Page 96 of Dreaming at Seaside
Or something.
“Dad, Austin wants to meet me by the school. Do you mind if I skateboard over?” Evan asked. “I think we’re gonna hang out with everyone for the day, but I can be back by dinner.”
“Don’t you want to spend some time with Grandma and Grandpa?” Caden asked.
“Let him go, honey. We’ll catch up over dinner. Besides, I’m sure his friends are excited to see him.” His mother sliced a piece of bread and wrapped it in a napkin. “Here, Ev. Take this so you’re not hungry.”
“Thanks, Grandma. Okay, Dad?”
“Sure.” For a fleeting second, worry passed through Caden. He knew these boys, and he trusted Evan. Caden took his phone from his pocket and handed it to Evan. “Just call here if you need me. Be back by six, and behave.”
Evan rolled his eyes. “I know.”
Caden’s mother sliced the bread and brought it to the table.
“Sit down, honey. Would you like some tea?” she asked.
“Sure.” He wasn’t the least bit hungry.
His father scrubbed his face with his hand and leaned back in his chair with a loud sigh. “So, parenthood is getting dicey.” Steven had spent thirty years running the construction division of Eastern Pipeline, a company that ran underground piping for commercial buildings. He worked hours outside in the freezing cold and sweltering heat, and when Caden was growing up, he had no patience for laziness, procrastination, or disrespectful behavior.Laziness has no place in a father’s world, and one day you’ll be a father, so get off your butt and get working—on his homework, in the yard; what he was doing didn’t matter. It was the message that mattered, and not only had Caden heard it loud and clear, he’d lived by it.
“You could say dicey. I might use a different word.”
“Caden, is there anything else that’s happened since the break-in? Has Evan admitted to being involved in any of it?” His mother nibbled on a piece of bread, her thin brows knitted together.
“No. He came clean, and there haven’t been any new developments. He’s about a hundred times calmer since all this came out, and without his phone, he’s out of the loop from all that stuff. He also blocked the kids who were involved from his online activities.”Thank goodness.
“What did you hear about the other kids?” Steven asked.
“They admitted to what they did. All of it, and surprisingly, they didn’t try to implicate Evan. But they did admit that they thought if he helped them, I’d look the other way to protect him from getting in trouble with the law.”
His father crossed his thick arms over his chest and looked down his nose at Caden.
“Pop, I took Evan straight to the station once I heard everything he had to say. I wouldn’t have looked the other way.”
His father nodded. “Good, because kids don’t learn a thing if they’re not held accountable for their actions. But then again, I hope you didn’t come down on him too hard with this, because he did snitch, and that takes balls.”
“Steven,” Caden’s mother snapped.
“Sorry. That takes…Aw heck, Amber, that’s the only thing that fits.” His father covered his mother’s hand with his and squeezed.
She shook her head and slid him a loving look that Caden had seen pass between them a million times. As much as it warmed him to see how much they loved each other, it made his heart ache for Bella.
They passed the afternoon with small talk. His parents brought him up to date on friends around Boston, and when his mother hadn’t asked him why he was wearing a broken heart on his sleeve, he felt like he’d dodged a bullet. He knew she’d seen right through his feigned smiles and off-the-cuff answers.
His father liked to be busy, and after they’d exhausted easy conversation, he helped his father mow and edge the yard. Neither Caden nor his father needed much conversation. After that, they ran errands, another favorite pastime of his father. They went to the hardware store, the pharmacy, and finally, the grocery store to pick up a few last-minute items for dinner.
They were heading back to the house when his father pulled over at the ballpark where Caden had played as a kid. He left the car running and sighed. A combination so familiar, it sent a cold rush of air through his chest. When Caden was young and his father wanted to talk with him about something serious, he’d pull up at the ballpark and begin with a sigh.
“What’s up, Pop?” He wasn’t a kid any longer, and the longer the day stretched on, the wider the miles felt between him and Bella, making him feel agitated on top of feeling so stinkin’ sad that he wanted to punch a hole in something.
“Son, obviously whatever’s gotten under your skin isn’t just Evan, because if it was, you never would have let him ride off to see his friends. You want to talk about it?” His father slid his warm brown eyes Caden’s way. Looking at his father’s face was like looking in the reflection of a time machine. They had the same angular nose, the same thin brows and cleft chin, and he knew that in twenty years, Evan would be thinking the same thing about him.
“Not really.” His father couldn’t fix his relationship with Bella. Nothing could, because he’d done the right thing for Evan, no matter how difficult it was for him.
“Fair enough. How about you give me a glimpse into what’s going on anyway, or I’ll have to deal with your mother hounding me until the next time you drag your butt out here. You look about as distraught as you did when you lost George. I know you’re going through a lot with the move, a new station, and Evan, but…” He rubbed his chin.
“It’s nothing I can’t handle.” Caden clenched his jaw against the acidic taste of the lie.
