“I can?” I ask, my eyebrows pushed together. This is not what I was expecting. I thought she’d ship me off to law school kicking and screaming. I’m not sure how to react. Part of me wants to jump up and down like a little kid but I have to keep playing the grown-up card. Maybe now that she sees me treating myself like an adult, it’s easier for her to do the same.
“It’s not something that I understand, you’re right. Claire was like your father, and don’t tell him this, but even more ambitious than him. So I thought you would be too, but you were so different than Claire. Than all of us.” I’m glad she can see that about me. “But that doesn’t mean I don’t love you. In my way.” She looks out at the water for a moment and then turns back. “Maybe you could go to law school first and see if you like it… then you could…”
“No,” I say quickly. “I’m not doing that, Mom.”
She holds up her hands in defeat. “I don’t know what’s happened to you this summer, but you aren’t the boy barricaded in my pool house all last year.”
I can’t tell if this is a compliment or not. I wasn’t planning on bringing up what I know about what she did to get me the job since it’s beyond our usual level of communication. Instead I say with a casual tone, “I guess your little plan worked.”
She gets up from the settee, adjusts her hair with her hand and touches the corners of her mouth to clear any stray lipstick. She smiles at me with her mouth closed. A happy and knowing grin. “Maybe it did. Maybe it just did.” She turns and walks back to the ballroom.
I did it. I hold my cheeks with my hands and let out a Hayes-inspired, “Woo-doggie!” I told my mom the truth about who I think I want to become. I feel this sense of knowing myself that I’ve never felt before and it rushes through my body making my toes and fingers tingle. I freed myself from law school. At last, I’m going to make my own way in the world.
I watch my mother walking toward the reception and think about the knowing grin she flashed before turning back. I wonder if this is what she’s wanted all along. Not for me to get her permission to follow my own path but for me to finally declare it on my own terms. Is that why she set this all in motion? Maybe she felt guilty about what happened in Chicago and wanted to give me a second chance with Hayes. Maybe she knew how much I needed him to trust my own compass.
But everything with Hayes is a mess. The sudden rush of excitement drains out of my body. He’s flying home right now. Any possibility of reuniting with Hayes is on its way to Boston, without me.
Claire and my niece walk out of the ballroom Gemma runs over and hugs my leg.
“Don’t you want to see Samantha Garcia?” I ask. “I think the show is starting soon.” I pick Gemma up and hold her on my side with her arms wrapped around my neck.
“We wanted to come see you, Uncle Brady,” she says.
“How did it go?” Claire asks.
“It went better than I expected.” I bounce Gemma and turn so she can see out across the water and so I can whisper to Claire, “I’ll give you the details later.”
“Hey, it’s our song,” Gemma says, pulling on the shoulder of my tuxedo.
“What?” I ask. I look inside and see that the performance hasn’t started. “What song?”
“Our song,” she says, and points down. I put her on the ground and once she lands, she starts doing the “Stop! In the Name of Love” dance I taught her.
We look over the terrace railing and down at the public beach. A group of more than two dozen people singing “Stop! In the Name of Love.” There is a man in a tuxedo that is way too big for him on a rock shouting the lyrics through an antique megaphone he’s holding with one arm and conducting the crowd with the other.
“It’s Hayes. It’s him,” I say with equal parts excitement and confusion.
I leave my niece with her mom and run over to where the stairs meet the terrace. I start down the steps as fast as I can. Security is on the landing to prevent people from coming up, but they can’t stop me from leaving the wedding and going down, so I step past the guards as the sound of Hayes’ horribly off-key bass sings, “Stop! In the Name of Love.” Now, I’m racing down the stairs and laughing so hard I can barely see what I’m doing.
By the time I get to the beach he has the crowd of people around him enjoying his insane performance, singing and laughing with him. He jumps on a higher rock and keeps leading them like an orchestra.
“What are you doing here?” I ask, making my way to him. He holds out his hand for me to step up and join him. The crowd around us cheers. I would have thought Hayes would be red with embarrassment but it’s the opposite. He’s smiling proudly. “Grazie tutti. Thank you everybody,” Hayes says, releasing his impromptu chorus.
“I wanted to know if you needed a date for this big fancy wedding I heard about,” he says casually and then lowers the megaphone I recognize from the wall of the hotel.
“Hayes, you’re supposed to be on a flight. Getting ready for medical school. Forgetting about me.” The words tumble out; I’m trying to make sense of what is going on. This is so far beyond his comfort zone. Hayes on a rock singing in front of a group of strangers he’s conducting is part of some other timeline, but then maybe I am finally on the right one.
“I could never forget about you.” His eyes connect with mine and his voice is serious and controlled. “Brady, I’m sorry about managing you the way I did. I realize how it made you feel. You’re right, I want to protect you. I’m always going to want to do that, but I shouldn’t make you feel fragile. Because you aren’t. You’re so strong.”
“Thank you, Hayes. That means a lot to me.”
“I’m sorry I didn’t fight harder for you. After you left, I knew I needed to show you how much you mean to me. I couldn’t wait until we were home to show you. I couldn’t wait a day longer. I want you to know we can make this work. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you what I knew when I found out. I do believe in you. I wanted to show you that I’ll do anything to prove it to you. Even stand on rock in the middle of the beach and serenade you with a bunch of strangers. Brady, I love every part of you.”
“Thank you,” I say and feel the words in my heart. “I know you do. I’m sorry I stormed out. I was devastated by finding out like I did. All my self-doubt came flooding back, but I shouldn’t have doubted you.”
“I gave you reason to, but I’m not going to anymore. I believe in you. I’m going to show you.”
“You know who else believes in me?” I point to myself. “This guy. I told my mom my plans. No law school. Future teacher. Right here.”
