Total pages in book: 79
Estimated words: 76232 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 381(@200wpm)___ 305(@250wpm)___ 254(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 76232 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 381(@200wpm)___ 305(@250wpm)___ 254(@300wpm)
“Hmm.” His father took a drink. “What’s your plan?”
“What do you mean, what’s my plan? She’s my assistant. He’s my brother. I get over it.”
Roger continued to study Jack and Kate. “You think she’s the one for him?”
Kennedy gave a fleeting glance over his shoulder, then back out at the river. “I don’t know.”
“Yes, you do.”
Kennedy’s fingers clenched around the iron railing. “Well, what do you want me to do, Dad? Go storm over there and tell him that I don’t see it? That he’s not able to give her what she wants?”
“How do you know what she wants?”
“She told me. She wants love at first sight, someone who doesn’t hold back, who’s willing to go all in,” he said, recalling their conversation that night over the chessboard.
His father said nothing for a minute, then looked back at Kennedy. “You remember that summer when you were about nine or so, and we rented that house in Nantucket with the pool?”
“Sure.”
“It was all you boys wanted to do, swim in that pool. Not Fitz, he was too young, but the other three of you spent all damn day in that thing.”
“So?” Kennedy knew there was some sort of fatherly lesson coming, but he didn’t have a clue what it was.
“It says a lot about someone, the way they approach a new pool for the first time. Your mother and I laughed about it, watching you boys that first day. Jack went cannonballing into the deep end.”
“Of course he did,” Kennedy said with a slight smile.
“John sat on the top step, book still in hand, because he’d wanted to finish his chapter before going swimming. But you and Jack didn’t want to wait.”
“Because it was never one chapter; it was always the whole book.” Kennedy himself had always enjoyed reading, but his younger brother John was bookish on a whole other level.
“And you,” his father said, continuing with his swimming parable. “You walked the perimeter of the pool. Checked the number painted on the side to see how deep it was. Gave the diving board a careful test to make sure it was sound. Dipped a foot in to test the temperature. I’m sure if you knew how, you’d have checked the chlorine levels, too.”
“Because people pee in pools. Jack probably did.”
“You were always the cautious one, and your mother and I fully expected you to go into the pool via the shallow end, taking your time.”
“I get it,” Kennedy said a little irritably. “Jack’s the spontaneous one, John’s head is more in the book world than the real world, and I’m the overly cautious one.”
“But you didn’t wade into the shallow end,” Roger continued, as though Kennedy hadn’t spoken. “After making sure it was okay to do so, you dove into the deep end without a second’s hesitation. And you stayed in that pool well after Jack and John got bored and left.”
His father fell silent, and Kennedy glanced over. “Okay, I give up. The moral of the story is . . .”
“You do go all in, son. You go all in bigger than anyone I know. It just takes you a while to figure out your plan of approach, dot your i’s, do your due diligence first.” Roger Dawson clapped his son on the shoulder. “Talk to your brother. It won’t do either of you any favors to keep your mouth shut if it eats you up. It won’t do Kate any favors, either.”
Kennedy said nothing.
“At least think about it,” his father said, patting him on the shoulder. “Life goes by so quickly. Don’t waste a minute of it.”
Kennedy knew it was the coward’s way out, but he waited until his brother was alone before making his move.
“Hey,” Jack said, grinning when he saw Kennedy. “Where the hell you been? I haven’t seen you since we first got in.”
“I’ve been making the rounds,” Kennedy lied. “So much for this being a small get-together.”
“Classic over-the-top Mom party, right?” Jack said, snagging a stuffed mushroom off a passing tray. “Hey, sorry to hear about Claudia. She seemed nice.”
“She was. Just not . . . You know.”
“Yeah, I know. Unfortunately.”
Jack’s sardonic tone gave Kennedy pause. “Do you?”
“Yup.” Jack popped the mushroom in his mouth. “Got the old let’s be friends talk from your girl Kate.”
“What?” Even as hope flared, he cared enough about his brother to be bothered. “She dumped you at our parents’ anniversary party?”
“Nah.” Jack picked up his glass of champagne from a table. “We had ‘the talk’ earlier this week. Decided we were better as friends and all of that.”
“Who decided?”
“She brought it up first.” Jack lifted a shoulder. “But I’d have done it if she hadn’t. Sucks, though. She’s one of the good ones, but the physical chemistry was off. It was a little too much like kissing my sister.”