Page 70 of Out of Reach

His mother looked stunned for a second before recovering and pulling Jude into a hug. “It’s wonderful to finally meet you, Jude. Come inside. I have a big meal prepared. Brandon and Lizzy just got here an hour ago and are unpacking.”

The house seemed smaller than Hawk remembered it, but it smelled the same—a combination of the potpourri his mother loved and the wonderful scent of a home-cooked meal. Keeping his arm around Jude’s shoulders, Hawk looked around. They’d replaced the old couch, but everything else looked the same. On the small desk against the outside wall of the kitchen sat a framed photo of Hawk and Hart. Picking it up, Hawk stared at it a moment before showing it to Jude.

“Aw. You guys are adorable. How old were you?” Jude asked.

“Around four, I think.”

“You’d just turned five,” his mother said, coming out of the kitchen, wiping her hands on a dish towel. “Alex had lost a tooth the night before and wouldn’t open his mouth to smile.”

“I remember that,” Hawk said. “Hart kept laughing at me and calling me a Jack O’Lantern.”

His mother chuckled. “That boy.”

At his mother’s laughter, a weight lifted off Hawk at the realization that he could now talk about Hart without having to worry that it would upset his parents. Maybe it had been that way for a long time, and Hawk hadn’t even known it because he’d been too much of a coward.

“Is that my stinky little brother?” his sister’s voice came from the bottom of the steps. A tall man with dark, auburn hair looming behind her.

Hawk hugged his sister, then introduced her to Jude. She in turn introduced them to Brandon.

“It’s about time I get to meet you,” Brandon said. “I was beginning to think Lizzy didn’t really have a brother.”

“I haven’t been around like I should have, but I’m going to change that,” Hawk said.

“You’d better,” Lizzy told him. Looking at Jude, she asked, “Are you the reason my brother’s turning into a human?”

“I doubt it. I never had any impact on him when we used to date.”

Brandon looked questioningly at Lizzy, who explained, “They dated years ago. It looks like they’re back together.”

Wrapping his arm around Jude’s waist, Hawk said, “He’s one hundred percent what’s changed me, and, yes, we’re back together.”

“Come and eat!” Hawk’s mother called them into the dining room.

CHAPTER FORTY-ONE

Jude

Hawk’s family was really nice, although not exactly how Jude had pictured them. He knew what they all looked like from photos, but he’d imagined John, Hawk’s father, to be much sterner and Olivia, Hawk’s mother, much quieter. Jude could have been imagining it, but there seemed to be an air of discomfort between Hawk and his sister. As they ate, Olivia asked Jude about himself, and he was a little embarrassed that he didn’t have more to say. No family, and no career. In his late twenties, he was back to square one. When he said as much about his indecision about a career, Lizzy smiled and shook her head.

“Obviously, my brother hasn’t told you how many times I changed my major. When I started college, I was going to be a business major. Then I decided that I’d rather go into nursing, like Mom.”

Olivia Sterling laughed. “That didn’t last long.”

“Only about as long as it took for me to faint when I saw a needle,” Lizzy said. “So, then I thought I’d indulge my creative side by going into theater arts.”

“All this even though painting has always been her passion,” John told Jude.

“I just always thought I’d never go anywhere with painting. I wasn’t good enough to make it big, so what was I going to do with it? Well, I finally figured that out and entered the education program with a minor in art. Turns out, that was the right decision for me. But it took most of my twenties to figure it out.”

“At least you went to college,” Jude said.

“You can still do that, if that’s what you want,” Hawk said.

Jude turned to look at him. “I don’t even know what I’d major in.”

“Part of going to college is the experience,” Lizzy said. “Finding yourself. And it doesn’t matter how old you are—there were people of all ages when I went.”

“Think about it,” Olivia encouraged. “And I’m sure Alex will support you in whatever you do.”