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Milo stepped back, looking proud. “I’m a young man now.”
I bit back a smile. He’d turned six earlier this year.
“You are. Now, let me say hello to my brother, young man,” my sister Lori said, sidestepping her son and hugging me, a few hairs sticking out of her long blonde mane tickling my face.
Once she stepped back, Will held out a hand. “Much more manly than hugging.”
“Yeah, we haven’t missed you that much to warrant a hug,” Jace chimed in, shuddering as he uttered the last word. I’d missed these two.
Hailey rolled her eyes. “Well, I want my hug. So out of my way.”
Hailey was a bit shorter than Lori and Val, but her grip was firm. She favored Mom’s side of the family, having inherited Mom’s dark brown eyes and hair.
“Uncle Landon, did you bring presents?” Milo asked the second Hailey let go.
“Of course I did. Wouldn’t dare show my face around here without any. What kind of uncle would I be?”
I brought his present from the foyer, and watching Milo unwrap it was as satisfying as ever. I loved this kid.
“Whoa!” he exclaimed, holding out the soccer ball for everyone to see. “Thank you, Uncle Landon. I promise I won’t lose this one too.”
Laughing, we all headed to the table, where Val proudly pointed to the stuffed turkey. “I know it’s not Thanksgiving, but I was feeling festive. Made it just like Mama’s recipe.”
Jace rubbed his hands together. “Val, I’ll be an honest man. I don’t even remember how Mama’s tasted, but yours is the best turkey. Took me being poisoned by well-wishers to fully appreciate your cooking talents.”
Jace had been nine when our parents died. Young enough not to remember such details. Val and I were ten years older. We’d just started our first semester at Harvard. Our parents had been so proud of us. We’d both received a soccer scholarship, and our coach used to say we’d be drafted to play professionally.
But our parents died in a car accident just before Christmas our sophomore year. Val and I dropped everything, came straight home. We hadn’t even had time to mourn our parents before we realized there was no one around to look after our siblings except us. Will was the second oldest, but still three years younger than we were and not of age.
My father had opened a pub upon emigrating from Ireland, and it had been the bread and butter of our family. My mother had been selling homemade cosmetics, but they had never rendered a profit. There was no way Val and I could return to Harvard. We dropped out and ran the pub while also taking classes at a local college. That hadn’t even been the hardest part. Raising our siblings and helping them through their grief was.
Sometimes I looked at them and still couldn’t believe they were all adults. Jace was playing pro soccer. Hailey was a business consultant. Will was a detective, and Lori ran a popular event-planning agency, while also solo parenting her son. Val was at the helm of her own cosmetics and fragrances company.
Once we’d both graduated college, we dropped the pub in favor of corporate jobs—both the income and the prospects were much better. Val started toying with the idea of making cosmetics. She’d always loved helping Mom. We started the business on the side, and in three short years, it was making enough profit for us to both quit our jobs and focus on the company. My passion and talents lay in software, but I liked working with Val, so I stayed with the company until it was stable enough that she didn’t need me. I started my own company, a software firm that revolutionized payment transactions, at around the same time I met Rachel. We’d moved together to San Jose so I could be right in the heart of the software industry.
“So just to confirm,” Will said, “you’re staying here for two whole weeks? Val says so, but there’s always the risk that she just daydreamed about it.”
“I’m staying for two weeks, so I’ll be here for the Fourth of July too,” I confirmed. “Which means you’re stuck with me.”
Jace waved his hand. “Pfft, Val’s stuck with you. We’ll just drop by for dinner from time to time to take advantage of her cooking skills. You don’t mind if we take advantage, sister dearest, do you?”
Val pointed her fork at him. “As long as you keep bringing dessert, we’re good.”
I turned my attention to Milo. “I heard you’re on vacation, Milo. Would you like some soccer training?”
“Really? Every day?”
Lori put a gentle hand on his arm. “Not every day. I’m sure Uncle Landon has other plans too.”
“I don’t,” I said truthfully. “We’ll see how it goes, buddy, okay? I’m a strict coach, so you might not even want me every day.”
“But I will,” Milo sputtered.
Despite not pursuing soccer professionally, I still had the bug, and I played every Sunday morning in San Jose. Jace was training with Milo regularly, but the boy still loved to play with me.
“Well,” Hailey said slowly, leaning her elbows on her table, training her almond-shaped eyes on me. “Just so we’re clear, I’m monopolizing you on weekends. It’s the only time I’m in town.”
As a business consultant, Hailey traveled to her project locations from Monday through Thursday and was back in LA on Fridays. Both Val and I ran an ongoing campaign to convince Hailey to work with either of us, but we’d been unsuccessful. Every time we brought up the subject, she reminded us that we can hang up our older siblings cloak now that everyone’s an adult. As if. I felt as responsible for them at thirty-four as I did when I was nineteen.
