Page 76 of Beachside Kisses With My Best Friend

And when I arrive and don’t see his truck in the driveway, my heart seizes.

Still, maybe there’s a slight chance…

I run inside. “Jay? Ryder?”

But the hallway is dark, and the air feels sad. I peek out back, just in case. But reality settles in.

Nobody’s home.

I’ll have to meet them at the courthouse after all.

And by not being here for him, I’ve fed into Jordan’s biggest fear—that the people he loves won’t show up for him.

But there’s no time to dwell on my mistakes. Only time to fix them. And I suddenly know what I can do to show him I will always have his back. That we all do.

Turning toward the front door, something on the refrigerator catches my eye. A drawing in color—a new one, with a bigRyderscrawled in the corner in red crayon. As I study it, my jaw drops at the picture’s simplicity. At its profoundness. Oh, this sweet, sweet boy…

Mysweet, sweet boy.

I pull the drawing off the fridge, tuck it into my bag, and make a mad dash for my car. I know exactly where I need to be and what I need to do.

I just hope I’m not too late.

twenty-five

JORDAN

The hearing starts in ten minutes, and my tie is choking me.

Reaching up, I give it a tug while I walk up and down the courthouse steps. It’s a relatively small building as far as courthouses go, an attractive white with a red-tiled roof. A round planter with flowers between the steps and the front doors. Some pleasant grassy areas where court employees eat their lunch on this blustery, beautiful day.

But all of that means nothing.

Because inside, the fate of my family will be determined.

And my wife—the woman who said she’d always have my back, no matter what—isn’t here yet.

“She’ll be here.” Mom sits on the edge of the stone planter. She drove down with me and Ryder, who is currently in the care of my older sister Claire. Dad couldn’t be bothered to show up, but at least my sister—who I’m not even as close to as I’d like to be—took the day off work from her fancy banker job in San Francisco to help look after my son during the hearing. They’re sequestered away in a room next to the courtroom where Judge Eli Terpstra will preside over our hearing. “Traffic’s really bad, what with that construction on the highway. It’s a good thing we left extra early, or we’d have been slowed down too.”

“Maybe.” I check my watch again before running my hands down the sides of my face, smooth from my morning visit to the Golden Highlight for a haircut and shave. “I already don’t know how I’m possibly going to win this hearing, but it’s going to look especially bad if my wife doesn’t even show.”

“Oh, Jordan.” Mom looks extra tired, and I feel terrible that she’s here in the middle of a flare-up. But when I saw her condition and mentioned she should stay home with Dad, she lifted her chin and said nothing was keeping her from being here to support me today. And I’ll admit, I was so grateful I didn’t have the energy to try to stop her. “Your attorney still doesn’t have much confidence?”

We didn’t have a chance to talk in the car since Ryder was right there and I’ve tried to keep him in the dark about why we’re here today. He just knows he’s hanging with Auntie Claire and might have to talk to a judge in a really cool courtroom like the one inBee Movie.

“Sam wants me to let him do all the talking, for me not to testify.”

“That’s silly. How are you supposed to show the judge you’re a stand-up guy, that you don’t have anything to hide?”

“But I lied, Mom.”

“What lie did you tell? You’ve loved that girl forever.”

“But she didn’t love me.” And I’m still not sure she really does—not if it was so easy for her to leave last night.

I guess that’s not fair. She did look wrecked. And yet, when I watched the taillights of her car driving down the road, the gut punch felt the same either way.

“The judge will think I lied or tricked Marilee. Either way, it’s not a good look.” I sit beside Mom. “And Sam just doesn’t want to give Constance and Larry’s lawyer a chance to pounce on me. She’s pretty tough, I guess.”

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