17. Ian
17
IAN
I walk into the kitchen at noon to find chaos has completely broken out.
“That’s not your fuckin’ taco,” Remy snarls at Linc. “I’m starving and Dom made it for me.”
Remy tries to grab the plate away from Linc, only to have the other man kick him in the shins and practically run to the other side of the room while he shoves the entire thing in his mouth.
“Stupid,” Dom mutters when he catches sight of me standing there. “These idiots are fighting over lunch, even though I’m making plenty for everyone.”
“Doesn’t matter,” Remy grumbles. “I grabbed it first.”
“Yeah,” Linc says around the rest of his prize. “But I’m younger and faster.”
“You guys sound like a bunch of bickering little kids.” I open the fridge and grab a piece of the leftover pizza, not bothering to heat it up before I bite into it, savoring the delicious flavor, even if it is cold.
“What the hell, man?” Remy follows suit and gets his own piece. “How come no one told me we had leftovers?”
“I don’t know why you’re acting like teenagers,” Ben says lazily from the kitchen table, where he is sitting with a sandwich in front of him. “You’re all grown-ass men who can cook for yourselves.”
“Remy’s the child,” Linc points out. “I just ate something delicious.”
Ignoring Remy’s muttering, I sit down next to Ben. “It’s hard when you’re on vacation to do the shit you have to when you’re at home. It’s easier to just slip into a different habit, a different lifestyle when you’re away.”
A series of agreements fill the air, and even Ben has to nod slightly at the statement.
“Do you guys think that BPD is burning to the ground yet?” Logan stuffs a piece of bagel into his mouth. “I mean, there are like five of us here, and no one’s gotten a call yet that they need us back.”
“Don’t jinx us, you dick,” Remy interjects.
I go on, completely ignoring him. “I’m thinking it’s just a flaming hole in the ground at this point.”
“Nah.” Dom shakes his head. “Emma would have gotten a call for us to come back if it was that bad.” He turns off the stove and grabs a massive plate full of steak and all the trimmings that go into a taco, bringing it to the table just in time for all of the women to walk in from the back porch.
“ Tacos ,” Emma squeals. “I love you, Dom. How’d you know?”
The tips of Dom’s ears flush slightly with his wife’s compliment, and it is all I can do to keep from snickering.
When Chloe looks less than pleased with the lunch choice, I nod to the fridge. “There’s leftover pizza. I know you like it cold, too.”
The smile on Chloe’s face says everything and then some as she grabs an entire box of the leftover pizza and brings it over to the table, sitting down with it still in her hands.
“You’re the best,” she says quietly while everyone else goes wild over Dom’s cooking. “I really, really didn’t want to have to eat them for lunch.”
“One day, you’re gonna have to tell me what your big deal is against tacos,” Emma huffs when she sits down on the other side of Chloe. “I don’t get it. They’re delicious.”
Chloe shrugs. “I just don’t like them. I’m more of a ‘pizza and wings with a side of beer’ type of girl.”
“Clearly, she’s lost her mind.” Poppy digs into her own tacos and scoots over to make room for Parker and Kennedy on the other side of the table. “Tacos are life.”
“Nah,” Kennedy says while shoveling a taco onto her plate. “They’re delicious, yeah. But I get where Chloe’s comin’ from. Not everyone needs or has to have tacos. Pizza is the equivalent of her tacos.”
“Why are we talking about this like it’s the most important thing in the world?” Parker leans over and picks up one of the cold pieces of pizza. “Food’s food and it’s all delicious as far as I’m concerned.”
“Out of the mouth of a pregnant woman.” Chloe laughs. “Have you talked to Nox and checked on him and the little one?”
Parker smiles widely before taking a huge bite out of her pizza. “Yep.”
“She’s called like five times a day.” Remy rolls his eyes. “So glad tonight’s the last night here, gotta tell ya. I used to love being away from home on a vacation, but all we wanna do is get home to them.”
Parker nods around her food, and there is a round of quiet agreement.
“We’re gettin’ old.” Chloe looks over at me with a smile on her face. “But I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that. Just maturing.”
“I hope we’re not maturing too much.” Ben pipes up. “We’ve still got the next thing to do on Kevin’s bucket list, and I don’t think old people would be able to get it done.”
“Where are we going?” Chloe’s hand finds mine under the table, and she interlocks our fingers, a telltale sign that she is getting nervous or anxious about something.
Ben sits there, refusing to tell her exactly what we are doing, but I can’t bring myself to care. For the first time since Kevin died, I’m starting to feel like everything will be okay. That after we go home, Chloe and I can find our way back to normal. To each other. Hopefully, I can slide my ring back on her finger and watch her walk down the aisle to me.
“Let’s go already.” Chloe tugs on my hand, and I realize that everyone else has already gotten up, leaving just the two of us in the kitchen.
“Sorry.” I shake my head with a smile. “I was lost in thought.”
Following Chloe outside, I’m actually kind of glad for the fact that we are walking to wherever we are going. Everyone else has already started walking up the driveway, which means that I can snag Chloe for a kiss and hold her hand like I did when we were younger.
“Do you want to run away with me?” she asks suddenly.
Without missing a beat, I squeeze her fingers lightly. “Anywhere. Anytime. Just say the word, Chloe.”
She smiles, leaning her head on my shoulder while we step in sync. Honestly, I never knew how she kept up with my pace, since she is a solid foot shorter than I am.
“Does everyone know you’re such a sap? Or is it just something you do for me when we’re alone?”
Instead of answering her, I do the only logical thing. I flip her up over my shoulder, ignoring the squeal of protest that leaves her lips, and march to the rest of our friends, leaving her propped that way.
“Does anyone here think I’m a sap for the pint-sized terror on my shoulder?”
Chloe pinches me on the ass, but I don’t let her go.
“Absolutely.”
“Yup.”
“Duh.”
“Pussy-whipped.”
“Yes.”
“Aren’t we all for our women?”
The last one comes from Logan, who is watching Poppy with a strange look on his face.
“Told you.” I lift Chloe off my shoulder and let her slide against my body, smiling when I see the flush on her cheeks. “And I’m not complaining about it, either.”
That leaves her silent, and as a group, we walk about a mile up the road until Ben stops suddenly under a massive water tower.
“We’re here.” He claps his hands together. “Someone’s gotta go first.”
We all look at each other, confused.
“Be the first to do what?” Dom glances around. “Are we racing back to the house or something?”
Ben clears his throat and then points up to the water tower. “We’re going up there.”
“Wait.” Chloe’s voice trembles slightly. “He’s got a water tower on his bucket list? That doesn’t make any sense.”
“I don’t know why he picked it,” Ben says. “But he did. My job is to get y’all up the damn thing, and then I get to drink as much as I want tonight because my job is officially done.” He snaps his fingers together sarcastically. “Come on. Someone’s gotta go first.”
“I’ll go.” I squeeze Chloe’s fingers again, this time letting her go when I’m done.
“No way, pretty boy.” Linc and Remy both speak at the same time and then take off to the ladder that leads up.
Parker snorts and then rolls her eyes before looking up carefully. “Anyone think a pregnant lady shouldn’t go up there?”
As tactfully as possible, I shake my head. “I would never, in a million years, try to tell you what you should or shouldn’t do, Parker. If you’re gonna be safe, go for it.”
“Good man.” Parker nods and then follows her husband.
“Smart man,” Dom offers.
“I’ll go last,” Poppy says quietly. “I don’t really like heights.”
One by one, we climb the tower, until all that remains on the ground are Poppy and Logan. Fortunately, we are only like thirty feet up in the air, so we can hear their entire conversation.
“I think I’m going back.” Poppy looks over her shoulder back toward the dirt road that leads to the lake house. “You guys have fun.”
“Stop.” Logan’s quiet order fills the air. “You’re not gonna chicken out. I’m going right behind you. I’ve got you, Poppy. You can trust me.”
“Can I?”
Her question guts me, and I have to swallow my tongue to keep from saying anything. As Logan’s therapist, I know every single issue that the two of them have, and I know why Poppy won’t trust him. Why she shouldn’t trust him. But that doesn’t stop the man I call my friend from pulling her into a scorching embrace, pressing his lips to hers as he cups her face.
Whatever he says to her after that is too muffled for us to hear, but his words get her moving. Poppy climbs the ladder one rung at a time, carefully keeping her eyes locked on the sky, refusing to look down. And Logan climbs right behind her, with one hand on the back of whichever leg of Poppy’s he is closest to at the time, offering his silent support.
When they finally make it to the top, Poppy has the biggest smile on her face that I’ve ever seen.
“I did it,” she breathlessly exclaims.
“You did.” Chloe helps her to take a seat, using the circular bars to hold on to and keep her balance.
“Okay.” Ben clears his throat annoyingly when we are all sitting down. “Kevin had one more letter for Chloe, and he said that I should just go ahead and give it to Ian to read.”
He hands me the envelope, scrawled not with Chloe’s name, but with mine.
While Chloe watches, and the others try to hide the fact that they are staring, I carefully open the back without tearing anything that shouldn’t be. Inside is a single sheet of paper.
“Ian, my brother from another mother. Chloe’s everything to me. She’s all I have left of this world and the only one I’m leaving behind. I don’t have anything to give you or the others who watch out for her for me. I’ve got nothing but this. Look up and around, from the top of this water tower, and you’re gonna see as far as I did when I dragged Chloe to the top of the water tower in Birch when we were little.”
I pause, my voice catching in my throat. It is almost like Kevin sits there next to me, telling me a story rather than having me read his letter.
“I promised her that no matter what, no matter where I went or what happened to me, I’d have her back. I’d protect her. And I would watch her grow up into the beautiful person I know she is. Take care of her, brother. Because I know she’s worth whatever trouble she’s putting you through. And when she tries to say that she’s no trouble, tell her that she’s lying.”
“I hate him,” Chloe whispers, her face full of tears.
“I know you hate me right now, Chloe,” I keep reading. “But I also know you bought those lottery tickets. So, here’s hoping you win a million bucks and can build your own water tower. For now… just know that I might be dead, but I’m always here if you need someone to talk to. Just look up. And I know that’s cheesy as shit, you guys. I don’t believe in heaven. But I do believe in the stars that live in the sky and some sort of higher power. There’s gotta be something, right?”
I cough, unable to keep the tears from leaking over.
“Love her, Ian. The way you have since we were little. Love her and keep her safe. Because at the end of the day, I’m leaving you the most important thing in the world to me. Oh, and Remy… I hope Parker surprises you by having twins. Yeah, I knew you’d be the one to knock up your wife. Linc’s too smart to do it before Kennedy’s taken over the world. She’d gut him with her machete.”
A round of laughter, along with Remy’s uttered words, fills the air and breaks the levity. “The man’s a fuckin’ psychic.” He turns to his wife with a pale face. “We’re not having twins, are we?”
Before Parker can answer him, I keep reading. “I love you all. Thank you for being my family.”
That is it. The end of the letter. And I’m left holding the last remnant of Kevin in my hands. Silence. The afternoon air around us starts to blow gently.
“Did anyone realize that Kevin was the worst of us all?” Chloe asks finally. “We’re all sappy. Even the guys. But for that asshole to go and make this list and write those letters. It’s like he wanted to stick us all in a movie if he died. He’s probably laughing in his grave right now, hysterical over the fact that he got a group of grown-ass people to climb a water tower and cry at his memory.”
“Holy shit,” Logan grinds out. “You’re right.”
Everyone starts talking at once, but all I can do is carefully fold the letter and put it back in the envelope before turning to face the woman I want to spend the rest of my life with.
“He was right, though,” I tell her quietly. “You’re the best kind of trouble.”
Chloe leans forward, pressing her lips to mine. “I know.”
Then she slips down the stairs and smiles broadly up at me while she climbs down.
“Last one home has to cook dinner for everyone!”
Every single woman manages to get down the ladder before the men, but Poppy is last. She goes just as slow going down as she did going up, and by the time she hits the bottom rung, I know somehow they planned it. Especially when she smiles at Logan and he picks her up in his arms, taking off up the road.
I look over at the men I fought next to. The men I’d take a bullet for, and even though we are missing Kevin, I know everything will be alright.
“Race you to the house?”
Every man for himself, we race up the drive, barely out of breath when we all finish at the same time.
“Guess we’re ordering out for dinner.” Chloe smiles down at us from the porch.
When the smile falls off her face a second later, something close to panic fills my veins, and I turn around to see a familiar redhead standing in the drive with a man at her side.
“I think you saved my life.”