Lisa Carter - Hometown Reunion

He laughed. In the old days, she’d always managed to make him laugh. Most of all, at himself. “I meant hit me with your terms.”

She leaned forward, elbows on the table. “I’ll teach you what I know about the business, but after Labor Day I’m leaving the Shore to run Shirley’s operation in the Keys. You’ll have three months to get up to speed, but after that you’re on your own.”

Just when he returned, she was leaving? The sunshine girl headed to the Sunshine State. But she’d offered him an olive branch. A truce in their long-running battle of hostility.

“You were gone a long time.” She settled into her chair. “Why didn’t you ever come back?”

“I was nineteen the first time I deployed, Darcy.” He took a deep breath. “Somewhere along the way, I got lost.”

“Lost how?”

His shoulders rose and fell. “Let’s just say I’ve been as far from Kiptohanock as you can find yourself and still be on the same planet.” He looked away. “These last few days since leaving Salt Lake City, I’ve asked myself if it was possible to fit into small town life again. But for Brody’s sake...”

She placed her palms flat on either side of her plate. “It’s because of Brody that I know you’re going to make this work, Jax.”

He frowned. “You’ve got more faith in me than I do in myself right now.”

“You are the king of don’t quit, Jaxon Pruitt.” She smirked. “Obnoxiously so. You’ll rise to the occasion. You always do.”

“Somewhere in there I think there was a compliment.” He ran his fingers through the short ends of his hair. “A very hidden compliment.”

Darcy tilted her head. “And here’s something else I’ve learned about small towns like Kiptohanock.”

He took a swig of sweet tea, as much as anything to give his hands something to do. “What’s that?”

“Sometimes small towns are so out in the middle of nowhere that you have to get lost to find them.”

He gnawed at his lower lip. “You’re saying even lost, I’m right where I should be?”

“Small town life lesson.” She gave him a lopsided smile. “I won’t charge you for that one. But I’ll expect to receive my paycheck as usual at the end of the month.”

“Duly noted.” He rested against the chair. “I never realized until I left how much I’d miss this place.”

“For born heres—” she placed her hand over her heart “—it becomes a part of us.”

“I took being within sight and sound of the water for granted. It’s who we are in the deep places. Over there I lost the best part of myself.” He fiddled with his silverware. “But if you don’t mind me asking—”

“Like that’s ever stopped you before.”

“Why are you leaving, Darcy?”

“The longer I’ve stayed—maybe I’ve overstayed—the more lost I feel.” She averted her eyes. “Perhaps it’s time for me to see if there’s more out there.”

“Does more have to be out there? Not here?”

Her gaze returned to his. “I thought you’d understand, Jax. We’re both all-or-nothing people.”

“You want to know the real reason I didn’t return until now?” His heart drummed in his chest. “I didn’t think there could ever be a place here for me again.”

“But you’re home now, Jax.”

“Am I?” He studied her. “Will you forgive me, Darcy?”

His question was about so much more than what had happened this afternoon.

She looked at him. “I’m here, aren’t I?”

“Can we get back to being friends?” He thrust out his chin. “We were friends, Darcy. Once.”

“Trust might be trickier than merely coming home.”

Jax tightened his jaw. “A chance is all I’m asking.”

His son pushed off from the table. “Pie?”

Bolting to his feet, Jax grabbed for the sliding phone books.

She caught his son underneath his arms. “Whoa, there, Brody Pruitt. What’s the rush?”

His mouth and chin were covered in red sauce. “Me Bwody Pwoo-it, Dawcy.” He raised his sauce-encrusted hands.

She kissed a clean spot on the top of his head. “Yes, you are. And what you are is a big mess.”

Brody threw back his head and belly-laughed.

“You know, Jaxon Pruitt, you have an irresistible son.”

He polished his knuckles on his shirt. “Like father, like son.”

“You wish.”

Smiling, he cut Brody a sliver of pie while Darcy made a valiant attempt to restore a semblance of cleanliness to his son.

After dessert, she took out a small plastic bottle from the shopping bag. “Bubbles, Brody. Let’s go out back.”

She guided him down the deck stairs to the tree-studded, sloping lawn. The meandering tidal creek glistened like multicolored jewels in the rainbow hue of the fiery sunset.

Darcy handed Jax a large bubble wand. “This one’s for you.”

Brody quivered with excitement. She dabbed the tiny stick in the solution. And pursing her lips, she blew across the wand.

A single bubble hung suspended before a soft breeze off the salt marsh lifted it into the air. They watched as the bubble rose higher and higher until it disappeared over the trees.

“Oh, Dawcy...” For the first time since Adrienne’s death, Brody smiled.

Darcy’s eyes welled and cut to Jax. His eyelids burned. She understood what this moment meant.

“Thank you, Darce.”

As soon as he said the old nickname, he remembered how she hated it. Yet old habits died hard. Like old loves?

But this time, a smile flitted across her lips. “You’re welcome, Jax.”

His son bounced, a human pogo stick. “Mow, Dawcy. Mow.”

“Sure thing.” She blew another bubble.

Brody’s arms reached above his head.

She motioned. “Go get it, Brody.”

He raced after the bubble. Buoyant on the wind, it eluded his grasp. She blew bubble after bubble as Brody gave chase. His son laughed and laughed. As if making up for lost time.

Happiness. Peace. Contentment. Always just out of Jax’s grasp, too. Eluding him all these years.

“Watch this, Brody,” she called.

Brody wheeled.

She nudged Jax. “Bend a little and close your eyes.”

He obliged, and she leaned closer. Close enough for him to feel her breath on his face as she blew gently across the small wand.

A bubble tickled his eyelids and danced like a frolicking ladybug across his skin. A caress. A whisper. A promise?

Brody clapped his hands. “Me, Dawcy. Me.”

“You can open your eyes, Jax.”

So he did. Her own eyes hooded, she touched her finger to the cleft in his chin. Just for a second before she moved to his son.

Brody chuckled when the bubbles brushed his shuttered eyelids. “Me do you, Dawcy.”

Keeping hold of the bottle, she let Brody dip the stick into the liquid.

“Cwoser, Dawcy. Cwoser.”

Jax rubbed his forehead. “He has trouble with l ’s, too.”

Crouching to Brody’s height, she clamped her eyes shut. And flinched when what she got from him was more spit than bubble.

“Way to take one for the team, Darce.”

She shoulder-butted him. “Your turn, soldier.”

“At your peril, Darcy Parks.” He stepped back, yanking the large bubble wand from its sheath.

“Ooh...” Brody’s eyes rounded.

Brandishing it like a saber, Jax smiled, slashing the air between them. She smiled back at him.

And he knew she remembered childhood escapades involving pretend pirates in the tree house. Zorro and intergalactic warfare, too. They’d made it up as they went along. Like now?

He whirled, loosing a giant bubble blob. Brody cackled with sheer delight.

Darcy ran toward the creek. “Catch it, Brody!”

The toddler raced after her as fast as his small legs allowed. He stumbled, but she was there, sweeping him into her arms.