Page 31 of Play With Me

I realized I’m still just staring at them, so I set the glasses I’m wearing down and pull this pair on. The prescription is all off—my eyesight is terrible, and these are not even close to strong enough—but I can take in enough to see Jude’s got a fist against his mouth and looking sideways, his face going pink.

“I don’t like them. I love them!”

“Wow!” Cap says. They’re so cool!”

“So cool,” Jude gasps.

“You think so?” I lift my chin.

When Jude manages amm-hmmthat’s so tight I can tell he’s pinching in a laugh, I look down my nose at him.

Of course the frames nearly fall off. I shove them right back up. It doesn’t matter that they don’t fit and are the most absurd things I’d ever seen.

“They’re perfect,” I tell Cap. “Just need a tiny adjustment to the prescription so I can see a little better.”

“Here.” Jude reaches up to grasp the glasses in his fingers. I catch the scent of his soap at his wrist and fight the urge to turn into it.

“Thanks.” I grope for my regular glasses and affix them back on my face.

“Okay!” Cap claps. “Open the rest!”

The rest of the present is an assortment of items from back home in Quince Valley. A metal bookmark bearing the logo of my favorite bookshop. A miniature painting of the Quince River Jude says his sister Chelsea made for me. A mug from Betsey’s Cafe, and—I gasp, pulling out a mangled pastry in a plastic sandwich bag. “Is this—?”

“Your favorite muffin from Betsey’s!” Cap says, beaming.

“Cap’s idea again,” Jude says.

“But you told me what her favorite was, Dad.”

The muffin looks far from edible, but Cap looks so pleased I pull a piece out and pop it in my mouth, moaning appreciatively before helping it down with a giant sip of water. I dab at my mouth with a napkin, swallowing the last of the dry pastry. “This is the nicest gift I’ve ever been given.” I press my hand against my camera. “Except maybe for this.”

“We got you that too!” Cap exclaims proudly.

I laugh. “I remember. I love all of it. Thank you, sweetheart.”

Cap throws his arms around me. I want to stay just like this.

“So can we get the hot chocolates now?” Cap asks, pulling away and bouncing up and down.

“Yeah,” Jude says, his face yet again holding an expression I can’t read as he looks at us. “I’ll get them.”

He abruptly stands up.

Then Cap’s on me, asking if I want to play a round of attack checkers with him.

The next thing I know we’re lobbing chips all over the table, both of us laughing our butts off.

Cap wasn’t kidding, the hot chocolates are monstrous, and for the next while we load up on sugar while getting caught up on everything back home—and not at home. We talk about my friend and Jude’s future sister-in-law Reese Franco taking the world by storm with her singing career. About Chelsea and Seamus’s new baby—“Finally, I have a cousin!”—Cap says, his voice exasperated. “But she isn’t even old enough to do anything yet.” Jude informs me his oldest sister Cass and her fiancé Blake are finally getting married this spring, and how even though the renovations are done at the hotel, they’re going to get married at Blake’s brother’s place. “He’s a kazillionaire,” Cap reminds me.

They ask me about school, and what I’m taking videos of these days. I tell them about the work I’m doing at the senior’s center, but when I think about mentioning the documentary contest, I bite my tongue. I don’t even know if I’m going to enter that.

We’re nearly done with our hot chocolates when Jude glances at his watch, and I’m reminded how short our time is together. Not just today, but over the next few days.

My heart already hurts at the thought of them leaving.

But I’ve done it before. I can do it again.

“Where are you meeting?” I ask Jude as Cap slurps the last of his hot chocolate.

---