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‘Come on, kid. Today, you learn how to surf.’
It’s sunny day, hot and roasting with a fair amount of wind to keep people from melting. This is the first thing JJ notices when he wakes up in the morning, his body slick with a sheer layer of sweat from the humidity in the air. He forgot to set the air conditioning to turn on in the morning, so he hops to his feet and does that before Kiara could notice the slip-up.
Right through the hallway next to the living room are two rooms, one on each side. JJ walks into the one on his right, opening the door slowly because it’s old and it creeks.
Inside the bed is his eldest, sleeping peacefully as he always does. He takes after his mum when it comes to that – both Roscoe and Kie could sleep until long after the sun has risen, whereas JJ and Mae are the early rises.
JJ walks up to his son’s bed, as quietly as possible. He scans the sheets and finds where the lumps are, slowly reaching under the sheets until he’s just above Roscoe’s feet – and then he pulls.
Roscoe wakes up screaming. JJ starts laughing.
‘Good morning, Junior,’ JJ says. He sits down on the side of the small bed and kisses his son’s forehead. ‘Happy birthday!’
‘HAPPY BIRTHDAY RO!’
Screaming like she has come from hell, little Mae runs into the room and jumps on her brother, hugging him and pestering him with kisses just like Kie will, once she wakes up.
‘Let’s get out of bed,’ JJ tells them. ‘I’ll make you your favourite sandwiches.’
‘With a lot of ketchup,’ Roscoe says.
JJ frowns, playfully, then begins to tickle. ‘Ketchup bad!’
‘Ketchup bad! Very bad!’ echoes Mae, joining in to the game.
In the end, it takes JJ almost half an hour to get both of them out of Roscoe’s bed, but he isn’t bothered about it. Both kids are ecstatic when he tells them it’s a great day for surfing, and Roscoe begins to almost hyperventilate when he finds out he’s going to start learning how to surf today.
The sun shines into the kitchen and it looks just as bright as JJ feels on the inside. Roscoe and Mae bicker a little, playfully, the way he and John B always did when they were little.
He tells Roscoe to turn on the radio and soft rock begins to play. As soon as Kie hears this, she’ll be up.
JJ prepares four sandwiches and places them on the table. Roscoe’s comes with extra ketchup, and there’s hoping that he’ll eat it before Kiara finds out.
‘Eat the sandwich, bud. You might be six now, but even big boys need to eat.’
‘Extra ketchup?’
‘Extra ketchup. Just don’t tell Mommy.’
Ten minutes later, the sandwiches are gone and the kids are doing their morning routine in the bathroom. JJ is cleaning up the dishes when two hands slide across his stomach and he feels Kiara press her face against his back.
He turns around and wraps his arms around her, pulling her into a hug as he gives her a brief kiss.
‘Morning, Sleeping Beauty.’
‘Mhm,’ is all she says, her eyes half open, her voice still half asleep. She nuzzles her head in his chest, cuddling into him. ‘It smells nice.’
‘Oh thanks, it’s just my natural smell.’
Kiara laughs. It’s been years, but he still hasn’t started getting enough of that. ‘I meant the food.’
‘Ouch. Heartbroken.’
She kisses him on the lips, a little more passionately than before, and laughs into it again.
They have breakfast together, her legs in his lap, and the kids join them soon enough. Kiara pesters Roscoe with kisses just like Mae did, with the girl sitting in her lap, and the sight fills JJ with the kind of joy he once upon a time thought he’d never get.
‘Let’s get going,’ he tells them with a bright smile on his face. ‘It’s time for the Maybanks to get back into the water!’
When they get to the beach, the waves are beautiful and JJ thinks it must be fate that the conditions are like these on his son’s birthday. He’s a Maybank, after all, and the day there is not a Maybank on the waves of the Outer Banks is the day their legacy will disappear.
Kiara stops the car and glances at JJ; he knows what she’s thinking.
Surfing has always been the Pogue thing. It always will be. But now, it’s time for the next generation of Pogues to take over.
JJ kisses her on the cheek, then turns around in the seat. Roscoe is playing with a surf board key chain his parents have gotten him when he was little, and Mae is staring out of the window, mesmerised by the waves.
It makes JJ’s heart a little warmer. These truly are the Pogue kids.
‘Let’s get going, yeah?’
He and Kiara set up the blanket with the picnic as the kids play in the water. It’s always like this, when they go to the beach – JJ taught Roscoe how to run away from water and how the ocean works just months before little Mae was born, almost four years ago. Seeing them play the exact same game now, without their parents having to be overlooking their every move, was worth whatever it took for them to get there.
JJ looks to his side, where Kiara is unpacking a bottle of juice and three glasses. She smiles at him, sheepishly, and he raises his eyebrows.
His fingers trail over the line of her shoulders, tracing her bra straps, just the way he knows it’ll tickle. She shivers but in a good way, and giggles before brushing his hand off.
‘Don’t be like that,’ she says, grinning widely. ‘You’ll get your beer.’
‘Hm.’
‘Here.’ She takes a can out of the basket and cracks it open, then hands it to him. ‘What?’
‘Where’s your beer, Kie?’
She looks at their kids, who are running around the water, and tilts her head back. When she looks at him, her smile has turned coy. ‘I’m not drinking.’
‘You’re not drinking.’
‘No.’
‘Because…’
Kiara turns to him and places a hand on his cheek. Her thumb brushes over his lips, and her gaze remains on them. JJ sticks out a tongue and it touches the tip of her thumb, making them both laugh.
Her eyes find his and the glimmer in them makes everything clear.
‘I’m not going to be drinking beer for the next seven months,’ whispers Kiara.
JJ kisses her, full on the lips, and pulls her as close as he could. His heart beats against his chest and he lets out the loudest WOO! he can, not caring the slightest about the other people at the beach. Feeling Kiara laugh into his chest and resting his fingers on her belly, knowing that there’s another future Pogue growing in there, is more than he could’ve ever asked for.
‘I love you,’ he whispers into her ear, ‘but with three kids with our genes, all hell is gonna break loose.’
Kiara laughs and gives him a peck on the tip of his nose. ‘Shut up, JJ. Go make sure hell doesn’t break loose with the two we’ve already got.’
‘Yes, ma’am.’
The kids come over for juice and when Kiara sips hers, she and JJ just look at each other, smiling, knowing. They are going to tell the kids, eventually, but today is not the day.
JJ is just…happy.
He takes Roscoe to the ocean shortly after. The boy has his own surf board that JJ and Kiara gave him right before coming to the beach, his birthday present. It’s blue with green stripes, almost identical to JJ’s, except the fact that it’s smaller and JJ’s is blue with red stripes.
They stand at the edge of the ocean with water reaching right under JJ’s ankles. He looks at his son and grins, devilishly. ‘You ready, kid?’
Roscoe nods. ‘I’m a big boy now!’
‘You sure are. Hold on to that thing tight, okay?’
‘Tight,’ Roscoe mutters to himself, holding the board so close to his chest it looked like he couldn’t breathe.
JJ laughs. He slides a hand between Roscoe and the board, then ruffles his kid’s hair. ‘Not that tight.’
‘Oh, okay.’
He throws one glance at the beach; Kiara waves at him, with Mae jumping around her with an apple in her mouth. Between the two kids, Mae has taken after him in almost every regard, and it makes for a fun time when it’s just Kie and her. She’s a big ball of energy that cannot be contained, but she’s got her Mom’s drive.
Roscoe, on the other hand, is a lot more methodical and persistent, like Kiara. He listens to JJ’s instructions carefully, and when they set off for the waves, there’s so much of Kiara in the way he holds himself on the board that JJ feels like he’s a kid again, surfing for the first time, desperate to prove himself after seeing Kiara do it.
Kid’s a natural. It makes JJ smile.
‘Okay, now keep paddling with your hands,’ he says. He goes a bit slower so Roscoe can follow. ‘Always look ahead. Usually we’d go for wilder waves, but today they’re just perfect for your first time. What are you supposed to be looking for?’
‘Ahead?’
‘Junior!’ JJ splashes water over his son, laughing. Turns out Roscoe does take after him. ‘You’re looking for the size of waves. They’ve got to be big enough so you can stand on them.’
‘Like this?’
Within moments, before JJ can tell him no, Roscoe is on his feet and hands outstretched, balancing his way through the waves as if he’s done this a million times.
JJ laughs. ‘Is there any point in teaching you?’
They spend about half an hour in the water, falling off their boards and climbing back on, playfighting so Roscoe would learn how to always keep a balance, and JJ teaches him how to discern between waves he can get on, waves he needs to get under, and waves that just need to pass.
When they take a break and walk out of the water, JJ drops himself next to Kiara and drinks a bit of water. Roscoe begins playing catch with Mae and JJ groans.
‘I’m getting old,’ he says.
‘Lazy,’ Kiara corrects. ‘How’s he?’
‘Teaching him is awful. He’s just like you. There’s barely any need to teach him at all. Awful.’
Kiara pushes him lightly, then throws some sand over him. They roll around for a bit, just like they used to when they were younger, and his abdomen hurts from laughing.
‘That’s coming from you,’ Kiara tells him, pushing stray hair out of his face. ‘I’m good at surfing. You were born surfing.’
‘Exaggeration.’
‘Shut up and take the compliment.’
‘Oh, don’t worry about that. It’s already been processed and filed in the compliment section that says Wife.’
Kiara laughs. He’s convinced now – he’ll never get tired of hearing that. ‘Cheeseball,’ she says.
‘Pregnant ball.’
‘That one’s on you!’
‘It better be,’ he says, and tackles her to the ground. ‘Even if it happens fifty times.’
‘Fifty?’
‘Let’s colonise the Cut. Five generations from now, there’s just Maybanks on the cut. It’ll be called the Maybancut.’
Kiara has managed to hold her face straight until that point; she bursts out laughing. She looks beautiful when JJ makes her laugh hard, with her eyes closed and mouth wide open and every time he sees her like that, it reminds him that he’s done at least one right thing in his life.
He’s got Kie and he’s got the kids and he’s got one more on the way – what more is there to want?