Chapter 17
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
paula
“How do you feel about a walk on the beach?” Tristan asks as we’re watching a movie in the living room. Half of my siblings are on one sofa and, and the others are out. I don’t know if they are with Mom and Dad, but there are only five of us here.
“Isn’t it still cold outside?” Honestly, I want to hang out on the sofa all day. This weekend has been so busy. We’ve done something each day, and being lazy sounds like the perfect way to end this trip. Though I am wondering where my parents ran off to.
“I don’t mean right now.” He pulls me closer to him. This is the moment I don’t want to break. The comfort of being in his arms is more than I ever imagined this could feel like. “It’s supposed to get warmer. I was thinking in a couple of hours.”
“Okay. It’ll give us time to finish this movie.
” I have no clue what’s going on in the movie.
It’s weird and doesn’t make any sense. We should never let Phillip pick the movie.
You’d think we’d learn that by now. I’m sure he loves the movies he decides on, but they aren’t exactly what everyone else likes. Sci-fi movies just aren’t my thing.
“This battle scene is epic,” Phillip whispers. His eyes are wide and laser focused on the TV.
Piper busts out laughing. “This entire movie is corny as hell. The graphics aren’t even that great.”
“Beauty is in the eye of the beholder,” Parker argues. “This is his happy place, don’t ruin it.”
“I guess,” she mutters as she crosses her arms over her chest. I’m with her. I don’t understand what’s so fantastic about this movie. But, he got to the TV first.
One of these days my parents will pick a rental that has TV’s in the bedrooms. I get why they don’t because we’d all ditch each other to do our own thing.
But it’d be nice to be able to zone out to our favorite shows when being around everyone gets to be too much.
The forced bonding time can be a bit too much.
“Sometimes it’s about the storytelling.” Phillip pleads his case. “I’ve seen some of the stuff you watch, and it doesn’t appeal to me, but it has you hooked. It’s not a bad thing to expand your horizons.”
“Can we all just watch the movie?” I groan. If I don’t put an end to this conversation, it’ll turn into a debate and ruin the lazy mood.
“Thank you, Paula,” Phillip says. I didn’t do it so he could enjoy it, but so this doesn’t turn into a whole thing. It’s not something I feel like dealing with this morning, and I won’t allow bickering to overtake the morning.
“Hey,” Tristan whispers in my ear. “The movie is over.”
“Huh?” I open my eyes and see him leaning over me. I guess I feel asleep. The last thing I remember is watching a fight on screen, apparently the movie is full of those. It was like I blinked and it was over.
“The movie is over, and you’ll be happy to know there wasn’t any more fighting.”
“That’s good.” I sit up and rub my eyes. “We can go on that walk now. I need to move my body.”
“I’ll grab our jackets in case we need them.” He moves out from beside me and heads toward the room.
My body feels stiff and I stand, stretching my arms over my head.
This is why I stopped falling asleep on the sofa.
My body always feels like it’s been in a ten round fight.
I refuse to believe it’s because I’m getting older.
Maybe this is the argument I’ll give Mom for the next vacation spot to have a TV in the room.
Tristan comes back into the room, with jackets in hand. “Are you ready to head out?”
“Yep.” I move toward him and he helps me into the jacket. It doesn’t matter if it’s warmed up outside, I’m always cold so I’ll need it.
“That was an impressive move earlier to keep them from fighting,” he opens the door for us to go out. The door clicks shut behind us. “I need to use those tactics to keep the band in line.”
“You pick up a thing or two when you’re an older sibling. I try to be nicer, but they were going to ruin the vibe so I had to be a little more authoritative. They don’t like when I put on the mean big sister hat.”
“Sometimes you have to do things people don’t like.”
We move toward the beach and turn left. It’s opposite from the direction I took the other day. I know his words are meant to remind me I need to tell my family I don’t want to take part in the business, but I don’t want to get into that right now.
We walk in silence for a bit. There are more people on the beach today. Nobody is in the water, of course, but couples walk hand in hand and kids are building sand castles, doing their best not to get wet. It feels like the area is coming to life after the cold snap the past few days.
Tristan breaks the silence. “I know you don’t like talking about the future, but when we get back to Asheville, we’re still going to be a couple, right?”
The doubt in his voice hits me in the heart. “Yes. I told you, I’m stepping out of my comfort zone. We can see how we are together without my family surrounding us. I want to know how we can be when it’s just us.”
He lets out a breath. “Good. We’ll have to figure out how things will work when Crooked Halo goes on tour again, but that’s not for a long time. They are happy to take time off from touring, and hanging out in the new house they bought.”
“Are you going to live with them?” It’ll be hard to have alone time in a house full of people.
“I may have to for a little bit, but I’m hoping that’s not the case. I love those guys, but I can’t live with them long term after seeing them on the road day in and day out.”
“Do you know what kind of place you’re looking for? I can help you look.” If anything, I’m sure my friends and coworkers know of some places. They are more connected to what’s going on in town than I am.
“Probably an apartment for now.” He runs a hand through is hair. “I would look for a house, but I don’t want to rush into that. It’s a big investment, and I want to make sure it’s something I’ll love.”
“Makes sense.” I nod in agreement. “The complex Angie lived in is nice.”
“Cool. I’ll get the information from her.”
That seems to conclude our talk of the future for now.
It’s not something we need to worry about.
We said we were going to take things one day at a time.
Looking too far forward is terrifying. As much as I want to think this could be the real thing and last forever.
I still have to protect my heart…even though it’s losing the battle and falling for him each passing moment.
He takes his jacket off and lays it on the ground before taking a seat.
He pulls me down in front of him and cradles my body with his.
The sound of the waves rolling over each other, and families playing is just what I need to calm any doubts and fears I have it.
It’s uncanny how well he reads me, and know what I need before I do.
“There you are.” Mom’s voice pulls me out of the moment. I’m not sure how long we’ve been out here. I didn’t think to grab my phone. I didn’t want to be interrupted by anyone, but it seems they sought us out anyway.
Shielding my eyes from the sun, I glance up. It’s not only my mom, but the entire freaking family.
“What did you do? Form a search party?”
“Sort of?” Piper shrugs her shoulders. “You didn’t answer your phone, and figured out here was the best bet of finding you. Plus, I knew y’all were going to be out here somewhere. It was a matter of picking a direction.”
My sister knows me too well. “Well, you found us. What’s up?”
This time Peter comes to the front with a football in his hand. He tosses it up and catches it. “How about a friendly game of football?”
“You brought a football with you?” It shouldn’t be shocking. Outside of working, the only thing he loves more is sports.
“No.” He shakes his head. “I bought it when we were out earlier.”
“You realize none of us are as young as we used to be, right? We can’t be tackling each other to the ground. We might break something.”
He extends his hand to help me up. “You’re only as old as you feel. But we’ll keep it flag so we don’t accidentally take each other out.”
I let him pull me up, and I can feel Tristan stand behind me. “We don’t have any—”
He cuts me off, letting go of my hand, he pulls something out of his pocket. They are thin strips of fabric with velcro on the ends. “You were saying?”
“Smart ass,” I mumble. All it does is make him laugh. He knows I hate when he’s thought of everything. Apparently, all my siblings know me better than I thought they did, even the ones I’m not as close to. “How are we going to divide up in teams?”
Growing up when we did things like this, we always had the same dynamic. Me, Piper and Parker against Pierce, Peter and Phillip. It used to irritate Phillip when he’d be stuck on Pierce’s team.
“Since I’m the odd one out, I’m picking the teams.” Mom says. “No offense, but I don’t trust any of you to not accidentally knock me down.”
She’s a smart woman. It wouldn’t be intentional, but we have a habit of getting rowdy when we’re trying to win. It’s the competitive nature all of us share. I’m almost certain it’s a trait we got from Dad.
“Tristan, Piper, Peter and Paul. The four of you are on a team.”
“Wait,” I blurt out. “Dad’s playing?”
“How could I miss out on this?” He laughs at me. “Y’all are going down.”
“Oh my God, Dad. Don’t ever say that again.” Parker groans. “You sound like you’re trying to be young and cool.”
“I am young and cool. You can’t deny it.”
Well, at least we know where Parker gets being full of himself from.
“Y’all take a few minutes to get ready.” She points at Tristan’s jacket and asks, “Is it okay if I sit here?”
Tristan rushes over to her. “Yes, ma’am. Do you want me to shake some of the sand off?”
“It’s fine. It’s not like there won’t be more.” She sits down and crosses her legs in front of her. I’ve never seen her sit like that in my adult years. It’s weird and she looks childlike.
As stressful as this trip has been on me mentally, I’m glad we’re all coming together like this, even if I am on a team with Pierce. This is where it’ll get interesting.
I motion for my brothers to gather around. “Okay, who are we targeting?”
“My money is on Piper. You know she sucks at sports,” Parker says.
“Oh, I was going to say Dad. I’ve never once in my life seen him play anything.”
“Don’t discount him too easily,” Pierce replies. “He does a lot of the heavy lifting at the winery.”
I didn’t know that. “Why? Shouldn’t one of y’all be doing it?”
“Because he’s as stubborn as a damn mule.” Parker states. “We tell him we’ll get it and he sends off to do something else so he can handle it. It’s no wonder all of us are the way we are.”
He’s not wrong on that aspect. I thought for a second Pierce was going to add some bullshit about me coming back to work there, but he didn’t. He let it go for now.
“Okay, so Dad’s out. I’m not sure how Tristan is with sports. I know he was in theatre in high school. He also lifts and moves around the equipment for Crooked Halo. So, he might have braun, but I don’t know if he has speed.”
Pierce lifts his head to see what the other team is doing and then comes back to us. “Okay, we’re going to need some man-on-man defense. Parker, you need to stick with Piper. She doesn’t think you’ll take her flag since you’re the next youngest.”
“She should know better.” Parker grins and claps his hands together. He’s about to make her life hell.
“Phillip, you’ve got Dad. I’ve got Peter in case he forgets we’re playing flag football. Paula, you’re on your boyfriend.” He puts his hand in the middle and waits for all of us to join him. “Remember, we go for the win. No emotions”
“Got it.” We lift our hands in the air and take our positions in front of the rest of our family.
Tristan thought we got excited when we play cards. He has no head what’s about to happen. He should be lucky he got me. I know Pierce said no emotions, but I can’t throw him into this without some sort of warm up.
Mom cups her hands over her mouth. “Are y’all ready?” After we all nod, she grins. “Let the game begin.”
We don’t bother flipping a coin to see who gets the ball first because we know Peter isn’t going to let go of it until he snaps it to one of his players. He bends over and calls out some ridiculous sounding play and hikes it to Dad.
Piper runs toward the outside with Parker on her heels. Pierce is trying to keep Peter from getting the ball again. Apparently, they picked the same line up as we did because Tristan is waiting to see where the ball goes. Dad over throws it to him and it’s my time to shine.
I rush to get it, but Tristan is right there in front of me, reaching for the ball. I lose my footing and fall backward. He continues running with the ball. I guess he got the no emotions memo.