The Family He Didn't Expect

by Shirley Jump

  “Thanks, Jack.” Dylan turned to go back down the hill. Eastern side? Maybe Cody had taken the boat out fishing. Or maybe it wasn’t Cody at all and Dylan was chasing his own tail.

  “Hey, Dylan?”

  He turned back. “Yeah?”

  “It’s good to have you back in town. Maybe after you get this Cody thing straightened out, you could come to dinner at my house. Meri would love to see you, too.”

  Meri, clearly now Jack’s wife, given the gold ring on Jack’s left hand. “Sure. That’d be great.” He didn’t want to tell Jack that his time in Stone Gap was limited and the chances of dinner with them were slim. He thanked him again, then jogged down to the pier and untied Ray’s flat-bottom fishing boat from the cleats.

  There was water in the boat, from the rainstorm. Dylan scooped it out with furious moves, then turned to start the motor. The engine took a couple good pulls before it finally roared to life.

  Dylan steered the boat through the lake, scanning the wide expanse of water. He headed east, passing Uncle Ty’s favorite fishing spot on the way. No pontoon. No Cody.

  Dylan pushed the little outboard to go faster. He skirted the outside of the lake, then slowed to skim past the thick pocket of lilies that carpeted the water between the tiny island in the center of Stone Gap Lake and the water’s edge. Just as he rounded the island, he saw the pontoon.

  And Cody, sitting on the seats at the bow, his head on his knees. Relief flooded Dylan. He took out his cell phone to call Abby, but out here on the lake, he didn’t have a signal.

  Dylan pulled up alongside the pontoon, tied the fishing boat to the railing, then climbed aboard. “Cody! Hey, dude, we’ve been looking all over for you.”

  The teenager scowled. “I didn’t want to be found. I wanted to get out of here for a while.”

  He could have been parroting back Dylan’s exact words when he was that age. He could see the anger and distance in the set of Cody’s jaw, the hardness of his shoulders.

  Was anything Dylan could say going to make it better? Or would he only send Cody in the wrong direction again?

  He thought of that long drive home with Uncle Ty all those years ago, the words his uncle had said. Words Dylan hadn’t been ready to hear then, but maybe Cody would respond differently.

  Dylan lowered himself to the bench seat beside Cody. “Your mom said you were thinking of going to your dad’s house in Georgia.”

  “Yeah, well, he doesn’t want to see me. I called him and he said he was busy and maybe he could get me a plane ticket sometime instead.” Cody cursed. “I should have known he wasn’t going to change.”

  Dylan’s heart broke for Cody. He knew that disappointment. He wished he could wave a magic wand and make everything better, but life wasn’t a movie that ended with happy tears and rolling credits.

  “Some people never change,” Dylan said. “But if you ask me, your dad is the one losing out, not you. You’re a great kid, Cody. You’re smart and strong and so good to Jake.” Much like Sam had been with Dylan.

  Cody lifted his head. “You think I’m a great kid?”

  “Yeah, I do. I’ve really enjoyed getting to know you and spending time with you while I’ve been here.”

  Cody picked at the railing, his gaze averted. “My mom says you’re leaving.”

  “I have a job in Maine. So yes, I am leaving.” But the thought made Dylan’s chest ache. He looked out over the glass-smooth water, sparkling in the bright sun. It was a perfect day to be out here, absorbing some peace and quiet. He was going to miss this lake. Miss—

  This kid. His brother. And most of all, their mom.

  “So you’re gonna be just like my dad and bail.” Cody cursed and got to his feet. “Why don’t you just leave already? We don’t need you.”

  The sharp words slivered through Dylan. He could see the wall going up in Cody again, the boy adding the bricks as fast as he could, to head off another hurt. “I’m not bailing, Cody. I have a job and—”

  “There are jobs here, fixing up houses and running the center and things like that. You told me so yourself. That if I graduated and learned more of this stuff, I could work with a construction crew like you do.”

  “Yes, I could work here. But...” Dylan searched for an explanation, one that Cody would understand. And came up empty. “Maine is where my job is. I’m sorry.”

  “Just go, Dylan.” Cody’s face darkened and he waved Dylan off. “You don’t have to stay here and babysit me. I’m fine.”

  “Then why were you sitting on the bow? Not fishing or moving?”

  “Engine died.” He shrugged. “But I’ll just wait a bit and start it again. I mean, I don’t know much about engines, but I figured maybe it was just overheated or something.”

  There was no way Dylan was going to leave this kid on the water in a boat that wasn’t working. Though honestly, he wasn’t about to leave him until he was safe and back home with his mother.

  “Let me look at the motor.” Dylan waved to Cody. “Come on, you can help me.”

  They went to the back of the boat. Dylan tried starting the outboard himself, but it wouldn’t catch, so he tipped it forward and removed the cover. “We can check the spark plug and the fuel lines. See if the plug is bad or if one of the fuel lines is leaking.” He pointed out the parts to Cody as he went through the engine. “All of this seems to be okay.”

  “Then are we stuck out here?”

  “Nope. Couple more things we can check.” Dylan lowered the engine back into place, then pointed at a hatch. “Open that up and we’ll check the fuel vent.”

  Cody lifted the hatch, looked at the tank below him, then up at Dylan with confusion. “Uh, where’s the fuel vent?”

  “See that circular thing right there, attached to the fuel line? When that gets blocked, the engine can’t draw any fuel and it won’t start.”

  Cody looked inside, peered at the vent. “It looks like there’s some mud in there.”

  “Mud daubers—they’re kind of like wasps—like to build nests in there.” Dylan took out his penknife and handed it to Cody. “Be careful, but go ahead and clean that out.”

  “Me?”

  “You can do it, Code.” Dylan sat back and watched while the teenager cleaned the vent, then closed the hatch. “Okay, try to start it.”

  Cody turned the key. The outboard sputtered for a minute, then roared to life. Pride lit Cody’s face. “I did it.”

  “Yup.” Another victory in the life of a kid who’d had way too much disappointment, especially today. Dylan couldn’t repair all that, but he could fix this moment. “Now, let’s head for home.”

  Cody shook his head. “I can’t do that. My mom’s gonna kill me.”

  “She’ll be mad, yes. But she’ll also be so glad to see you that she’s probably going to hug you for a year.” Now whether Abby would forgive Dylan that quickly was a whole other story. He wasn’t going to put a wager on that, not after their argument this morning.

  Cody fiddled with the steering wheel. “She’s not such a bad mom, is she?”

  “She’s one of the best.” The kind of mom every kid deserved to have. A woman unlike any other that Dylan had ever met.

  Cody let out a long breath. “Is my dad ever going to change?”

  The question hung in the warm October air, heavy and thick. Dylan heard his own voice in Cody’s and would have done anything in that moment to fix everything for the boy. “I don’t know the answer to that, Cody. My dad is still the same as he was when I was a kid. I don’t know if people really change all that much.”

  “But you did, didn’t you? My friend Matt said his mom used to know you. She said you, like, dropped out and stuff, and people thought you were going to end up in jail, cuz you got arrested a lot when you were a kid.”

  Yeah, that was his reputation. People didn’t forget in this town, and he
might as well have tattooed the information on his forehead.

  Except there were some people—Sam, Abby, her sons, Uncle Ty—who didn’t see Dylan’s past when they looked at him. They just saw him, as he was. You’re a good man, Abby had said.

  Words that Dylan still wasn’t sure he believed. He wondered if Abby still believed them, or if he’d let her down too much, too.

  “Once. I got arrested once,” Dylan said to Cody. “I was young and stupid and didn’t listen to anyone. My brother bailed me out and the charges were dropped, but it could have ended much, much worse, Cody. And yes, I did drop out, and floated around for years before I finally figured out what I wanted. If I could go back and do it all over again, I’d do a lot of things differently.”

  Cody waved that off. “All adults say that.”

  “Because it’s true.” Dylan glanced out over the water. “You know, you’ve got a great mom, a great life here. And a great future, if you just accept it instead of running from it. I ran from my life for too long, and I don’t want to do that anymore. There’s something nice about knowing where you’re going to be tomorrow and the day after that.”

  Cody thought about that for a second. “And where are you going to be, Dylan?”

  Dylan didn’t answer. He just took the wheel and steered the pontoon boat back to the dock.

  * * *

  Abby grabbed her car keys and headed out the door. She needed to make another sweep of Stone Gap, and if she still didn’t find Cody, she was going to call the police. Keith had texted to say he heard from Cody and told him not to come to Georgia. That they’d see each other another time.

  At least that took a two-state hitchhiking journey off the table. But it didn’t tell her where her son was.

  She pulled out her phone to call Ty and ask him to keep Jake a little longer when a Jeep pulled in her driveway. Dylan’s car. With Cody in the passenger seat. Thank God.

  Abby barreled down the stairs and flung open the car door. All the worry and anger disappeared the second she saw her son’s face.

  “Mom, I’m sorry—”

  “Thank God you’re okay.” She grabbed Cody in a bear hug, the tightest hug she’d given him since the day he was six and fell off the monkey bars and banged his head on the ground. She’d picked her son up that day and held him tight and long, thinking she would have died if she’d lost him. And now, ten years later, she felt exactly the same way. “I love you, Cody. I’m so glad you’re home.”

  Cody hugged his mother, just as he had when he was six. For the first time in a long time, Abby felt like she had her son truly and totally back. Gratitude overflowed in her heart and spilled out in her tears.

  “Don’t you ever do that again, Cody. You worried me so much.” Her words were muffled by his shoulder.

  “I won’t, Mom. I’m sorry. I wasn’t thinking.”

  “You’re home now. That’s all that matters.” She hugged him tighter still. Over Cody’s head, she saw Dylan. She mouthed thank you. Dylan nodded in return, his face unreadable.

  After a while, Cody drew back. “Hey, where’s Jake?”

  “Over at the community center with Ty.” Abby brushed Cody’s hair off his forehead. He looked embarrassed but didn’t stop her. “We can go over there. I know he’ll be glad to see you.”

  “Why don’t we all go over there?” Dylan said. “Hop in, Abby. I’ll give you a ride.”

  She climbed in the back of the Jeep and the three of them made the short drive to the community center.

  Abby could hardly take her eyes off her son. He’d only been gone a few hours, but it had felt like a lifetime. Later, they would talk, maybe one of those late-night conversations she used to have with Cody before Keith left and Jake came along. She’d make him some hot cocoa and they’d sit at the kitchen table and get back to where they used to be before the schedules and the organization and the turmoil over grades and curfews.

  If there was one thing she’d learned in the last couple of weeks, it was that ditching the schedule sometimes didn’t necessarily result in catastrophe. It was in those moments when she’d had unscripted fun with her boys—fishing, barbecuing, tearing down a wall—when she had seen the connection knit more tightly between the three of them. In the future, she vowed, there’d be far more of that and far less of the rigid lines that had filled her life before.

  As soon as Dylan parked, Cody hopped out and headed inside. Abby lingered by the car. She’d loosened up with her kids in the last few weeks, and it had changed things in good ways, overall. Maybe it was time she loosened the cage she kept around her heart, too, and let someone in again. “Dylan, wait. I wanted to talk to you.”

  He turned back. “Sure.”

  “Thank you so much for finding Cody.” Abby could tell Dylan thank-you a thousand times and it still wouldn’t be enough to express the depths of her gratitude. He didn’t have to help her, didn’t have to come back here, knowing how she blamed him. But he had, and that meant a lot. “How did you do it? I looked everywhere, called all his friends.”

  “I was like him one time, and my uncle found me by thinking about where I would go. So I did the same with him. He said something to me on the fishing boat about how when he was out on the water, nothing bugged him. I thought he might have borrowed Ty’s boat.”

  The fishing trip. Of course. Cody had been open and relaxed that day, back to the son she remembered before his father had left for the second time. “Thank God you did. I was about to call the police and demand they put out a missing person report.” She shook her head, and now that the elation had passed, regret filled all the spaces inside her. “I feel like such a bad mom. How could I not see that he was hurting so badly?”

  Dylan put a hand on her shoulder and met her gaze. “At that age, they’re pretty good at keeping their feelings to themselves. Don’t beat yourself up.”

  She leaned into his touch, into the confidence he had in her. For so long, Abby had felt alone, struggling to balance a thousand things at once. But this man understood her, understood what she was going through. “It’s hard not to. When you’re the mom, you feel responsible for everything.”

  “Cody thinks you’re a great mom, Abby. Actually, he said, ‘she’s not a bad mom.’”

  She laughed. “Well, there’s a rousing endorsement, but I’ll take it.” Coming from a sixteen-year-old, that was the equivalent of a gold medal, Abby figured.

  Dylan stepped forward and tucked an errant lock of her hair behind her ear. She wanted to hold on to that moment, but his hand was already gone. “I think you’re not a bad woman myself.”

  “You’re a good man, Dylan. You really are.” She held his gaze and felt her body warm, responding to him as easily as a flower opening to the midday sun. She liked this man, liked him a lot.

  No, not just liked. Loved.

  She had fallen in love with Dylan Millwright somewhere between tearing down the wall and casting the first fishing line. He was considerate and tender and, most of all, welcomed the package deal that was Abby and her boys. She loved his smile, loved the way he touched her and the way he looked at her. Like maybe...he loved her, too. But instead of asking about that, she slipped into the easier space of a joke. “Not a bad woman, huh? I’ll take that as a compliment, too.”

  “Actually, you’re pretty incredible, Abby.” He cupped her jaw, and his thumb traced over her lips. She wanted him to kiss her. Wanted him to hold her. Wanted him to hold on and never let go. “I’m gonna miss you when I leave.”

  It took a moment. Then the reality of those words hit her, hard and cold. He was leaving. It wasn’t like she hadn’t known this all along, but some silly part of her had hoped he would fall in love with Stone Gap—fall in love with her—and stay. “So you really are going to Maine?”

  He gave her a sad nod. “The job’s starting earlier than I expected so I’m leaving Thursday afternoon.”

>   Less than forty-eight hours. She’d thought he would be here at least until the end of the weekend. But he hadn’t made her any promises, hadn’t made any plans for the future. She should have known better than to fall in love with a man who had no intentions of staying put.

  “That’s what you do, isn’t it? You leave?” She shook her head and willed the tears threatening her eyes to stay back. “Why did I think there was a chance you’d change your mind?”

  “I never promised you anything, Abby. You knew all along that I had to go back to my job.”

  “No, you didn’t promise me. But I thought—” She shook her head, cursed, then drew in a breath. “I thought you had found something here that you couldn’t find in Maine or Virginia or Iowa.”

  Something like me. And my boys.

  Dylan started to protest, but she cut him off. “I’ve got to get inside. My boys and I need to go home. We’ll get a ride from Ty. We’ve had a long day, and I think we just need to order some Chinese food and chill tonight and go back to being a family of three.”

  She didn’t invite him over. Didn’t ask him to join them. They were back to being just three, and Abby told herself that was fine. She was fine. Or...

  She would be fine. Once she forgot about Dylan.

  Just when she’d started to fall for him. To see him as the kind of man she’d always wanted. Before Dylan could stop her, or twist her heart into another knot, Abby turned on her heel and went inside the center. It wasn’t until the door shut behind her that she allowed her tears to fall.

  Chapter Twelve

  Dylan sat in his Jeep on the hill overlooking Stone Gap on Thursday afternoon. The town lay before him, sleepy and still in the warm sunshine. It was the third time he’d sat here and looked at this town. Once to say goodbye, once to say hello. And now—

  The Jeep idled while Dylan debated. If he said goodbye, it would probably be for a long time. The project in Maine was two years’ worth of work, and the scale of the project meant it was something that would undoubtedly eat up all his free time.