick and Marcus, gradually relaxed.
And Julian regaled them with his predictions for his league’s upcoming surfing competition while Aimee’s son, Fenwick, argued passionately about which Avenger was the strongest.
Most of the kids returned to the pool after lunch, joined by Ian and James. Nick and Thomas claimed lounge chairs in the shade, deep in conversation while Nadia helped clear the tables, falling into an easy rhythm with Aimee and Kristen as they stacked plates and stored leftovers.
“This was a good idea,” she said, closing the lid on a pasta salad.
“The best. Look at them all.” Kristen glanced around the yard with satisfaction.
The afternoon stretched on in lazy contentment until the sliding glass door to the house banged open and Caty burst onto the patio, clutching a picture frame in her hands. “Mom! Look what I found in Uncle Nick’s office.” She rushed to Aimee’s side. “He has the same picture.”
Nadia recognized the photo immediately. It was a duplicate of the one Caty had framed for her mom, which Aimee had reluctantly displayed in her office at the café. The six of them as kids, floating on brightly colored rafts in a pool not much different than this one.
Julian hoisted himself out of the pool and dripped his way over to investigate. “Whoa, Papa, is that you?” He pointed at James in the photo. “You look like Marcus!”
James treaded to the edge, leaned his arms on the coping. “Let me see.”
Soon, all the kids gathered around, exclaiming how much their parents looked like them.
“You should recreate it!” Julian suggested suddenly. “Like those then-and-now photos everyone posts on Instagram.”
“Oh, I don’t think—” Aimee began.
“Yes!” Caty clapped her hands. “Get in the pool, Mom!”
“Yeah, come on!” Kristen’s oldest daughter, Nicole, cheered them on.
Nadia exchanged looks with the adults that ranged from amused to horrified.
“I’m not even wearing a swimsuit,” she protested.
“Neither am I,” Thomas added, coming to stand beside her. Though his eyes held a mischievous glint.
“Since when has that stopped anyone at a Garner pool party?” Nick challenged, already stripping off his T-shirt.
A chorus of “Please!” and “Do it!” chants from the kids wore down their resistance.
“Fine,” Aimee sighed, kicking off her sandals. “But I’m keeping my shorts on.”
One by one, the original six friends entered the pool. Caty posed them with the authority of a film director, holding up the photo for everyone to see. “Uncle Nick, you were on the blue raft. Mom, you were next to James. Aunt Nadia, you’re in front of Thomas.”
Julian grabbed Nick’s phone. “I’ll take the picture.”
They arranged themselves approximately as they had been thirty years ago, though without rafts and with considerable more laughter.
“This is ridiculous,” Kristen giggled when Nick tried to dunk her.
Julian took several photos before Nicole demanded to see the results. “This is terrible,” she teased Julian, taking the phone from him. “The angle is all wrong. I’ll do it.”
For the next few minutes, Nicole directed them into various poses, demanding they move closer, smile more naturally, stop making faces. She pointed at her dad with a warning finger.
“Everybody now!” Caty shouted when Nicole seemed satisfied with the original group shot.
Ian didn’t need to be told twice. He jumped into the pool with a splash that had Aimee shrieking.
Natalya slipped in more gracefully, treading over to James’s side.
He lifted Zelie from her arms, holding her above the water as she kicked her chubby legs in delight.
Marcus swam up behind them, splashing his family.
When everyone was assembled, a chaotic mix of ages and heights, all crowded together in the shallow end, Nicole positioned herself in the shot and held up the phone for a selfie. “Say ‘Monkey butt!’”
“MONKEY BUTT!” everyone shouted and dissolved into laughter.
Nicole peered at the phone and gave them all a brilliant smile. “It’s perfect.”
Thomas slipped his arms around Nadia’s waist, pulling her against him in the water. She tilted her head back to look at him, finding his eyes clear and peaceful.
“Was it worth getting your clothes wet?” she murmured.
His answer was a kiss that tasted of salt water and happiness. “Every drop.”
Around them, their friends and family splashed and played, their laughter rising with the balmy afternoon air.
The photo they’d taken wasn’t just a recreation of their childhood memory.
It had captured something new. Something hard-won and cherished.
Something no longer fractured but healed in all the broken places. Something stronger in the end.
And to Nadia, that meant… everything.