The Family He Didn't Expect

by Shirley Jump

  Uncle Ty had always been more of a father to Dylan than his own father, and his uncle’s praise warmed him. “Thanks.”

  Ty brushed his hands together. “All right. Enough of that emotional crap. Where do we start?”

  “Actually, I have to run over to the home improvement store and pick up the replacement piece of countertop I ordered.” Dylan thumbed toward the paint and brush he had left in the corner. “If you want to finish painting that game cabinet while I’m gone, that would be great.”

  “Sure. Sounds good.”

  “When I get back, I have a few things to finish up here, then I thought I’d check out your truck this afternoon. Sounds like you need a tune-up. And then...” Dylan took in a deep breath. Better to say it sooner than later, even if the anticipation he’d felt earlier when he’d talked to Jay had begun to wither. “I’ve got to go back to Maine a little sooner than I expected. The timeline for the new build got moved up. My boss wants to put me in charge of the entire project, but only if I can get there in the next few days.”

  “That’s great,” Ty said, beaming at his nephew. “I always knew you’d be a success.”

  Dylan scoffed. Success? He wasn’t sure he even thought of himself that way. Sure, he’d gotten his GED, advanced in the construction world until he became a general contractor, but it wasn’t like he’d cured cancer or anything. “Nobody thought I’d be a success.”

  Ty put a hand on his nephew’s heart. “Doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks. If you’re a success in here, then you are. As long as you’re proud of yourself, that’s all that matters.”

  Dylan had never thought about that before. Was he proud of who he was? What he had become in those years since he’d left this town? The man he’d been for the last couple weeks?

  The same man who was leaving all this in his rearview mirror soon?

  Instead of answering those questions, he nodded toward the door. “I should get the countertop.”

  Uncle Ty reached in his back pocket and tugged out his wallet. “Let me pay you for—”

  “You don’t owe me anything, Uncle Ty. Not a single dime.” Dylan pushed the wallet away. “You changed my life when I was younger, and that’s payment enough.”

  “Success, right there.” Ty gave his nephew a wide smile. “That’s what makes me proud of myself, Dylan. It’s not the money I’ve made or the house I’ve bought. It’s opening this place and changing a life, one person at a time. It’s why Virginia and I put so many years into this place and why I’m back again. You change one kid’s life, and I’ll tell you, it’s the best feeling in the world. It’s the kind of feeling that makes you want to stay around and keep on doing that.”

  Dylan grinned. “Is that a hint?”

  “Well, I’m not getting any younger, and this center’s going to need someone to keep it going. Someone young and enthusiastic.” Ty arched a brow. “Hint, hint.”

  Him? Run the center? Dylan had enjoyed his time here, no doubt about that, but he didn’t see himself as the kind of person who should be influencing kids. He didn’t have the steady way that Ty had or Aunt Virginia’s experience. “Nobody could replace you, Uncle Ty.”

  “No, there’s one somebody who could.” Ty gave him another smile, then gestured toward the door. “Go ahead, go get the countertop. I’ll hold down the fort here. But think about what I said, okay?”

  “Yeah.” Dylan walked out of the center and climbed in his Jeep. Uncle Ty was crazy if he thought Dylan should be the one to take over the center. Dylan certainly hadn’t done much to change anyone’s life here in the past week or so—one changed grade for Cody didn’t equal a life-changing moment—and he doubted he’d ever be the kind of role model Ty had been to him.

  No, it was best if he got on the road and got back to Maine. Before he got any more wrapped up in a fantasy life he wasn’t made for having.

  * * *

  Abby tried Dylan’s phone but there was no answer. She tried calling Cody, leaving several messages, but he didn’t answer, either. She drove through town toward the community center, frantic, looking for her son and his bike.

  Nothing. She told herself Cody couldn’t have gone that far. It had only been, what, at most an hour since he left? She didn’t know for sure, and that was what scared her most. Cody could be anywhere by now.

  Maybe he was just blowing off some steam. But no matter how many times she checked her phone, she didn’t see a message from Dylan or Cody.

  “Mommy, where are we going?”

  Jake had sat in the back seat, playing with one of his dinosaurs, unaware of the rising worry in Abby’s mind. “I was thinking we’d stop by and see Dylan, then maybe you can play at Ty’s house today.” She tried to keep her voice light, happy, in the this-is-an-adventure tone. She glanced at Jake in the rearview mirror. “Does that sound good?”

  “Yup. I like Ty. He’s really nice and he made me popcorn. And he likes dinosaurs, too.”

  “That’s great,” Abby said, barely hearing as Jake went on about Ty’s favorite prehistoric creatures. Her mind raced while her gaze darted from one side to the other, peering down every street she passed. No sign of her son, of his bike.

  A little after seven, Abby pulled up to the community center. Dylan’s car wasn’t in the lot, but Ty’s was. She parked, not bothering to stay within the lines, then unbuckled Jake and dashed inside. She slowed her steps when she got inside, said a quick hello to Dylan’s uncle, then plopped Jake in front of the TV. “Why don’t you watch a cartoon while I talk to Ty?”

  “SpongeBob?”

  “Sure, sure.” She handed Jake the remote, then crossed the room to Ty. “Has Cody been here?”

  Ty paused in touching up the paint job on a cabinet that usually held games and books. “No, I haven’t. Isn’t he supposed to be in school?”

  Abby lowered her voice and tried to curb her growing worry and impatience. “He told Jake he was leaving to go see his father. He said that Dylan told him to do it.”

  “Dylan?” Ty’s brows creased. “He wouldn’t tell Cody to run away.”

  But hadn’t Dylan been a runaway himself? Had he told Cody about his life and Cody had taken that as a sign he should do the same? Didn’t it stand to reason that if Dylan could persuade Cody to do his math homework, he could also influence him in running away? Or was she just being overly suspicious because she was worried and scared?

  “Maybe he didn’t. But maybe he just made his choices sound glamorous to a teenager who didn’t need a negative influence.” She let out a gusty sigh. She should have known better than to trust a man who had wanderlust in his blood. “I never should have fallen for him.”

  “Whoa, whoa. Don’t blame this all on Dylan. Let’s talk to Cody first—”

  Abby threw up her hands. “I don’t know where he is. He’s on his bike and he doesn’t have any money, and I don’t know what to do.” Tears burned the backs of her eyes, but she willed them away. She had to hold it together, had to think. “I tried calling Dylan, but he didn’t answer.”

  Ty nodded toward the table. “Left his cell here when he ran over to the home improvement store. He should be back in about a half hour.”

  “I don’t have that kind of time, Ty. I need to find Cody before he does something stupid.” She glanced around the center again, as if she could find her eldest son asleep on a sofa, unnoticed by everyone. All she saw was Jake, thankfully engrossed in the cartoon and unaware of her worry. “Can you stay here, watch Jake and call me if Cody shows up?”

  “Of course. And when Dylan gets back—”

  Dylan. The mistake she’d made. He had gotten close to her and her boys and just when she’d let down her defenses, he’d gone and told Cody something stupid. Or if he hadn’t said the words, he’d at the very least set the example.

  “He’s made things bad enough. I don’t need his help.” Then she turned and headed
out of the building.

  Doing exactly what she should have done all along—relying on herself and no one else.

  Chapter Ten

  They were a family.

  Dylan sat at the stop sign in downtown Stone Gap and watched his brother with his fiancée and his kids in the park. Laughing, smiling. Having fun.

  The kids, both brown-haired like Dylan and Sam had been as kids, were dressed in jackets, with book bags and lunchboxes set on the bench. Probably making a quick stop at the park before school. It seemed like something Sam would do. Sam always had been the nurturing kind. Dylan had no doubt he was an excellent dad.

  Dylan sat at the stop sign, his Jeep idling, for a long time, debating. Then someone pulled up behind him and beeped, forcing him into a decision. Dylan went through the intersection, pulled into a space on the right, then jogged across the street.

  He didn’t know what made him enter the park. Something deep inside him urged him closer to his brother, to that picture-perfect family on the swing set. Maybe it was the sense of things unfinished or the urge to set things right before he left again. Or maybe it was seeing Sam’s kids, laughing and playing together, that reminded him of days like that decades ago.

  When Dylan neared, Sam stopped pushing the swing his daughter was on and raised a brow in surprise. “Dylan. What are you doing here?”

  The distrust in Sam’s voice almost made Dylan turn around. But then he looked at the two kids, a girl about eight and a little boy the same age as Jake, and he saw himself and Sam in their curious faces. Dylan thought of Jake and Cody and how awful it would be if the two of them grew up and stopped talking to each other. Jake clearly idolized Cody, and Cody had a way of being protective and tender with his little brother, much like Sam had always been with Dylan. Before Dylan took several wrong turns and their relationship went south.

  Why had he gone so many years without talking to Sam? Did it really matter what they had said to each other when they were both still young and hot-headed? Dylan’s heart ached for the connection he’d once had with Sam. The memories he’d missed out on, the conversations they hadn’t had.

  More than a decade had passed. Wasn’t it time to let go and move on?

  Dylan took two steps forward. “Meeting my brother’s family, if that’s okay. Sorry it took me so long to get here.”

  Sam glanced at the brunette woman beside him—Katie was her name, Dylan remembered. She gave Sam a slight nod and a tender smile. Sam stepped away from the swing, and Katie slipped into his place and started pushing Libby first, then Henry, alternating between the kids.

  Dylan held his breath. Sam stood there another minute, assessing Dylan. Finally, the steel in Sam’s face eased. The two of them, so alike, so close. Dylan could almost feel the years of animosity rolling back.

  “Better late than never,” Sam said. He reached forward, and drew Dylan into a hug. Dylan held stone still for a second, surprised, then as Sam kept on hugging him, he was five again, scared of the sounds of yet another argument floating up the staircase. Sam telling him it was all going to be all right. Making up a story about a pirate and a hidden treasure, until Sam’s voice drowned out the anger on the floor below them.

  His older brother. Not just a sibling but a friend. A friend he had missed more than he realized.

  “Damn, I’m sorry, Sam, for everything,” Dylan said, drawing back. All the words that Dylan hadn’t spoken, words that had lain in wait for the moment when he was ready to face his past, repair his mistakes. “I didn’t mean to drag you into my trouble all those years ago. I should have called Dad the night I was arrested instead of you but you were...you were my best friend.”

  Sam had been the only one Dylan trusted. The only one he’d ever felt was on his side.

  “Don’t apologize. I’m glad you called me,” Sam said. “Dad would have just yelled at you and probably left you in that police station overnight. I never understood why he had such a beef with you.”

  Dylan had done a lot of thinking about that very fact ever since he’d left home. It had taken years for him to see his father clearly, to understand the anger and criticism. Now he was older, presumably wiser, he could see his father’s viewpoint. Didn’t mean he agreed with it, but it brought some peace to Dylan to know it wasn’t really personal. “I heard him and Mom arguing one time and he said he would have left her a long time ago, except she got pregnant again. I think he just always saw me as the reason he had to work so many hours and not get whatever life he wanted.”

  Sam shook his head in disgust. “That’s just wrong. I’d never think that about one of my kids.”

  “That’s why you’re the kind of dad everyone wishes they had.” Dylan glanced at Henry and Libby, who were clearly happy and content. How would Dylan’s life had been different—or for that matter, Jake and Cody’s lives—with two loving, supportive parents? “That’s why I called you that night. I knew you’d take care of me.”

  And Sam had. After he’d bailed Dylan out, he’d talked to the police and the shop owner, getting them to drop all charges so that Dylan could go free. Then Sam had come home and started lecturing Dylan, not out of some need to emulate their father, Dylan realized now, but out of fear that his little brother was going to end up in jail or worse. Dylan had been too angry in those years to see what his brother had done for him. Too immature to realize that leaving town wasn’t the answer to his problems. Facing them and tackling them was.

  Sam smiled. “You think I’m a good dad?”

  “You know I do. But if you ask me in public, I’ll deny everything.”

  The brothers laughed, then Dylan sighed and faced all the things that he had avoided for so long, all the mistakes he had made. Sam hadn’t let Dylan down—he’d been trying to protect him. Whereas Dylan, caught in misguided resentment, had left Sam alone when he needed support the most. “I’m sorry I missed out on getting to know Libby and Henry earlier. Or not being here after your wife died. I was too caught up in my own crap to be good brother. I’m so, so sorry.”

  “I don’t blame you. Hell, I wouldn’t have talked to me, either.” Sam shook his head. “I said a lot of things to you that night that I never should have. I was young and I was just...”

  “Just what?” Dylan prompted when Sam stopped talking.

  His brother watched his kids swinging for a while. “I was mad. You were leaving, Dylan. Leaving me, leaving me with them. And I was mad that you were getting out of here and I was...staying behind.”

  Dylan had never looked at it that way. For so many years, his own hurt feelings had gotten in the way of him seeing things from Sam’s point of view. When Dylan was away, Sam had handled their parents, dealt with them almost daily. Helped them move to their retirement home in Arizona. “I had no idea. I didn’t leave town because I was mad at you. I left because I didn’t see another way out.”

  Sam considered those words, then waved a hand in dismissal. There was the Sam that Dylan had known as a kid, quick to forgive and forget. “It’s been more than ten years. I think that’s long enough, don’t you?”

  “Yeah,” Dylan said. “More than long enough.”

  Sam’s face broke into a wide grin. He clapped Dylan on the shoulder, then drew him into another hug. And just like that, the brothers erased years of distance. The renewed connection to Sam settled over Dylan like a warm summer day. It was nice. Really nice.

  “Come on, Dylan.” Sam thumbed toward the swing set. “I’d like to introduce you to my family.”

  As they crossed to the playground, Dylan saw Katie’s face light up. She smiled at Sam first, one of those private smiles of someone in love. His brother had the same goofy grin on his face. A little surge of envy ran through Dylan. What would it be like to come home to a woman who smiled at him like that every day? Who made his world light up?

  Like Abby had, in the few days they’d been together. He pushed that thoug
ht away, to deal with when he wasn’t feeling all dorky and sentimental.

  “Dylan, this is my fiancée, Katie,” Sam said. “She’s related to the Barlows, but it’s a long story. I’ll tell you sometime over a beer.” Sam said that as if Dylan was putting down roots. Planning on being here for the next family barbecue or birthday party. The Barlows had—well, every one of them had settled into town. They’d been here for generations, the kind of people who put down roots. Like Sam had.

  Dylan had no doubt that he could return to Stone Gap in ten years and still find the Barlows here, and see Sam and Katie, happier than ever. And where would Dylan be?

  He had no idea. He could be in Maine, he could be in Florida, he could be in Timbuktu. For the first time that he could remember, that thought didn’t fill him with anticipation.

  “Nice to meet you, Katie,” Dylan said. “You must be a patient woman to put up with my brother.”

  Katie smiled up at Sam. “Oh, he’s not so bad.”

  “Yeah, he’s not,” Dylan said. “I’m happy for you both.”

  Sam called over his kids and introduced them. Libby and Henry were both cute, amiable kids. “You guys must know Jake Cooper,” Dylan said. “His mom said you two come to the community center sometimes.”

  Libby nodded. “We go on Tuesdays, when Mom Katie works late. She helps my daddy with his company.”

  Sam chuckled. “I don’t think being a corporate Realtor means I have a company of my own, but yeah, Katie helps me with the accounting.” He wrapped an arm around his soon-to-be-wife. She beamed up at him and put a hand on his chest. “She’s brilliant with numbers.”

  For a second, Dylan wanted to tell Sam about Abby, to add that his girlfriend was brilliant at marketing, that she had helped put the Stone Gap Inn on the map. But calling her his girlfriend implied something more permanent. Something that meant staying in town.

  As he said goodbye to his brother’s family, promising to stop by for dinner the next night, he had to wonder if maybe taking the road out of town had taken him in the wrong direction. Away from the very thing that Sam had and Dylan hadn’t thought he wanted until he saw how precious it was.