Page 168 of Tides That Bind

“Thanks, but I’m about to clock in. I just wanted to be the one who brought Tides home.”

The wordhomeisn’t lost on me.

“You’re always welcome here. I know I…had some choice words, but you were his family too.”

“Another time, maybe.” Silas gives a gentle nod before looking down.

I lift my hand and wave. “Anytime, Silas. I mean it. Have a good and safe shift.”

For a few seconds, I wait, watching Silas’s cruiser drive down the street as I did so many times before when Nate was the one heading to work a night shift, leaving me at home with an already sleeping Lucas, and more often than not, Riley raiding my fridge.

When I turn around and face our house, the setting and characters are the same. Lucas is a little bigger. Riley is a little morekept, though the rough play he has joined in on has loosened his hair a bit. But how different we all are from the very first page.

We spend the next few minutes on the front lawn, not in a rush to head inside, Tides chasing Lucas around, always keeping his body between my son and the street even though it’s absent of cars until Finn and Caroline pull into the driveway.

“Oh, are you so happy to be out of doggy-jail?” Caroline can barely greet Tides with a pat on the head before he’s off following Lucas again. “You know, if we played this right, we could’ve filmed the whole thing and sent to CNN. Imagine the public support seeing this kind of reunion. They’d be begging you to file a civil suit for emotional damages against the police.”

Finn rolls his eyes. “Can you think about anything but work forjusta second?”

“It certainly makes for a good story.” I glance at Riley, finding him smiling. “But I’d never sell this out. No way. It’s priceless anyway.”

Finn pulls out his phone. “Well, how about a family photo at least to mark the occasion?”

Riley nods before heading to the stairs, calling for Lucas who comes with Tides never far behind.

Finn is snapping away before I have the chance to say anything likedon’t slouchto Lucas orsitto Tides who wiggles in excitement, accidentally bopping me in the face with his snout so hard I know I’ll have a bruise against my jaw tomorrow. Beside me, I hear and feel Riley laughing, his arm wrapped around me, pulling me in closer and out of Tides’s well deserved, hyperactive orbit.

Our eyes meet and I smile at him instead of at Finn holding his phone to take the photo. I don’t care. I know the picture will be messy with a tail wagging and Lucas laughing so hard you can count his molars.

But it probably will be my favorite one I ever frame.

TWO YEARS LATER

“Shit.”

I pull my tie loose and give it a third try, which seems absolutely ridiculous. A few years ago I didn’t know how to tie a tie. But now? I wear one a few times a week, and yeah, most of the time I feel like I’m playing dress up instead of heading to work.

But the truth is, walking into the office of the non-profit I started, Reestablishing Abilities, feels like as much work as opening up The Surf Shack every day did. Not a lot. I guess whoever saidif you love what you do, you’ll never work a day in your lifewas right. Because it turns out I can feel something as powerful as I do with a board at my feet, tunneling through a breaking wave, something that gives people the help I never had the courage to seek out our ask for.

But today? I feel nervous. And more than I did on our wedding day eight months ago.

“Can I help you with that?”

I look up and find Harper in the doorway to our bedroom.I sigh. “Please.”

“Relax.” She moves forward, straightening the fabric before looping it.

“It’s a big day.”

“It is a big day. But you have nothing to be nervous about. You’re the one who told me that it’s just about paperwork.”

“Of course it’s just about paperwork.” And the truth is, I don’t need official documentation to validate who I am—Lucas's stepfather.

My eyes drift to the desk I’ve shoved in the corner of our bedroom after Harper forbid me from using the dining room table for work. I don’t blame her. It’s like a printer threw up on top of it. But my eyes find one paper in particular that’s framed and hanging to the wall above the desk. It was a Christmas present from Lucas, a handwritten note.

Riley,

Will you adopt me?

---