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LATER,WHENTHEdetails had been agreed on and Didi had left, and after Steph took the girls back to Lucas’s apartment, where they’d be spending the night, and Ellen and her parents had headed back to Chicago, Lucas wheeled Joe down to the dock, Bryce alongside him.
“Push me in,” Joe said merrily. “Save me the trouble.”
“Dad, don’t even joke about that. You look great. What are we doing down here?”
“I thought we’d take a sail,” Lucas said. “If you don’t mind going out on the water again, Bryce.”
“No, not a bit. I love boats.”
Carol Robinson owned a rarely used sailboat, and when Lucas asked if he could take his uncle out on it, she only charged him a kiss on the cheek. “Use it, use it!” she said. “That Joe is a nice man.”
He and Bryce lifted Joe into the boat, which was a sweet little sloop. Lucas wasn’t a great sailor, but he was good enough to take the boat out; Colleen had taught him back in the day. The past couple of years, when his divorce created too many solitary nights, he’d taken some lessons, too.
The sun was setting, that time of evening when daylight seemed reluctant to go, and filled the air with golden light. Joe sat in the bow and immediately closed his eyes, Lucas in the back with his hand on the rudder, his cousin next to him. The sails caught the wind and the boat slid out into the deep blue water.
Lucas looked at Bryce. “Everything okay?” he asked.
“Sure. Just...I don’t know.”
Maybe the reality of his father’s condition was dawning on him. It was hard to believe it hadn’t yet.
“I miss Paulie,” Bryce said.
Not what Lucas expected to hear. “She’s a good person.”
“Yeah. Doesn’t judge and stuff.”
They rounded Meering Point. A bunch of kids were playing under a waterfall, their gleeful shrieks carrying on the wind. “Bryce,” Lucas said after a minute, “you ever think you sell yourself short?”
Bryce gave him a questioning look.
“You’ve got more going on than you think,” Lucas continued. “You’re like your dad. Heart of gold, not a mean bone in your body. Why do you think you’re so good with animals? And kids? You saw how the girls love you.”
“Yeah, they’re great.” He picked at a hole in his jeans.
“Maybe you need to believe in yourself a little more.”
“Easier said than done,” Bryce said.
Lucas paused. “Why?”
Bryce shrugged and glanced at his father, who appeared to be sound asleep. “I don’t know, Lucas. Maybe because I’ll never be as good as you.”
Lucas blinked.
“I mean, not that there’s a competition. You have a great job—”
“Which I’m leaving.”
“—you married a Forbes—”
“And divorced a Forbes.”
“—and you never left Chicago. Dad thinks you walk on water.” He paused. “That’s why he sent for you. To take care of me, right?”
“Well, not the only reason. But yeah, he’s worried about you. He wants to see you settled.”
Bryce swallowed. “Settled how? Married with kids?”
