A good night’s sleep and resolving things with his immediate family had gone a long way to making Blake feel better about his decision to move home. That and watching his parents absolutely dote on their only grandchild. He’d expected his mom to love having them in the house, but his dad had surprised him. The moment Caroline woke up and wandered sleepy-eyed into the living room, she’d wanted no one but her “Jeep.” None of them knew why she’d suddenly started calling Blake’s father the nickname, but she’d walked right up to her grandfather and said, “Jeep, up?”

He’d melted into a puddle of goo and lifted her into his arms. Then he’d made her a pancake. Then he’d cleaned her up and colored with her. And finally, he’d gone in to work nearly two hours late with a beaming smile on his face.

His kid, man. She had them all wrapped around her cute little finger.

Blake grinned at the thought of his little charmer and glanced in the back of his mom’s car, where she sat buckled into her car seat. His vehicle had been shipped along with the rest of their things, the moving expenses a gift from Michael’s parents. As devastated as they were about the loss of their son, they were happy Blake and Caroline were moving to the east coast. He’d promised them a week-long visit in the fall so Caroline could see the leaves near their Pennsylvania home.

Their kindness meant so much to him. He hadn’t been able to fathom the logistics of moving from Seattle to Havendale. All he’d known in those first few days as he grieved and tried to make the best decisions he could for himself and Caroline was that he needed to be closer to family. And not having to worry about driving cross country with his three-year-old had been a great relief.

Luckily his mom hadn’t minded sharing her car until his arrived. In fact, she’d gladly handed over the keys and shooed him out the door to go see his aunt. He’d dressed Caroline in her favorite outfit— a shirt covered in lemons and jean shorts— along with a bow to hold her hair back and her sandals. Someone— probably his sister— had supplied her with a pair of pink sunglasses that were perched sassily on her nose.

“Having fun, Mouse?”

“You said we could swim! You said!”

“Yes, I did. Aunt Paula and Uncle Henry’s house has a pool. We’re going to go see them and go swimming.”

She grinned and looked back out the window. “Mr. Sun is bright today, Daddy.”

Yes. Yes, he was. She wasn’t used to it, having been in Seattle her short life, and she’d gasped when they walked outside after lunch into the humid Florida air.

It only took a few minutes to arrive at his aunt and uncle’s place. Blake sat in the car for a moment and stared. Not a thing had changed since he’d last been back. The one story house was still a buttery yellow, with a brick path winding its way from the drive to the front porch. Heat-friendly plants circled the front and a cheery flag, this one covered in butterflies and stating ‘Welcome’ flapped merrily in the breeze.

Blake grabbed the backpack he used to carry around all of Caroline’s things and they walked up to the front porch. Before they could even ring the bell, Aunt Paula had pulled the door open.

“There they are!” She pushed open the screen and pulled Blake into a big hug.

“Hey, Aunt Paula.”

She looked exactly the same. The same blue eyes as his dad, but her hair had little flecks of gray in it where his dad’s was nearly white. “We missed you.”

“I missed you, too.”

She nodded and turned her attention downward, to where Caroline had leaned into his leg. “And who is this young lady?”

“Can you say hi to Aunt Paula?”

“Hi,” Caroline repeated shyly before hiding her face in his leg.

“Give her a minute and she’ll warm up.”

“I know how this works,” Aunt Paula griped. “Now, Caroline, your Daddy tells me you want to see my pool. Would you like me to show you?”

She nodded so hard her bow flopped sideways.

Aunt Paula shot him an I told you so look before reaching out her hand. Caroline took hold of it, looked at him to make sure he’d follow, and then walked with Aunt Paula through the house and out the back door. Uncle Henry was out by the pool, already dressed in his swim shorts.

“There they are!” Uncle Henry said, echoing his wife’s greeting from earlier.

Blake grinned. Some things never changed.

“Hey, Uncle Henry.”

The older man came over to him and pulled him into a hug.

“About time you came home. I’m not getting any younger, you know. Now who here wants to go swimming besides me?”

“Me! Me!” Caroline bounced up and down and drew Uncle Henry’s attention.

“Well, I suppose we better ask your Dad if it’s okay.”

“Can I swim please?” She turned the full force of her brown eyes on him and Blake laughed.

“Yes, you can. Come here and let’s get changed.”

He’d already dressed her in her swimming suit, simply pulling her other clothes on over it. She had a change of clothes for later in the bag.

Aunt Paula pulled out one of the many tubes of sunscreen she kept stocked and began slathering Caroline with it. The pool area was partially shaded and covered with a screened awning, but they’d all learned at one time or another not to risk being without sun protection. Uncle Henry scooped Caroline up once she’d been covered with lotion and walked with her to the pool steps.

“He’s done that with every single one of you kids.”

“Yeah? I remember him teaching me how to swim.”

“He’s taught you all. I swear, Kale is part fish. He shows up about every day to jump in the pool.”

“I can’t believe how great his show is doing. Audrey said it just keeps getting bigger.”

Kale, Aunt Paula and Uncle Henry’s only child, had an impressive online cooking show that he’d started while in college.

“Who knew such a thing existed? But he loves it. If you look through the trees there,” she pointed toward the side of the house, “you can see where he and his dad built the studio kitchen. We had a little patch of land between us and the house we’d bought next door, so we used it to build him a space that worked better for all the lighting and equipment he needed.”

“I forgot he’d moved into the house next door. That was Uncle Henry’s pet project for years.”

“That it was. He finally got some help finishing it up once we realized Kale was going to need a space. He’d made do in an apartment for the first few years, but once his channel began growing, he needed to grow with it.”

“I told Audrey we’d stop by after we left here. Which reminds me that I need to text her and let her know we’re here.”

Blake pulled out his phone and sent the text before turning his attention back to his aunt.

She was looking fondly out at the pool, where his uncle still held Caroline in his arms. They’d walked until he was about chest deep in water, and she was deciding whether or not she liked it.

“Such a beautiful girl. I can see you in her.”

“Yeah. She’s amazing.”

“You ready to tell me why you haven’t brought that girl home in over a year to see your family?”

Blake winced and looked away. “No?”

Aunt Paula huffed. “You might as well spit it out and get it over with because we have other things to discuss, but I have to get over being mad at you first.”

“Michael and I separated about a year ago. I didn’t want to talk about it, so I didn’t tell anybody. And since I couldn’t exactly show up here without him, I just didn’t come. Overly simplified version, but there you have it.”

She shook her head. “I swear, if I didn’t know you were a smart man, I’d think you were as dumb as a rock. You know all we’d have cared about was whether or not you and Caroline were okay. We may be on the nosy side, but we also know when a wound doesn’t need to be salted. Give us a little credit, would you?”

“I will. I just— none of you guys are divorced, you know? And here I am, the only married cousin, the only one with a child, and my marriage is a failure.”

“Well, hell, when you put it that way, it’s obvious why you lost your mind. The future of the entire family was riding on your shoulders. All that weight must have crushed your brain cells. Oh my, Blake. How could you? You’ve ruined us all.”

“Your sarcasm isn’t lost on me. I’m really sorry, Aunt Paula.”

“Well, remember you’re talking to the woman who eloped with her older brother’s best friend and business partner. I might know a little bit about family pressure.”

Blake blinked. “Wait…what? You and Uncle Henry eloped?”

She wiggled her eyebrows. “Oh, yeah. You know he’s ten years older than me, right? He started the construction business with your Uncle David.”

“I knew that. And actually, I’d never wondered why it was called Bartlett Construction when Uncle Henry isn’t a Bartlett. Shouldn’t it have been Bartlett and Baxter or something?”

“Well, it should have been. But your Uncle David was so mad at us that he made Henry take his name off the business until he’d decided to forgive him. And by then, it didn’t matter so much to your uncle because he figured he’d married a Bartlett so he might as well be one.”

“I can’t believe you eloped.”

“I knew what I wanted and I went after it. And what I wanted wasn’t the big poofy dress. I wanted him.” She leered lustily over at his uncle.

“Oh man. Please don’t do that again.”

“Pfft. Where do you think Kale came from? The stork?”

Caroline squealed with laughter and drew their attention. Uncle Henry was pretending to drop her and letting her go a little deeper into the water.

“She’s a slippery one,” Uncle Henry called out. “What are you feeding her?”

“Cheese!” Blake called back.

Henry laughed and pulled Caroline close again. Blake watched them for a moment longer before turning back to his aunt.

“Think you can forgive me?”

“I suppose,” she said. “Although, I’m still a bit upset that you didn’t have more faith in us.”

Blake shook his head. “I didn’t have faith in me. I’ve got to work on that.”

“Yes, you do.”

“I won’t let you down again. No more secrets.”

“Good. Cause, honey, if you can’t count on family, who can you count on? And I have a way for you to help.”

“You do?”

“Yep. We’re hoping you’ll be willing to put that business degree of yours to use. Your uncle hasn’t wanted to admit it, but he needs some help running the office side of things. Ever since your Uncle David retired, all the paperwork and everything has fallen to Henry. He’s managing, but he’s hoping to retire in the next couple years. He can’t do that if the business isn’t in safe hands. We’d hoped to turn it over to Kale, but his interests don’t lie there.”

“I don’t know anything about construction.”

“We can teach you what you need to know. Your cousin is one of our foremen now. You remember Abe, don’t you? I mean it’s been so long—”

“Aww, come on, Aunt Paula. I thought you’d decided to forgive me already?”

“I have. I just haven’t finished giving you a hard time about it. Now, if you’re finished interrupting, we also have a couple more foremen that we trust completely with the building side. It’s more the accounting side of things, which isn’t something Abe cares to learn at all. He’s content where he is, and if I’m honest, it’s never been your uncle’s favorite part of the business either. He’d really like to have those hours free.”

Blake leaned back in his chair. “I don’t know what to say. I figured I’d look for a job once we were settled in. I mean, Michael took care of us financially and with his life insurance and the trust fund, we don’t have to worry, but… yeah. Wow.”

“Your momma said you and Michael had decided you wouldn’t work until Caroline started school. If you want to honor that, we’ll understand.”

“No, that’s not it. I mean, we’d already decided to put Caroline into a part-time program in the spring. She was going twice a week for half a day as it was.”

“Well, I want you to understand that I know your daughter comes first.”

“Of course.”

“How is she handling everything?”

Blake sighed and looked over at her. “She doesn’t understand. She just knows that Papa isn’t here anymore. We’ve been working through a lot more meltdowns recently, but I think that’s more to do with how upset I’ve been.”

Aunt Paula reached over and grabbed his hand. “And how are you managing?”

He shrugged. “I’m more okay than I thought I would be. I’m heartbroken for my daughter and Michael’s family more than anything else. We weren’t in love anymore, but I still loved him. You know?”

“Absolutely. You guys were together for a long time, and it doesn’t sound like things ended badly.”

“Not really. It wasn’t easy, but it was the right thing for both of us.”

“Daddy! Look!”

Blake turned his attention to the pool where Uncle Henry had lifted Caroline over his head. “You’re flying!”

She laughed and his uncle dipped her back into the water, taking care not to let her go under.

“The other thing is that we have a place you could rent while you make plans. It’s one of our remodeling projects. We were planning on putting it on the market in a couple weeks anyway, so the timing is right. I know you’ll want to get settled into your own place soon. Your momma told me that you had a moving company bringing all your belongings so it’ll be a couple weeks before everything arrives from out west.”

“Yeah. I didn’t want to leave anything behind. And honestly, I just wasn’t up to going through all Michael’s stuff. It’s all on the truck too.”

“Well, don’t worry about it. By the time everything arrives, we’ll have you a place sorted out.”

Trust Aunt Paula to get all of his ducks in a row. Blake smiled and glanced back toward the water. For the first time in a long time, he believed that everything was going to work out.