The Summers After

nine

CONRAD

Walking into the house, the last person he expected to see, was Jeremiah. Belly is smiling up at him when Jeremiah catches his eye.

"Con!" He yells. He pushes past Belly gently and wraps Conrad in a bear hug.

Conrad laughs and hugs Jere tightly. It's good to have him home, "Welcome home, Jere."

Jeremiah pulls away from the hug and looks around the house, "It's good to be here."

Just then, Steven and Shayla walk into the house. "No way!" Steven shouts, and Jeremiah and Steven embrace. Steven opens his arm, "Get in here Con, group hug!"

Conrad shakes his head, "you're an idiot, Steven."

"Get over here!" Steven demands.

Conrad walks over and the three of them hug. Belly watches them with a grin on her face. Steven and Conrad simultaneously pull Belly into the hug, smushing her right in the middle. Belly giggles and it comes out muffled.

"The summer kids are back," Jeremiah breathes. And in that instant, it does feel totally normal.

Conrad feels like a 16 year old again. His best friends in the same house for the summer, the moms sitting out by the pool laughing and drinking into the late hours of the night. They were simpler times.

"I can't breathe!" Belly shouts and the boys break apart, letting her squirm out. She instinctively leans against Conrad's chest. He puts his arm around her shoulders, locking her into his body.

"Your room is all ready Jere." Conrad says to him softly.

"Thanks guys. I'm going to go throw some of this up there, don't do anything else fun without me!" Jeremiah exits the room quickly, his bags in tow.

Conrad leans down and kisses Belly's neck, right where her ear and neck come together, she lets out a high-pitched giggle. Conrad loves that sound, it makes his stomach flip.

Jeremiah comes down a few minutes later, wearing nothing but his swimsuit. He rubs his hands together excitedly. "Alright, are we surfing?"

Conrad cocks his head, "Surfing? Why would we do that?"

Steven frowns, "what the hell man! I thought we were going to surf."

Conrad smiles, his eyes lock on Belly's. "We have something we have to do first."

Belly takes a step backwards, "no, come on you guys! We're adults, we do not need to be doing this!" She backs up into the door.

Jeremiah and Steven are snickering behind Conrad, ready to stop her from getting away. But she won't go anywhere. She secretly loves this, and Conrad knows it.

"Can't fight tradition, Belly." Conrad says with a flirty tone.

"Yeah, come on Belly Button," Jere says behind him.

Belly groans. "Fine. Can I at least take my dress off? It's new."

They all nod. She pulls off the dress, revealing her black bikini. Conrad rakes his eyes over her body. Damn, his wife is hot, he thinks to himself. He has a brief moment of wondering what Jeremiah is thinking, but it goes as quickly as it came. Belly's eyes are locked on his, she's his.

Belly shrugs, and then in an instant, throws her dress into Conrad's face and runs out the door, shrieking like a little girl. The boys are hot on her tail, they're determined to catch her. Steven catches her first, as she's running out the gate towards the beach.

"Not so fast!" He shouts.

Conrad and Jeremiah grab her legs while Steven holds her. Conrad winks at her as they countdown, "on three!"

"One!"

"Two!"

"BELLY FLOP!" They all shout together and thrust her into the pool. This time is different than their teenage years though. They jump in after her, their laughter filling the pool. Shayla is standing on the steps, watching this with a smile on her face.

Belly surfaces and immediately swims over to Conrad, "you guys suck!"

They all laugh. Just like old times.

Jeremiah is so different in so many ways, but also the same in so many others. He's still the life of the party, that will probably never change. He keeps the mood light and airy, he makes Laurel laugh, he spends time with Matt, talking to him about stars. He's Jere, but Conrad can see where the cracks are. There are the cracks that losing their mom left, the ones that loving Belly left, and maybe the biggest cracks of all, the ones that Conrad caused. They're not noticeable to anyone else, probably not even Belly. But they're glaringly obvious to him — because he has them too.

After everyone's asleep that night, Conrad sits down by the pool, dangling his feet in the water. Jeremiah sits down next to him after a little while and does the same.

"Where were you this time?" Conrad asks softly, looking out at the gently rippling water.

"Prague." Jeremiah answers simply.

"A girl?" Conrad looks over at his brother.

Jeremiah smiles coyly, "Maybe."

"Do we get to meet her?"

"No. It's not like that," Jeremiah's face drops. "The house looks good man,"

"It's Belly, and Laurel. They're intent on keeping it the way mom had it," Conrad looks up at the house. Literally nothing has changed. Laurel even plants the same flowers in the pots that mom had.

"I'm glad. It's nice to know this is always here if I need it."

"You should need it more often. We miss you." Conrad says vulnerably. He doesn't open up to his brother a lot, especially after everything that happened with Belly. He's unsure of where the line is anymore.

"I miss you guys too," Jeremiah lets out a deep breath, "Matt and Henry are great. They look like you, poor guys."

Conrad chuckles, "Ah yes. Belly says the same thing. Always going on about how they have my hair, impossible to tame," Conrad rolls his eyes, "as if hers has ever been manageable."

"You guys look happy, Con." Jeremiah nudges his brother with his leg, "I'm glad."

Conrad meets his brothers eyes, "Thanks Jere. I hope you are too."

Jeremiah looks away and half smiles, "Maybe one day." Jeremiah slaps Conrad on the back and climbs out of the pool, "Goodnight Conrad."

"Night Jere." Conrad answers softly.

He watches Jeremiah walk back into the house and close the door. Conrad has a pit in his stomach. It's been 7 years, has Jeremiah never moved on from her? From their almost? But then Conrad thinks about when he had lost her, when she was engaged to Jeremiah were and Conrad walked away. The pain in his chest, he wasn't sure that would have gone away if she didn't come back to him.

Belly was like the air he breathed. He simply needed it to function. He never realized that maybe, Jere needed it too.