THE next week flew by, and before Hugo even realized, it was Friday night again, and he was driving toward Kevin’s house. There was a mass exodus leaving the city for the weekend, so traffic was awful. Although he rarely drove his Mini Cooper, Hugo usually had fun when he did. But even the spiced-orange color on the hood couldn’t get past the gray of his mood as he waited for what felt like ages. While he sat there willing the car in front of him to move, or any car to move, for that matter, his mind drifted back to the day he finally logged on to Facebook and became friends with Kevin. Hugo preferred Twitter, but it seemed Kevin was more of a Facebook guy.
Hugo had spent a solid twenty minutes looking around at Kevin’s photos, his likes, reading things he’d posted, and even taking a cursory glance through his friends. After all their years apart, they still had a lot in common, at least the core things, the things that mattered. His relationship status was listed as separated, and Erin was still his friend, so Hugo had taken a peek at her profile too, which wasn’t entirely blocked from his perusal. Her relationship status was listed the same way. There were only a few photos of them together on both their pages, but only if the children were doing something special in the pictures with them. It seemed as if Kevin had gone through and deleted or untagged himself from those showing him and Erin as a happy couple.
Hugo and Kevin had had some interactions on the site over the next day, liking photos of each other and writing on each other’s timeline, but for the most part, their communication still happened via text message or phone calls. A call right before bed while they were both already lying down had become the norm, with them talking for at least an hour before sleepily saying good night and hanging up.
Finally, traffic started to creep along, and Hugo soon passed a car flipped over on its roof with debris scattered over two lanes of traffic and onto the shoulder. A minivan was a little farther up, skid marks showing where it had swerved after their collision. Suddenly his impatience didn’t seem justified in the least. Hugo hoped the people in the accident were going to be okay.
As soon as cars passed the wreckage, they sped up remarkably and traffic thinned. He merged onto a smaller highway that took him to the suburb of Edina and then finally turned onto a side street that gave way to curvy roads with idealistic monikers that hinted at secret hiding places nestled in the woods. Sure enough, thick areas of trees sprung up alongside the road, interrupted by expansive green yards and sprawling houses here and there that were pushed far back on the properties with semicircular drives. He was very glad to have GPS in his car because he would have definitely gotten lost without it.
At the end of a long, curving road was a fancy mailbox with the name Magnus cast in what looked like bronze above the shiny house number. Beside it was a low stairway made of rough-hewn timbers lazily making its way to the front door of the two-story brick house. It was a warm color with a mixture of tans and browns, and there were several limestone retaining walls built up along the gently sloping yard, flowers and small trees filling the space. The grass was beautifully manicured and looked perfect for walking barefoot.
Hugo pulled into the drive and parked in front of one of the three garage doors attached to, but placed at an angle from, the house. Not sure exactly where guests should park, he momentarily considered backing up and parking on the street but decided against it in case there was some sort of neighborhood association rule against doing so.
Before he got out of the car, Hugo took a few deep breaths. He was nervous—probably because he felt so out of place in this neighborhood with the huge houses and perfect façades, but also because he knew he’d be seeing Brooke and Finn again. There was a slight possibility he’d be meeting Erin as well.
Hugo reached into the passenger seat footwell and pulled up a box which looked a lot like a fishing tackle box. One more deep breath, and he was opening the car door and braving his way to Kevin’s entrance. A turquoise-painted door with a heavy bronze knocker shaped like a pinecone stood before him. Hugo rang the doorbell instead. It was a few minutes, but soon he could hear Kevin’s footsteps.
“You found it,” Kevin’s happy voice said even before Hugo could fully see him. “Come in.” Kevin kissed Hugo on the mouth and pressed their chests together for a few seconds, large hands warming his back. “Take your shoes off and make yourself at home. What’s that?” he asked, looking at the tackle box.
“The beads and tools to help Brooke finish up the BFF necklaces for her and Serena.”
“That’s right. She’ll be excited about that. The kids should be here any minute, so why don’t I give you the nickel tour in the meantime?”
“Sure. That would be nice. The front yard was impressive all on its own.”
“Thanks. We wanted more privacy out front than a lot of the neighboring houses had with only the huge front yards, so we opted for shrubs and perennials and smaller ornamental trees over the ever-present maple and oak trees to keep gawkers from easily looking in the windows.”
“I like it.”
“Out back, we basically have a forest. We can barely see our neighbors back there. Anyway, you are in the entrance.” His voice mocked a tour guide speaking to people who didn’t quite understand their location, and it made Hugo laugh. “Follow me.”
Hugo did as told and was shown the formal living room and a tiered deck beyond, a formal dining room and an eat-in kitchen that also included stools lined up near one counter, as well as an office. He saw a kid’s playroom/family/game room in the basement along with a couple guest rooms and a kitchenette. Upstairs were the family bedrooms, baths, and laundry. Every room had high ceilings and seemed to be painted in fairly neutral colors ranging from white to beige to a dark brown up in the master suite. The only real pops of color were in the kids’ rooms and on the front door. The house was huge. Probably five times the size of Hugo’s little apartment, and he could see what Kevin meant about it being way too much house for one person. You could practically get lost in it.
“Would you like anything to drink?” Kevin asked, and Hugo accepted a glass of chilled water from the fridge. “Oh, I almost forgot. Let me show you one of my favorite places to spend time.” Kevin led Hugo through a door off the kitchen and up a few steps into a sunroom, fully equipped with a natural gas fireplace along the inside wall. The room was surrounded by windows that stood nearly floor to ceiling, and Hugo really saw the backyard and forest Kevin alluded to earlier. A door and curved stairs led out to the deck and enticed his gaze to follow a path leading to a patio below where he saw a grill and lots of comfortable seating. It was idyllic.
Inside, matching red couches and chairs were scattered about, standing out from the warm wood tones all around the sunroom with the help of some very garish floral pillows that didn’t seem to fit Kevin’s style at all. That must’ve been Erin’s influence. There were books piled on a lower shelf under the coffee table, and a mug sat on top of a partially completed crossword puzzle. That setup looked more like Kevin.
“Nice. I can see why you enjoy spending time out here. It feels like a tree house for adults.”
“Yeah, I know. Isn’t it great?”
“It really is.”
The doorbell rang, but Hugo heard footsteps and a shouted voice. “Dad! Is Hugo here? Is that Hugo’s car with the equals sign?”
“Hey, Pickle. Where’s Olive?” Kevin leaned down and gave Finn a hug and a kiss.
“I don’t know.” Finn gave an exaggerated shrug as he reached and curled his little fingers around Kevin’s index finger. “Prob’ly with Mom, being polite by waiting at the door, but it’s our house, so I don’t see why.” Finn shook his head and turned his attention to Hugo, asking, “So are you gonna teach me how to walk on my hands this weekend?”
“I’m going to try, buddy.”
“We’ll have time for all of that,” Kevin said, easily heading off any whining before it even had a chance to start. “Let’s go see if there are any instructions we need to get from your mom first. Hugo, do you want to meet Erin?”
Hugo just nodded, afraid if he spoke his voice would waver or, God forbid, crack like it did when he was a teen. He followed Kevin back through the house to the front door where a woman, who had to be Erin, knelt with her back to the door as she talked with Brooke.
“Hey, Olive. Everything okay?” Kevin asked as he looked at Brooke with concern and to Erin, having a silent conversation. Brooke seemed unwilling to speak, so Erin did.
“She’s upset about having to choose between soccer and gymnastics tomorrow, but there’s just no way to get them both where they need to be with one adult driving.”
“I saw the schedule. Maybe I can make it work. Oh, I should introduce you to my friend, Hugo.” Kevin stepped aside, and Hugo finally got a good view of Erin, not that he’d been hiding behind Kevin or anything nearly as cowardly as that.
Hugo stepped forward and held out his hand to take her smaller, softer hand in his own. “I’m Hugo. It’s good to finally meet you, Erin.”
“You too.” She smiled, and she was so much more beautiful than Kevin had captured with his camera in the photo setting on the mantle in his lake home. Her eyes were bluer, if that were possible, and her skin was even more luminescent. He almost considered asking her what foundation she used but bit back his thought before it tumbled out of his mouth. “The kids have been talking about ‘Hugo and Summer this’ and ‘Hugo and Summer that’ since the lake,” she said with a warm smile. “Brooke has been carrying around those pieces of tumbled glass you helped drill almost all the time. I thought she’d end up breaking them with all the handling she’s been giving them. Thanks for helping her.”
“I love working with my hands, so it’s really a treat for me.” Hugo turned his attention to Brooke, who was just staring at him wide-eyed. “I brought some things for you to sort through. We’ll see what you’d like to use to finish making your necklaces.” Brooke raised her brows in excitement, lighting up, so Hugo told her she could find the box of jewelry supplies on the kitchen counter.
“Well, I’ll let you hammer out the details about tomorrow. Again, glad I met you, Erin. Have a good weekend.”
“You too, Hugo.”
Hugo nodded and ducked his head, giving a quick wave as he left the room.
“HOW about a pearl?” Hugo wondered as he held up the necklace he and Brooke had been working on for the last half hour. It needed something extra but nothing they’d tried seemed to work. He wanted to find something that had a different texture and would dress up the glass and silver wire they were already using.
“Where did you get all this stuff?” Finn asked from the seat next to Hugo as he sorted through the small divided sections of the tackle box.
“Various places.”
Finn quirked his brow in confusion. “Where’s various?”
Hugo chuckled and shook his head. “No. Various means different. I found all of these beads in different places. Some I bought at bead stores, some I found at antique shows where I bought a huge bag of old jewelry and pulled the jewelry apart for the beads, and some of it even came from old costumes.”
“Costumes? Why do you have costumes? Adults don’t dress up for Halloween,” Finn said with conviction.
“Sure they do,” Kevin countered from the other side of the room where he was cooking a meal he’d described to Hugo as a surprise. Thank you very much for staying out of the kitchen.
Hugo had quickly gotten involved in helping Brooke design her matching necklaces where she was trying to incorporate two vastly different senses of style together to make two cohesive pieces that both looked like they belonged together and around the neck of each girl who would wear them. It was harder than Hugo had imagined, but he loved the challenge. They’d already found a charm unique to each girl and that had satisfied Brooke. He’d gotten so involved in their work he’d forgotten about Kevin’s mysterious meal until he’d spoken up.
“Did I not dress up as Fred to your Shaggy?” Kevin continued.
“Oh yeah. I forgot.”
Hugo smiled at the thought of Kevin dressed as a character from one of his all-time favorite cartoons and wondered if Erin and Brooke were in on the dressing up as well. “Who was Scooby?”
“Our dog, Sammy. He’s dead. He died from his guts being turned and twisted inside out.” Finn told the story without a hint of emotion in his voice, as if reciting dry facts rather than the death of a beloved pet.
“Oh, wow. That doesn’t sound good.” Hugo looked up to Kevin, not knowing what to say.
“Gastric torsion,” Kevin answered with a sad half smile. “It wasn’t pretty, and we got him to the vet too late. We weren’t home, and it happened so fast.”
“When was this?” Hugo couldn’t help but ask.
Finn found a cool bead and was holding it up to the light to look through it. “I was in Miss Sara’s class still. So, what’s this one made of?”
“Nearly two years ago,” Kevin answered Hugo’s question.
Apparently, the conversation about the dog was over for Finn. Hugo wasn’t sure he’d ever had a conversation bounce around to so many topics in such a short amount of time. He was having a hard time keeping up. “That’s glass, probably handmade, not pressed, from what it looks like.”
“A pearl?” Brooke reminded Hugo what he’d been initially looking for.
“Sorry. Let’s see. Can I borrow this box a minute, Finn? Thanks.” Hugo dug around a bit and finally found it—a blue-gray pearl that had been pulled off a hat made in the forties, which had seen better days due to the moths that had decided to eat it. The few beads scattered sparingly along the net veil had been actual pearls, so Hugo salvaged them.
“These,” Hugo said with delight as he presented the pearls to Brooke. “What do you think?”
“They’re beautiful,” she said, studying them like they were the most precious things she’d ever seen.
“I have a little silver filigree setting….” he trailed off, words dying into thoughts as he searched the box again and then worked quickly putting pieces together. “Viola! How’s that for gorgeous?”
Brooke gave an overexaggerated nod, and her eyes grew wide with excitement. Placed alongside the wire-wrapped glass, Brooke had two tiny charms, a silver shell for her own necklace and a turtle for her friend Serena’s. They threaded the pendant mountings Hugo had affixed through silver chains and held them up.
“Well? Does that meet your expectations?” he asked.
“Wow, Hugo,” Kevin interjected. “Those are… those are beautiful.”
“Brooke did a great job picking everything out, didn’t she?” Hugo asked.
“She sure did. What do you think of your creation, Olive? Do you like it?”
“I love it. I never knew I could make something like this. Thank you, Hugo.” Brooke threw her arms around his neck and squeezed.
“Let’s try it on.” Hugo encouraged, hoping that would be one way to extricate himself from the near chokehold she had on him. She turned around and lifted her long, dark hair so he could clasp the necklace, and then she turned back. “Beautiful. It brings out the midnight blue in your eyes. Go look in the mirror.”
She dashed off and quickly returned for another hug and a kiss on the cheek this time. “I can’t wait to give Serena hers. I’m going to have to hide mine or maybe not wear it until I give her hers. I’m so excited.”
Kevin chuckled from the other side of the kitchen, throwing a towel over his shoulder and leaning on the counter. “Thanks for that. Do you think you can be ready to eat in about fifteen minutes?”
“Sure.”
“Awww man! There’s no way you can teach me to walk on my hands before supper,” Finn cried.
“I promise I’ll do it after supper. Well, not right after supper because I don’t really want you throwing up on me. But we’ll do it before bed.”
“Go wash up, and tell your sister to, too,” Kevin distracted. “I need help setting the table.”
“I can help,” Hugo offered.
“It’s one of their chores. They can do it. Besides, you have a mess to clean up.” Kevin pointed at the table with a wink and was then pulled away by the timer buzzing on the oven.
Kevin shooed Hugo out of the kitchen when he tried to help after cleaning up the beads and washing his hands, handing him a damp dishcloth to wipe down the dining table instead. Soon the kids had the table set, and Kevin was bringing warm bread, cool fruit, and a salad to the table. In the center, he set a metal trivet and asked everyone else to sit down. Hugo sat and unfolded his napkin, laying it in his lap and taking a sip of water.
“And finally, the pièce de résistance,” Kevin said as he set a casserole dish in the center of the table. “Tater Tot hotdish. Your mom’s recipe,” he said with an impish smile.
“Are you kidding?” Hugo asked, and Kevin shook his head. “Do you know this was my most favorite meal? Is this actually Mom’s recipe? How did you get it?”
“Slow down,” Kevin chuckled as he took his seat. “I’ll tell you everything, but first, we should dish up.”
“Prayers,” Brooke said, and the rest of the family bowed their heads and said a quick prayer in mumbled tones. Hugo hadn’t prayed before a meal since he lived at home, but he wasn’t unfamiliar with the words, so he joined in.
“Company first,” Kevin said, holding his hand out for Hugo’s plate so he could dish up for him. “For graduation, your mom gave me several recipe cards with good comfort foods. Right on the card, she wrote that this was your favorite meal. I figured it had been a while since you’d had it.”
Hugo took his first bite and moaned out loud at how good it was. “Thank you. Eating now,” he joked as he took another bite and another. “It’s even better than Mom’s, I think.”
During the meal, the kids decided it was a good time to play twenty questions, and Hugo found himself answering all sorts of things, from his favorite color, to the favorite shirt he ever wore, to how many pets he had in his life and to please name them all. The kids were scandalized when he named off all the fish he’d accidentally killed over the years.
“I eventually figured out an aquarium just wasn’t something that should be in my life. The pH balance is so touchy, and then I’d finally get that all figured out and buy a new fish. The thing would just start getting acclimated to the aquarium, and I’d find out the blame thing had brought ick home and contaminated the rest of the fish.”
“Ick?” Finn asked in a delighted tone as if it were something cool.
“It’s a disease fish get. White spots show up all over their scales. They can be treated most of the time. But when the guys at several pet stores knew me by name and could guess what I’d done wrong without me even describing the symptoms I’d noticed, I decided it was time to give it up as a loss.”
“Didn’t you ever have a cat or a dog?” Brooke asked.
“Nope. I’m allergic to cats, so I can’t have one, and most of the apartments I’ve lived in until now only allow cats but not dogs. I’ve always wanted a dog. I’m just not sure if I can handle one with my work schedule because I’m gone so much.”
“Dogs are awesome,” Finn said around a bite of strawberry rhubarb crisp and was quickly reprimanded by Kevin and asked to talk when his mouth was empty, please.
“They are. Maybe someday I can get one. If I had a small dog, I could bring it to the theater with me.”
“Okay, guys,” Kevin interrupted as each kid took a breath to ask yet another question. “Let’s stop with the interrogation. I think Hugo might like to listen to the peace and quiet for a few minutes so he can digest his food.” Kevin smirked and winked at Hugo, and he couldn’t help but feel happy. “Load your dirty dishes and go get unpacked. I rented a movie for later.” The kids grumbled but put their dishes in the dishwasher and then took their bags upstairs to their rooms.
It had felt good to be asked so many questions because it made Hugo feel welcomed. He wondered why he’d been nervous about seeing the kids again. It was easy being around them, and it actually seemed to help make him feel more at ease with Kevin, if that were possible. Hugo liked the interactions they had together with the kids too.
“You’re good with them,” Kevin said.
“Thanks.”
“No, really. I don’t think you realize how good you are with kids. You talk to them as equals and treat them with respect. So many people talk down to kids. You just talk to them like you’d talk to me.”
“They are just like you. People.”
“But you use big words and don’t dumb things down,” Kevin pointed out.
“How else will they learn new vocabulary?” Hugo wondered, not quite getting the point of Kevin’s statement.
“Exactly,” Kevin said around his bright smile.
“I’M GUESSING you don’t use training wheels on your bike anymore, right?” Hugo asked as he and Finn stood on the perfectly manicured lawn in the backyard.
“Are you crazy? I’m not a baby!”
Hugo chuckled to himself but didn’t take the bait and just moved along in his lesson. “So you already know about balance, about how you need to make sure not to tip too far to the left or right on your bike or you’ll fall over. This is the same, but instead of just worrying about left and right,” Hugo said as he took Finn’s shoulder in his hands and leaned him side to side, “you need to think about front and back and even diagonal balance. Think of a circle.” Hugo drew an imaginary circle in the air. “There’s only a teeny part in the middle where you can balance it.”
Kevin, who was sitting with Brooke off to the side on the stone patio, asked, “Do you want a Frisbee to illustrate your point?”
“Sure.”
Kevin lifted the lid of what Hugo thought was simply a large, cushioned ottoman and retrieved a Frisbee before casually throwing it. Hugo watched it sail toward him and reached out, grabbing it. Then he demonstrated his point to Finn, having him feel the center of gravity for himself.
“You have to think about your own balance like this. Too far in any direction all around the circle, and you end up falling.” Hugo placed his hands back on Finn’s shoulders and shifted him all around before letting go and looking to the lawn. “Luckily, you don’t have too far to fall, and we have nice soft grass to land on. The first step to walking on your hands is a handstand, and you’ll eventually do it like this.” Hugo demonstrated.
Ten minutes later, after many falls, Finn was up in a handstand on his own. Hugo stood close by, hands near Finn’s ankles while he encouraged him to shift his weight and try to take two steps on his hands. Finn fell again and again, but he was determined to succeed.
“Underwater is much easier because you pretty much float and don’t have to worry about gravity making you crash to the ground, but you can’t breathe there. You may have to practice to build up your stomach muscles.” Hugo patted his stomach and flexed.
“Can I see?” Finn asked.
“See what?”
“Your stomach muscles. Do you have all those bumps like Dad does or are you squishy like Charlie’s dad?”
Hugo looked to Kevin for help, but Kevin just smiled and leaned forward in his chair like he wanted to see too.
“Okay….” Hugo lifted his shirt, and Finn pressed his little hand right over Hugo’s belly button.
“Now make ’em really hard,” Finn directed with a dramatic grunt. Hugo flexed, muscles bunching into a respectable six-pack considering how thin he was. “Cool! I want muscles like that. But… I don’t have to have muscles that big to walk on my hands, do I?” He sounded genuinely worried.
“No. I was doing this long before I had muscles like these. Besides, walking on your hands won’t ever give you these muscles. I got those by doing millions of crunches.”
“What are crunches?”
Hugo laughed and saw Kevin and Brooke just smile at each other, talking quietly as they watched Hugo becoming a gym teacher. Hugo dropped to the ground and quickly showed Finn how to do various types of crunches, Finn following along as well as he could. He was so sweet Hugo wondered if he could possibly be getting a cavity just by spending time with this kid.
“Okay, that’s enough crunches. You can work on those in your own time. Let’s finish this lesson with a success. We’re going to get you up on your hands and walking. Your dad has a movie planned for us, and personally, I’d love to try some of the popcorn you guys were bragging about earlier.”
Hugo held on to Finn’s ankles and helped him walk, slowly easing up on his grip to allow Finn to take over more and more of the work. Eventually, he was able to let go for all of ten seconds before Finn started to tumble. He tucked his head, just how Hugo had taught him, and rolled into a somersault, finishing with a flourish.
“Lovely,” Hugo said, clapping his hands. “You were up on your own for at least ten seconds. And that dismount was great.”
“My head sorta hurts,” Finn announced, his face flushed.
“That’s normal. All your blood just rushed to your head. That’s why walking on our hands isn’t ever going to be our primary mode of locomotion.” Finn looked at Hugo like he’d just spoken Latin. “Okay, ready for that movie?” he asked, anxious to get inside again. “Or do you want to try one more time?”
As soon as Finn gave it one more go, increasing his time on his hands by at least another five seconds and landing on his feet rather than doing a somersault, he ran in the house, saying he wanted to have a slumber party in the family room so he needed to get his pajamas on. There was no argument from Kevin, and Hugo saw the little strawberry-blond boy disappear. Brooke stood up and walked over to Hugo and easily did a handstand, walking on her hands as if it were her natural mode of transportation.
“Great walking,” Hugo said, clapping his hands and feeling himself grinning from ear to ear. “Thanks for not doing that in front of Finn. I think he probably wouldn’t have tried so hard if he knew how good you were.”
Brooke just smiled at him and disappeared in the house herself.
“You just keep doing amazing things, don’t you?” Kevin said.
“No?”
“Yeah, you do. Stop denying it.”
“What did I do besides teach Finn something new?”
“You did it with the patience of a saint and then still somehow managed to make Brooke beam with a few words. And you got me to sit over there calm and relaxed.”
“Brooke is probably still crushing on me.”
“No, I don’t think so. I think she thinks you’re a cool guy who somehow makes her dad seem happier. She said as much while you were helping Finn.”
Hugo looked around, including upstairs toward the children’s windows, and when he saw the coast was clear, he stepped closer to Kevin and raised the few inches he needed to kiss his mouth. Kevin kissed back, but kept it short and fairly tame, even if he did allow a little sweep of his tongue.
“Let’s go set up the movie,” Kevin said, tugging on Hugo’s hand.
ABOUT halfway through the movie with Finn molded like a wet noodle to Hugo’s side and Brooke doing a pretty good imitation on Kevin’s other side, Kevin slipped his hand between his and Hugo’s thighs and curled his fingers. Hugo looked over at Kevin and raised his eyebrows in question. Kevin’s face warmed as he nodded.
Hugo slid his fingers between Kevin’s and smiled as Kevin gripped his hand tighter.
After the movie, Hugo said goodbye to the kids as they headed upstairs to bed. Kevin pulled him into a hug, kissing him gently on the cheek and then moving back in for a quick kiss on the mouth.
“I’ll see you tomorrow.”
Hugo drove away with an entirely new vision of what his life could be if he would ever allow himself to have it.
He wanted it. He wanted a life with Kevin and his kids. Or at least he thought he did.