Page 49 of The Summer We Mended
“Hot dog counts!”Blaze declared.
“Almost,” Cody said, handing him one with a wink.
The kids settled at a small table nearby with their food, occasionally interrupting the adults with questions about ketchup and whether swallowing watermelon seeds caused you to grow a watermelon in your belly.
“I noticed Henry brought his guitar,” Margot said with a bright smile.
“I think it was just second nature to grab it and bring it along,” he said with a soft chuckle.
“Well, if you brought it, I think it’s better out than in the bag,” Cody said with a smile.
Henry hesitated for a moment before he pulled out his guitar.The familiar strum of chords brought an instant hush to the gathering.
“You gonna play ‘Sweet Caroline’?”Margot asked.
“You know it,” Henry said.“But only if everyone sings.”
Anna rolled her eyes fondly.“Do we ever not?”
He launched into the first notes and everyone joined in, shouting the chorus with off-key gusto.Even the kids chimed in, though Maisie mangled the lyrics with impressive creativity.
Claudia wiped a tear of laughter from her eye.“That song is never going to be the same.”
Anna looked over at her mother and the tears that she hadn’t shed.There wasn’t a game night that she remembered that didn’t end in this moment.Uncle Henry playing his guitar and her father singing along to “Sweet Caroline” or whatever other song Uncle Henry could play for him.The two of them could have had a life on the road, maybe, but they were perfectly content with living room concerts.
Uncle Henry, the man who had stoicism on lock, had watery eyes when he ended the song.Anna felt a pang in her chest.She’d never seen her uncle emotional until now.It was a lot to take in, and she was missing her father even more now.
“We needed this,” Claudia said on a sigh.
Anna exhaled, letting herself relax into the evening.“Yeah, we did.”
“Do you remember when we were their age and Dad told us that story about the haunted barn?”
“I didn’t sleep for a week,” Anna admitted.
They laughed until their sides hurt.
As the night wound down, the kids bundled into sleeping bags in the living room.Henry strummed soft lullabies, his voice low and soothing.The adults lingered with warm drinks and tired smiles.
Anna looked around at the faces she loved.Family.Loud, messy, wonderful family.
She leaned her head on Jess’s shoulder.“Let’s do this more often.”
Jess nodded.“Let’s not wait for an excuse.”
Anna smiled, eyes on the glowing tent and the stars beyond.“Deal.”
Anna barely felt the hollow place in her heart over the aching in her belly that remained from laughing so hard.She looked around at the people she loved and felt something like peace.
And that, she thought as her brother smiled at her from across the room, would always be enough.
ChapterNineteen
Lily
On Sunday morning, Lily stood in the front yard with her hands on her hips, staring down the crooked porch step like it had personally wronged her.The morning sun painted everything gold and was getting quite warm, but she still wore the cardigan she had pulled on out of habit, one of David’s old ones.She knew it was time to begin fixing things—not just the porch or the creaky shutters, but herself, as well.A slow, steady restoration, like one of her pottery pieces: cracked, perhaps, but not beyond repair.
She’d swept the porch, cleared cobwebs from the eaves, and dumped a bag of mulch into the beds lining the walkway.It wasn’t much, but it was something.She wiped sweat from her brow with the edge of her sleeve, wondering if it was worth trying to paint the porch rail this week or next, when the soft crunch of gravel came from behind her.
