"So, tell us more about Mandy's family," Rose said.
Anna huffed. "I don't know? She's an only child and, like, her dad mostly just blew off her mom and her after the divorce. She said her stepdad's a goofball."
Jake snorted. "I'm sure she said the word 'goofball'."
Most of Anna's words were lost to the bus's announcement of the next stop, but Jake caught a mumbled, "well …"
"What's goofball mean?" Rose asked, her arm around Anna's shoulders as they sat together, while Jake held onto the bar, leaning over them as people moved around him.
"I don't know. I guess he's younger than her mom and Mandy doesn't really get it. She said her mom seems pretty happy but that her stepdad acts more like a teenaged boy than the people we go to school with. Mandy says he's got a major Cheetos addiction."
Jake stifled a laugh. It was, he supposed, better than doing heroin. He just didn't want to be the one to say that.
"What are you most looking forward to?" Rose asked Anna.
"Mandy said she'd murder for Coney Island hot dogs at any given time so probably that. Dad, are we almost there?"
"One more stop," Jake said confidently, although it had been a long time since he'd been to Coney Island himself. At one point, he'd considered joining their Freakshow, just to see what Rotwood would do about it.
"And, like, I want to go on the rides," Anna said, "but I don't really know how big Coney Island is because Mandy said that it's in Luna Park but is that in Coney Island?"
"Yes," Rose said. "There's a lot to see and do. If you don't fit it all in, we can always go back."
"I don't want to eat a hot dog and then get on a roller coast 'cause I'm worried I'll puke," Anna said frankly. "What's a roller coaster like, Dad? Is it like flying for the first time?"
"Uh, worse," Jake admitted. "Gravity hates you more on a roller coaster."
Anna looked a little green, which didn't compliment the bright red jacket she'd pulled on. Jake couldn't help but think of his old favourite jacket, the one that he had to give up because it had essentially turned to tatters and Haley and Trixie wouldn't stop making fun of him for it.
"What are you guys gonna do today?" Anna asked.
"I just want to walk the boardwalk," Rose said. "Maybe wade into the water."
"Sand?" Jake scoffed. "Gross."
"Well, you don't have to come with me," Rose said.
"You aren't hanging out?" Anna asked slyly. "You aren't going to spend the day together?"
"This is our stop," Jake said loudly, turning away in case he was starting to blush.
"Well, maybe we might want to hang out with Mandy's parents. What if they're really cool?" Rose asked.
Anna groaned loudly. "Mom, don't be friends with my friends' parents. It might be weird."
Anna ducked under Jake's arm and jumped off the bus first. Jake stepped down and then turned and offered his hand to Rose to help her down. He went out of his way to not catch Anna's eye as Rose stood on her own two feet and Jake quickly let go of her. Anna read too much into everything and Jake didn't want to lie to her. He could – probably. He didn't want to find out otherwise.
"Mandy said she'd meet us at the subway station," Anna said, squinting as they walked.
There were people everywhere and Anna didn't do well in crowds. Shyly, she stayed between her parents, holding tightly to both of their hands. Jake reveled of the fact that, at fourteen, she didn't have any embarrassment in the fact that she wanted her parents to pick her up from school or the fact that she wanted to hold both of their hands in public. Jake would give nearly anything to be able to know her as a little girl – he imagined her looking a lot like Haley, a gap-toothed smile and high pigtails – but he loved the fact that she was still full of innocence and wonder. He would give more to have her keep that innocence and wonder her whole life.
They made it to the subway station and Anna let go of their hands to bring out her phone and frantically text. Jake met Rose's eyes over Anna's head and they grinned at one another. The swell of people, the smell of all the different foods, the distant roar of the ocean … It made Jake feel like a kid again. He wanted to grab Rose's hand and rush off himself, sharing an ice-cream cone while in line for the Cyclone.
"Hey! Anna!" A high-pitched girlish shout came from behind them.
Anna whipped around. "Mandy! You're here!"
Above the screams of two teenaged friends who had been separated for nearly twenty four hours, came a deeper voice, which made the hairs on the back of Jake's neck stand up.
"Rose-a-licious?"
No.
It couldn't be.
Jake refused to believe it.
"What are you doing here?" the voice said.
Jake turned slowly. Rose whipped around quickly.
"Brad?"
Jake wished for death. Jake wished for death now.
"Mom? You know Mandy's stepdad?"
Jake had no choice but to turn all the way around. There was Mandy, his daughter's best friend in the entire world. She was tall and willowy, with a big afro, dark brown skin, and square glasses that she somehow made seem chic. She and Anna were wearing nearly identical outfits – grey jeans, bright tops, and red jackets. Anna was wearing a blue shirt; Mandy was wearing an orange one. They were a cute set. Behind Mandy, was, her mother, whose name Anna hadn't bothered to tell them. She barely resembled her daughter, her hair braided, her skin slightly lighter, wearing sweatpants and a leather jacket. Next to Mandy's mother, though, was her stepfather, a man that Jake had never anticipated on seeing again: Brad Morton. He looked good, twelve years post high school graduation. Jake had to admit, he'd thought of his former bully and adversary as someone who was balding and out of shape at their age, but Brad barely looked like he'd aged. He was clearly thirty but he was a muscled, full-head of haired, clearly moisturized, type of thirty year old man.
"And J-Dog Long!"
Jake didn't know what to do when Brad seized him in a one-armed hug, bumping their fists together. He certainly didn't know how to ask Brad where the nickname 'J-Dog' had come from. Spud was the type to come up with something cringy like that and if Spud hadn't done it then it simply shouldn't be said.
"This is like a whole high school reunion!" Brad said excitedly, grabbing Rose in one arm and Jake in the other, squeezing them all together. "Casey! Casey! I went to high school with these two!"
Mandy's mother raised an eyebrow at Jake and Rose.
"Rose! You disappeared! Just dropped out of school!"
Rose freed herself from Brad's armpit. "I moved, Brad."
"What are you doing here?"
Jake pulled his head free from Brad, trying to catch his breath and, at the same time, say, "I'm Anna's father."
"Anna, hi!" Brad said, like an excitable golden retriever – something that Jake never would have expected from him in high school.
Who knew even the worst of the worst could mellow out? It almost made Jake wish he'd kept in touch with Nigel.
"I'm Brad."
"Hi, Brad," Anna said, taking his hand and letting Brad pump her arm up and down. "You know my parents?"
"Rose is your mom?" Brad gasped. "Rose, is this why you disappeared? Were you put in a school for teenage moms?"
In any other situation, Jake would have laughed.
"No, Brad," Rose repeated in a deadpan, "I moved."
"This is so cool!" Brad said, abandoning Jake and Rose to wrap his arm around Casey. Despite her rather stony expression, she seemed to soften under Brad's hold. "We get to spend the whole day together! I'm so glad we're already friends!"
Jake glanced at Rose, relieved to see that she was already looking back at him. There went all of his plans about making slightly nice with Mandy's parents and then making out in the aquarium with Rose – somewhere their daughters would never bother to look, unless their daughters were also planning on making out, in which case, they would all need to have a conversation. Mostly because Jake hadn't even had a daughter for a year. He didn't know how to deal with the fact that he had a daughter who wanted to date. Jake had been a teenager who wanted to date. And he was thirty with a fourteen-year-old. He felt himself growing grey at the thought of it.
"Casey," Rose said, taking on a tone of total decorum, "it's so nice to meet you."
"And you too," Casey said. "Mandy hasn't stopped talking about Anna. They got on immediately."
"Mom," groaned Mandy.
"They both needed a friend like one another. This is Anna's father, Jake."
"Mom," Anna groaned.
"Nice to meet you, Casey."
"Are you together?" Casey asked, and then she glanced at the children. "I'm sorry, that was –"
"We share Anna," Rose said, "we're good friends."
Jake tried to look completely neutral about it, reminding himself at its core, that it was not completely untrue. All he wanted to do was grab Rose around the shoulders and hold her like Brad was holding Casey. How could he be thirty and still jealous of Brad Morton? The universe was fundamentally unfair, it seemed.
"Can we go?" Anna asked. "We want to get to the rides."
"Don't turn your phone off," Jake instructed.
"And meet us somewhere for lunch," Brad said.
"Mom," Mandy said, her tone slightly whiny as she turned her back to Brad.
"Just as a midday check-in," Casey said. "Okay?"
"Okay!" Anna agreed and she bounced forward to hug Jake and Rose tightly. "See you guys later!"
Mandy managed a weak 'bye' and a wave to her parents before she and Anna took off. Jake glanced over at Brad and thought that Brad might be a little bit jealous of him too.
"Well," Brad said, "what does everyone want to do?"
"Let's go for a nice walk along the boardwalk," Casey suggested. "That way we can all get to know one another."
With all of the things that there were to do, Jake didn't really think that a walk along the boardwalk was his first choice of what to do. Rose agreed readily, however, and Jake and Brad were left with no choice to follow along as they made their way to the pier. The chatter started small, with Casey asking what Brad had been like in middle school and high school. Jake was reluctant to answer because Brad had very rarely been nice to him but he didn't want to tell Brad's new wife that because it seemed wrong to do. And, maybe, people could change. Maybe Brad was a whole new family man now. Rose said a few non-committal things about Brad liking to pull pranks and making people laugh and then she asked how Brad and Casey met.
"He was the nude model for an art class I took after my divorce," Casey said bluntly. "He was supposed to be a rebound. My girlfriends all said go for it because, really, where was a relationship with a man just over ten years younger than me going? And, now, here we are, two years later."
Brad kissed her sloppily on the cheek. "And they've been an amazing two years! Winning over Mandy, though, not the easiest thing. I think we're getting a lot better. I just don't know, like, how to be like a kinda parental figure but, like, she doesn't need me to be her dad. But, she also doesn't really want me as a friend."
"Families are messy," Jake agreed. "It's probably just more important that you keep trying."
"And teenagers can be fussy."
"Yours still kisses you goodbye before she goes off with her friends at fourteen," Casey said. "How did you manage that?"
Jake met Rose's eyes and he could tell that she was also grasping for something to say. Jake couldn't exactly say "well, she was so traumatized by not having me in her life and having Rose kidnapped from her that she always needs to make sure we know we're loved in case it happens again". Casey would probably, at the very least, never speak to them again, and Anna needed Mandy in her life. She didn't seem to be making many other friends at school.
"Anna's always been a very cuddly kid," Rose said. "Plus, I was only sixteen when I had her and I probably spoilt her a little because of that."
Brad's eyebrows shot up and Jake watched him count on his fingers. Jake couldn't help but chuckle. Some things would never change.
"Jake, you never had a baby in high school," Brad said. "Like … that would have been huge gossip."
"My family forced me to move when they found out," Rose said quietly. "I wasn't allowed to tell him, not until we were adults."
Jake rubbed her shoulder, realizing that they should have thought about a lie. He wondered what Anna had told Mandy and, really, if it mattered.
"Oh, I'm so sorry," Casey said. "That couldn't have been easy for anyone."
"It wasn't, when I found out, but I knew Rose took good care of her and that she was always in a place that she was loved. That made it easier."
"Unlike when Mandy goes over to Damien's house," Brad muttered under his breath.
Casey smacked Brad's arm. "At least he's seeing her now. You have to look on the bright side."
"I don't want to."
Jake was glad when his phone rang and it interrupted the domestic squabble. He had no idea what to say about potentially deadbeat dads that he didn't know and he didn't know Casey, really, at all, and he didn't know Brad anymore. Not that he had ever, really truly, known Brad as a person.
"Hey, Spud, what's up?"
"Oh, I remember that kid," Brad said and Jake turned his back on him.
"Who was that?" Spud asked.
"I'll tell you all about it later," Jake promised. "What's going on?"
"I have a couple of those computers running and I'm just trying to break into them – a lot of them are password protected. I was just wondering if Rose might know any of them."
"I'll ask but probably not. It's been a long time."
"Depends on how smart they were in changing their passwords. Rose has the memory of an elephant."
Jake chuckled. "Yeah, that's pretty true."
"You busy now?"
"Yeah, family day today."
"Okay. Tomorrow, when I'm off work? I'll meet you at the shop and we'll get Rose to talk us through it."
"Yeah, that'll work. Haley's taking Anna tomorrow right after school."
"Okie-dokie artichokie," Spud said. "See you tomorrow."
"Word, gourd."
"That was weak and you know it!" Spud said, laughing.
Jake was already hanging up on him.
"You and Spud are still friends?" Brad asked.
"Trixie too," Jake said. "They're moving in together soon."
"Really? I always had her pegged for a … manhater."
"Huh?" Casey said.
"Like, a lesbian."
Jake snorted. That wasn't any of Brad's business – Trixie barely even discussed her own sexual habits with Jake and Spud, always just cracking dirty jokes that had nothing to do with what she'd done. "It's a roommate situation."
"What did Spud want?"
"He's made some headway on those computers. He wants us to go check it out tomorrow."
Rose nodded but something in her face hardened and became more closed off as she took the news in, turning to face the ocean.
"Who wants to go check out the Freakshow?" Brad said suddenly, clapping his hands like he could sense the tension. "Let's go have some fun!"
Jake let Brad and Casey lead the charge to the Freakshow, actually glad they were going to be doing something where they could talk about what was going on rather than themselves. He stayed back, falling in step with Rose.
"Okay?"
She shrugged. "I'm just scared that Spud is going to find something and it's going to be big and bad. I don't want anything big and bad. I'm really happy with the way that life is going right now, for all of us. I don't want there to be anything that could disrupt Anna's life or send us a few steps backward. I feel like I'm really figuring out how to be happy again." She spoke quickly and in low tones, never taking her eyes off of Casey and Brad, who were walking arm in arm, their hips bumping off of each other's with every other step that they took.
"It doesn't matter what Spud finds. There's nothing that we can't take care of together, okay? We're smarter and stronger than we were back then. We can protect Anna and can protect each other. We don't have to give up anything." Jake rested his hand on the small of her back, feeling her lean in on him. "No matter what happens, we're going to be happy."
Jake was relieved when Rose broke into a smile. "I believe you, Jake. I really do."
"You should!" Jake said confidently and that made her laugh.
Jake quickly kissed her temple and then kept his hands to himself as they followed Brad and Casey through the Freakshow. The conversation flowed as they talked about the history of the Freakshow and Casey hid her hands behind her eyes at some of the things that they were seeing.
"I have a weak stomach," Casey said. "My mother wanted me to be a doctor like she was. One look at blood – even my own – and I just faint."
By the time that they were done, they had texts from Anna and Mandy that they were heading to Nathan's and would meet them there for lunch.
"And then we gotta get ice-cream," Brad said. "Can't go to Coney Island without ice-cream."
"Hell yeah," Jake said, and he wondered what his younger self with think of him now, agreeing with Brad Morton?
"You can't do anything without ice-cream," Casey said affectionately. "You have the worst sweet tooth."
"I think it's the only reason Mandy likes me even a little bit."
Anna and Mandy were easy to spot, even though Coney Island was crowded. Anna lifted her hand and waved enthusiastically until Jake and Rose were right in front of her.
"I'm so hungry I think I could eat ten hot dogs," Mandy said dramatically.
"Let's start with two and go from there," Casey said.
"How were the rides?" Rose asked. "You guys going back for more?"
"Yes!" Anna said. "I love roller coasters. I wasn't even scared."
"The Slingshot was the best," Mandy said. "You felt like you were flying!"
"Really?" Jake asked, tucking Anna under his arm and squeezing her. "Did it feel like flying?"
"Well, mostly," Anna said. "But it was still fun. Did you and Mom have fun?"
"Yes, we did." Jake kissed her forehead and then she wiggled away from him to go order her lunch.
When they were all seated around the picnic table, the warm wind blowing in their hair and Mandy and Anna deciding to see who could eat their hot dog first, Jake let his hand rest on Rose's thigh under the table. It didn't matter what Spud found tomorrow or the day after that or the day after that. This was his family and they weren't going to be apart.
Not ever again.
Let me know what you thought of this chapter and I'll see you next time.
Don't forget that you can find me on tumblr: we - are - all - of - legend - now!
~TLL~
