Sliding into Home - The Bradford Series Book Two

Chapter 10

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Chapter 10

Colby

We decided to hang out on the beach tonight. It's been a rough day and none of us are in much of a mood for having fun. No one wants to be alone or do the things we had planned. It just feels wrong to try to enjoy ourselves after learning about Maddie.

She would have been here with us, if she hadn't been pregnant. Poor Maddie. Poor Ash. I never put those two together that way. They're just so different. Not in a bad way. Maddie was just so outgoing and confident, while Ash is reserved and quiet. They were good friends though and had been since they were little. I think at one point she really did have a crush on him, but I thought she got over it. Maybe I was wrong.

I remember when we were younger and we would have sleepovers with all the cousins. The boys would go out in the yard at Grandma's to play football with Blake and Derrick, while us girls would go down to the basement and talk. We talked about Ash a lot. He was one of the few boys that were around the house who wasn't related to us. Therefore he was on our radar more often and subject of our gossip. That's why I thought Maddie liked him. She called dibs first.

Of course, we had made a pact long ago that if one of us liked someone, the rest of us would respect it and give them room. That never meant we couldn't look. We all looked at Ash. He was older and had matured much sooner than we had. When the boys played shirts against skins, we all hoped for Ash to be on the skins team. Watching the boys play football was a favorite pastime for several years back then. Until Ash stopped coming around.

That was when Cade took over the New York office and they moved away. Maddie, Em, and Harper were so unhappy about it. Not that we didn't see them or talk to them regularly. It just wasn't the same. And Ash left shortly after that, when his mom got the position with Cade. It thrilled Maddie that Ash would be with her. She always said it was fate putting them together.

Ash never seemed like he was interested in Maddie that way. He teased her and flirted with her, sure. But Ash did that with all of us, once he got over his shyness. He was always treated like one of the family. Grandma treated him like he was Derrick's son that he never had. I know that's how Derrick saw him.

Tonight we are trying to comfort Emery and Harper as best we could. They're both devastated by this, we all are. Maddie was the leader of our little gang. Her and Aiden were the planners of every birthday party, every spring break, every adventure, every getaway we got to do. Who's going to fill her shoes?

Gathering at the beach, after we picked our way through dinner, no one had much of an appetite, not even the boys. We sat in the sand with the sun setting over the ocean. A gorgeous colored sky, the kind that reminded me of Maddie and her bright personality and warmth she exudes. It feels like she's here with us tonight. Holding each of us and helping us through this massive loss. One final sunset with her to say goodbye.

As the sky darken into a deep purple, we moved to sit on the driftwood that has served as our firepit seats we made years ago for when we're here. The guys hunker down around the pit that Blake and Dad made long ago, for family nights like this, where we'd huddle together and support one of us in need. As the other boys gather wood and kindling, Aiden sets it all in place for the fire.

Em has her s'mores stash, she's predictable about having sweets when we're together. Maddie used to count on her to supply her favorite cookies and chocolates for those tough heartbreak moments we shared. Em never failed in her role.

Riley is doing her best to take care of all of us. She fixed dinner that we pushed around our plates and didn't eat. It's not the food, I know from experience that Riley is a great cook. And the boys aren't ones for refusing a meal. We just don't have appetites. Grief does that.