Page 65 of Ticket to You

Just hearing his mother say his full name is enough to make Jude shrink. The others in the room all snicker at him.

“I apologize for my sons, Ophelia,” David says as he tops the breakfast potatoes with fresh herbs. He shakes his silver-streaked hair away from his face. “It’s rare they have someone new to pick on.”

“I’ll think of it as an initiation,” I say. Each of the siblings turn to smile at me. “How can I help with breakfast?”

David sets a hand on my shoulder lovingly, and I briefly wonder how he and Naomi were ever married. “You’re our guest. And we like to spoil our girls. Go relax, and we’ll have the food ready in a few.”

Eloise welcomes me to the table with literal open arms, grabbing me in a quick hug and pulling me down to sit by her on the bench. We talk about her residency until the boys bring breakfast to the table, arranging all of it around the vase of fresh pink peonies. In addition to the potatoes and pancakes, there’s cut fruit and scrambled eggs. Adam sits beside me, looking happy enough to squeeze his thigh against mine so we can fit as many people as possible on the bench. Under the table, Adam grabs my knee with one hand, circling it with his thumb.

“Do you mind if I say a few words, Naomi?” David asks.

She shrugs, picking her newspaper back up. That is “yes” enough for David, because he continues.

“Ophelia, I want to express how grateful I am—how gratefulweare—to have you here. Thank you for putting up with all of us and our…initiation as you call it.” He winks.

My eyes flick to Naomi, who is peering at me from behindThe Times. I offer her my best smile. “Thankyou, all of you. It has been great to meet Adam’s family. You’re not as half as bad as he warned me you would be.”

Everyone but Naomi laughs.

* * *

After brunch,Adam’s brothers drag me away from him, insisting they show me his old high school yearbooks. They point him out in the swim team photo, making fun of his Speedo. They tell me about when they convinced him to ask a senior to the homecoming dance when he was only a freshman—and got turned down in front of the whole school. They proudly show off Adam’s picture on his senior superlative page where he was voted Biggest Overachiever.

Though Joel, Micah, and Jude beg me to go through more embarrassing pictures of Adam, I miss him, even after just an hour apart. His brothers agree to let me invite him on their trip down memory lane. It takes me a while to find my way through the long hallways and back downstairs, but when I finally get back to the great room, I see that Adam and Eloise are the only ones in there.

Both of them are sprawled out on the couch, their shoes kicked off. I stand in the archway to the room for a minute, observing them. They keep their eyes closed as they talk, fully at peace with each other.

“I love Philly,” Eloise exhales. Micah gave me that nickname this morning, and every time I hear it, I can’t help but smile. “You knocked it out of the park.”

“She’s great—so much more than great.” Adam pauses, smiling to himself. “I’ve never met someone like her. She’s brilliant and talented and witty—”

“And gorgeous.”

“Which doesn’t hurt,” Adam says.

A beat of silence passes and I see Eloise bite her lip. “I’m sorry about Mom. She’ll come around.”

“What if she doesn’t? She’s the reason our brothers haven’t been able to settle down with anyone. She thinks nobody is good enough for her kids.”

“She just wants what’s best for you, Adam.”

“Ophelia is what’s best for me.”

Eloise doesn’t disagree.

34

ADAM

Ever since Itold my parents that I wanted to be a journalist, every phone call and every visit I share with Mom has been filled with a lecture about my lifestyle.You can’t make lasting relationships if you’re always on the road. How will you ever start a family if you’re not in one place long enough to meet a woman? If you’re constantly traveling, we’ll never see you.On and on and on.

Mom was right, I guess. Thanks to my transient career, I don’t come home often. On the rare occasion I can, however, Mom usually tries to take off work. She uses it as an opportunity to spend more time doubling down on her efforts to convince me to make a career change, to slow things down, to settle down. Because of that, my visits almost always end in an argument between us. At first, her efforts made some sense to me, when I was eighteen and starting college or when I was just starting atOutdoorsy Magazine. I assumed that by the time I was older and had stability in my career, Mom would lay off a bit.

I haven’t been so lucky.

So today, with Mom leaving for work as soon as we’ve cleaned up brunch, there’s only one likely explanation. And just like last night, I feel a fire burning hot within me in response.

The only thing that saves this situation is Ophelia’s apparent ignorance of the significance of Mom’s absence. She seems happy enough to spend the day with the rest of my family.

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