21. Chapter 21

Chapter 21

H e lifted the cup of coffee to his lips and took a sip, loving the way the hot liquid flooded his taste buds and spread throughout his body. It was colder than usual for an October day, especially this early in the month, but he could not say he minded, for the most part anyway. He had always loved the cold.

He glanced down at his phone, disappointed to see no message from Lucas again. It had been two days since the big showdown at the beach and everything was more or less back to normal. He and Olivia had worked out the parameters of their relationship. They were in love and he was staying put. Other than that, they were just taking things one day at a time. But he could not pretend he wasn’t dreaming of bigger things. Of rings and I do’s and promises of forever. He just needed to figure out how she would feel about it all.

“Something on your mind there, stranger?” a voice asked from behind him as he stared out at the water.

He knew that voice. But the owner of that voice should be hundreds of miles away, not here on the beach in this small town. He turned around and sure enough, his little brother was there, a huge grin on his face.

“Lucas,” Draven said, not fully believing his eyes as he rushed towards his brother. He pulled him in for a tight hug, tears stinging his eyes. His little brother was here. He had missed him so much.

The last time they had seen each other was a few weeks after their mom died, a meeting to settle her estate between the two of them with her lawyer. He barely remembered that day. Everything was too loud and the world moved too fast when, inside, all he was feeling was the void his mother left. He wasn’t even sure he had actually spoken to Lucas.

This had to be the best surprise ever. His little brother was here.

“Miss me?” Lucas asked with a smile.

“Why didn’t you tell me you were coming? When I asked you to come for a visit, I figured you would at least give me a heads up. Don’t you have to work? I can’t remember the last time you actually took time off.”

“That's because I didn’t take time off. I quit.”

“You did what? Why? I thought you loved your job?”

“You heard me. I quit. It just seemed like a good time. Honestly, I’ve been thinking about it since mom died and hearing from you just gave me the push I needed, I guess.”

“Well, that's … why didn’t you tell me? When did you get into town? More importantly, how the hell did you know where to find me?” Draven asked, still somewhat stunned. Though, to be honest, he did not care much for the particulars. He was just glad his brother was here.

“Oh, about half an hour ago. I checked in at the only place in town. Asked that hot girl at the front desk.”

Draven laughed. “Parker.”

Lucas nodded. “Right, Parker. I asked if she knew you and she pointed me in the right direction. Well, she gave me your address.”

“Which begs the question yet again: how did you find me?”

“Well, I knocked for a good five minutes. Just when I was about to give up, I met one of your neighbors and the kid told me where you might be. He’s something else, that one. It seemed like he gave his babysitter the slip, the poor woman came out of the house looking scared to death.”

He laughed. “That sounds like Daniel. Kid’s too smart for his own good. He’s always getting up to something. I take it you didn’t run into Olivia?”

Lucas shook his head. “Nope. But I’m kind of glad. I really wanted to see you first.”

Draven had mentioned her to Lucas in one of his previous texts. But given that it was a late Tuesday afternoon, he knew she would be at work. Hence Daniel’s babysitter. Draven still needed to figure out how he was going to spend his own days now that he was an actual permanent resident of the town.

“I still can’t believe you’re here,” Draven said, shaking his head at Lucas’s wide grin.

His hair was cut short as always, though a bit shaggy on top. His brown eyes were bright in a way Draven hadn’t seen in so long. It was as if leaving his job had lifted a weight off his shoulders. He seemed lighter, happier, more at ease. It was so good to see.

“Well, believe it. I’m thinking of sticking around for a while. If you’ll have me.”

“You really quit your job then?”

“Yes. It was time. Hell, it was more than time. My career was basically my whole life. You and I have that in common. I just want more than that. Plus, there’s nothing left for me in New York now that you’re here and I wanted to know what the hell is going on with you. That picture you sent me looked like some kind of spell.”

He reached behind his head to rub at his neck. How best to even start this conversation? Probably blunt honesty.

“Yeah. A lot has happened, little brother, and I’m not sure exactly where to begin. But the gist of it is, Mom was a witch.”

He spent the next hour explaining to Lucas how he had discovered the secret, what he had assumed happened when their mother lost her magic and what he had tried to do to make it up to her.

“Wait, you tried to destroy magic? All because of something you read in one of mom’s journals? Which I want to read, by the way. But, seriously, big brother? It seems like you were missing some vital information.”

He cringed. “Yeah. I’ll admit it wasn’t one of my best decisions. But I was hurting so much from losing mom. Finding all of that stuff made me feel so close to her again.”

Lucas placed a hand on his shoulder. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to judge you. I get it, I miss mom too.”

They were both silent for a few moments, just feeling the loss of their mother.

Then Lucas leaned back and smiled softly. “So, she was a witch? I feel like I should be more shocked than I actually am. But in some ways, it totally makes sense.”

“That’s what I thought too. She was always telling us stories about magic and witches. Who knew they were based on her actual experiences? That picture I sent you of that spell? It was one that mom wrote. It’s in a bigger spell book that the town witches use. I’ll show it to you as soon as possible.”

Lucas nodded before his smile faded and his face turned down into a frown. “How does Dad fit into all of this?”

“I’m still not 100 percent sure. But we’re assuming that he left mom when she made it clear to him that she would never try to get her magic back.”

“We?”

He blushed. “Me and Olivia.”

“Right, Olivia,” Lucas said with a smile. “She’s a witch too?”

“She is and she’s much too good for me.”

Lucas laughed. “I absolutely believe that. So, when do I get to meet her?”

“Tonight, probably. She should be off work soon. We can all have dinner together, you, me, Olivia and Daniel. You can go and check out of the inn. I have a spare bedroom with your name on it, little brother.”

“Sounds good, big brother. But before we get to any of that, what do you say we build a sandcastle?”

Draven’s great-grandmother's wedding ring was something that his mother had kept in her possession since he could remember. It was always sitting in the top of her jewelry box. He had liked to stare at it from time to time and watch the way sunlight reflected off the single diamond. It was one of the few things he had brought with him of his mother’s other than her journals, pictures and letters.

She had gifted it to him not long before she died. Making him promise that if the time ever came, he would present this ring to someone. If he never found that person or simply did not want to give that person a ring, he would pass it on to his brother. At the time, he had assumed that’s exactly what he would do. But now, now there were possibilities—things he had never wanted before.

Lucas was moving around in the other bedroom, putting his things away. After they built their sandcastle and snapped a picture, they drove back to the inn, grabbed Lucas’s things and headed back to Draven’s house. They chatted for a bit about nothing in particular and then went off to spend some time alone with their thoughts. It was nice to hear the familiar sounds of another person in his living space. He was excited for tonight when his whole family could be together for the first time. His family. Funny how two simple words could bring him so much peace.

He glanced down at the ring, remembering again the day his mother gave it to him.

“Wait for the right kind of love, Draven. The kind that makes you feel more like yourself. Wait for your best friend. Someone who understands you and doesn’t want to change the fundamental pieces of who you are but also makes you strive to be the very best version of yourself. Never settle for less than what you deserve,” she had said.

“Did you settle, Mom? With Dad. Do you feel like you settled?”

She nodded, her eyebrows pinched together. She rubbed her chest, as if the admission caused her heart pain. “Sometimes I feel like I did. But it doesn’t really matter now, does it? Because whatever else your father did, at least he gave me you and your brother. I just want you to be happy, whatever that looks like for you. It doesn’t have to be getting married and having kids. It just has to be something that leaves you feeling fulfilled. Just promise me that you’ll keep that ring. If nothing else, then as a reminder of me telling you this today.”

He promised her. With tears In his eyes and a kiss to her too pale cheek, he promised her. He had wanted more time with her. Time to show her how much she meant to him. If only she could have known Olivia and Daniel and seen how he and Lucas had found their way back to each other. It wasn’t fair that she wasn’t here to be a part of all this. But he could not change that. What he could do was live. Live in a way that would make her proud. Thinking about the way Olivia loved him, how she understood him and supported him even after everything he had done, he finally found what his mother had wanted for him.

That alone made the pain of her loss that still lingered in his heart that much easier to bear.

His thoughts went back to that sandcastle, now standing tall on the beach. It was such a silly thing for two grown men to do. But as they had built it, feeling the cold, wet sand between their fingertips, he liked to imagine his mother was watching, a smile on her face and a feeling of peace in her heart. Her boys had finally come home.