Page 113 of Late Nights & Love Lines
Beck drops to the floor onto his knees and removes some kind of backpack leash from Ruby. “Listen to me, Ruby. You cango find Kade, but you have to knock on the door and wait for them to let you in. Remember what we said about privacy?”
The little girl is more fidgety than Kade, and I honestly wasn’t sure that was possible.
“Yes, Daddy. I can’t just go bargin’ into people’s rooms. It’s rude.” She extends the U sound to make it a three-syllable word.
“Right. If you don’t knock, we’ll have to go home.”
My two elephants sound on the stairs, and that whole conversation becomes moot.
“I told ya, Miles. I told ya I heard Ruby,” Kade says, running down the hallway, wearing a swim shirt and PJ pants, attempting to slide to a stop in his socks, but he crashes into Beck anyway. The three of them topple to the floor, and I’m thankful Beck isn’t wearing his baby girl this time.
Leaning over the counter, I scan all the shit he dropped to my floor.
“Beck, where’s Cally?”
He sets Kade on his feet, and then lifts Ruby too. “She was being fussy. Lucía and Oliver came over to watch her—they’re sort of their adopted grandparents. Stella wouldn’t be thrilled about her being passed around to so many people anyway, especially with Emmy just being sick. We need a break from the kiddie funk.”
Leo pats the sleeping baby on his chest. “That’s why Ryker isn’t coming out of this carrier.”
Pinching the bridge of my nose, I abandon the picnic dinner I was making for the boys. “What are you talking about?”
“First, I think you need a quick lesson on how small towns work,” Leo says, bumping me out of the way with his hip and packing up the sandwich meat I’d pulled out moments before.
Beck waves to someone walking by the side of my house.
“Who’s that?”
They both ignore me.
“There’s really no such thing as privacy in a small town, Seb. Open-door policies will save you a lot of headaches.”
“That’s why neither of you knocked? Even though Beck had that whole conversation with Ruby?”
Beck scoffs. “Bedrooms are off-limits, but walking into your buddy’s home? It would be weird to knock. It’s like knocking on the door of your childhood home. It just doesn’t happen.”
More people walk by my house with giant pieces of wood held over their heads.
“What the hell’s going on?” I round the island and cross to the other side of the house. “Why are all these people on my property?”
“Relax, Seb. It’s the welcoming committee,” Leo says as if that explains it all. “Remember when I walked in, and I said I apologize in advance?”
“Yes,” I say, rolling my hands to encourage this conversation along.
“Well, I was at Coastal Comfort, talking to Wanda this morning. She’s the owner of the general store,” Leo explains.
“We called her Wanda the Weather Witch when we were kids because she has the uncanny ability to predict storms of the human variety,” Beck says, nodding his head as if that’s a perfectly reasonable explanation. “She knows when shit’s about to hit the fan.”
“Well, I accidentally said that y’all were planning to stay here long-term.” Leo turns his back on us to put my bread back in the pantry.
“And since it’s the middle of summer, they can’t exactly have a welcome parade because of all the tourists,” Beck says, organizing the snacks he has in his bags while his oldest, Emmy, helps line them up in a row.
“Hey, Emmy,” I say, noticing she didn’t run off with the other kids.
“Hi, Mr. Seb. You’re gonna love it here,” she says with a toothy grin. I think she’s in between Miles and Kade in age.
“Anyway,” Leo says. “Since they can’t do the parade in town without jamming up traffic more than it already is, they’re bringing the parade to you.”
“Who is? And what welcome parade?”
