Page 95 of The Do-Over

Oh yes, this was the Billy she’d always known existed even when he was just a teenager. This Billy put other people ahead of himself. Her heart ached with love for him. He’d make an excellent member of a Japanese team that valued wa. Maybe she should contact the Chunichi Dragons and tell them everything that had happened. Maybe they’d change their minds and sign him after all.

If he went to Japan, she was going with him. They’d all go with him. She was done with being separated from Billy.

Out on the snowfield that used to be a lawn, she spotted Annika in a tight circle with the boys and a tall man who had to be Brent Caldwell. He was hovering close to Annika as if his only job was to make sure she didn’t collapse again.

It seemed to be working. Annika looked pale and maybe a little thinner, but she radiated something Jenna had never seen before in her self-possessed sister. Something like…joy.

When they spotted the gurney and Jenna trotting alongside it, they all came hurrying toward them. Brent Caldwell carried Bean, who had probably been struggling in the snow. She appreciated his thoughtfulness, along with the use of his helicopter and everything he’d done for Annika.

“Dad! What happened?” Zack cried as he nearly collided with the gurney. A firefighter tried to shoo him away, but Billy reached for Zack with his uninjured hand.

“Nothing I can’t handle,” he said jokingly. “Get it?” He gestured with his chin at the handle of the knife in his arm.

Annika met Jenna’s gaze in an unspoken question. It’s okay, Jenna reassured her silently.

“Only Billy Cooper would make dad jokes about the knife sticking out of his arm,” she teased. But her tone was affectionate and her expression full of concern.

“That a compliment?” Billy asked with a wry twist of his mouth.

“Actually, it is. Go figure.”

“What’s gotten into you?” They were all trooping through the snow alongside the gurney on its way to the helicopter.

“If you want me to be hard on you again, you’re going to have to get better first,” Annika teased.

“Deal.”

“I didn’t make that deal.” Jenna wasn’t about to get left out of this conversation. “You can give Billy a hard time if you want, as long as you remember that he saved my life and that I love him and that we’re going for a do-over.”

“A what?”

“You’ll see. It’s not just a do-over, it’s a do-better. The next wedding’s going to be fancy.”

“Fancy, huh?” Billy groaned as the firefighters forged through deeper snow. Jenna was glad she’d worn her snow-fort-building clothes, even though she’d metaphorically smashed her own internal snow fort into smithereens. “I can live with that.”

They reached the helicopter, which was idling, its blades still. The firefighters paused to make some kind of adjustment to the gurney. Billy beckoned to Zack and Bean.

“Love you guys,” Billy told them as he put two fingers over his heart—his familiar gesture from the diamond. “If you’re worried about me, just cut it out. Get it?”

They all groaned at yet another dad joke.

“Does it hurt?” Bean asked. His eyes were about as wide as Frisbees.

“Like a mo…mouth ache,” he corrected in time. “I mean, a toothache,” he corrected again. “But it’s going to be fine.”

“Yes, it is.” Jenna added her own vote of confidence. “He’ll be fine. We’re all going to be fine.”

“You should have seen Bean,” Zack said proudly. “He tried to stop the cook all by himself. He grabbed onto her leg and nearly knocked her over.”

“He did?” Jenna looked over at her youngest son, still being carried by Caldwell. “That was so brave.”

Bean lit up like a candle in the snow. “I can be a hero too!”

“You are. You’re a hero.” Jenna could have cried, seeing her youngest son so proud of himself, and her older son boasting about his brother. Had any moment ever been so sweet?

“Tyler went to call his father, and I tried to stop her too, but she said she might hurt Bean. So I stayed with Dad,” Zack said.

“You did exactly the right thing.” From the gurney, Billy grinned at both boys, then Tyler too. “You all did. Proud of you.”