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The sun was high in the sky when they arrived. Rhett, Link, and their families emerged from their respective cars, their excitement boiling and bubbling out onto the sand. It was fall now, and too cold to swim, but the air was perfectly temperate for a day of picnicking and playing.
As soon as their bare toes touched the cool sand, both Rhett and Link felt the stress of the last few months melt away. Just that week alone had been more full of anxiety than any either of them could remember. They had celebrated Rhett’s birthday, premiered their scripted series, and celebrated 1000 episodes of their morning show.
It was Rhett who had suggested the outing. Both of them snipping at each other and fighting more than unusual. It wasn’t because there was more to fight about, but because the roller coaster between the climactic highs of those milestones and their nerves about how Buddy System would be received had their emotions flip flopping at a frantic pace.
Rhett knew they needed a day away. And while they often would do that sort of thing separately, so they could forget work for a while, this had been the biggest week of their lives. This was the culmination of everything they had worked for. He knew they needed to do it together.
Link, while skeptical, acquiesced. He missed the sand and the waves, and there was no reason to say no. They could afford the day off work. There would be more episodes, and more work on more new projects, but for a day, they could relax. And if Rhett wanted to do it together, Link would go along with it.
“Catch!” called a voice. Link looked up just in time to catch the football flying toward him. Rhett’s son Shepherd was there with a huge smile on his face. In no time, both men, and all five children were involved in a haphazard game with no apparent rules or goal. There was hearty laughter when Rhett missed and toppled into the sand, his legs flying up into the air, and concern when Lando, the younger Neal child, took a ball to the nose.
Eventually, Lincoln and Locke, the older boys, took off on their own, exploring the beach and the nearby coves.
“Remind you of anyone?” Rhett asked, nudging Link with a knowing look in his eyes.
Link could only smile. Lincoln and Locke would have no epic story of meeting, their lives thrown together simply by the nature of their fathers’ friendship, and it was yet to be seen if they would have that same kind of bond. But for the moment, what they had was simple and pure. It was all Link could want for his son. He knew Lincoln had to blaze his own path, but he hoped the friendship would last.
Christy and Jessie had packed lunch, and the Neals and the McLaughlins feasted together on a blanket near the water. It was as if they were one family, Rhett reflected as he looked out over the small herd he towered over. For a brief moment, when they had first come to California, they had considered living together in one house. They had all decided against it, but for this one perfect moment, as hands passed food to one another, and as smiles and eyes met across the blanket, Rhett thought it might not have been so bad. It was true that they would almost certainly have wanted their privacy eventually, but everything about their lives was so intertwined. Helping to raise each other's’ families would have been natural.
“What’s so funny?” Link asked, as Rhett silently giggled, his chest shaking and his cheeks turning pink..
“Nothing,” he replied, but gave Link a smile that said much more. He had been imagining nightly dinners with four adults and five kids. It would have been like Christmas dinner every night, except with food fights and two very annoyed mothers. Because of course, he and Link would have started it.
Link just shook his head. Rhett was always somewhere else, thinking about something else. But that’s exactly what Link loved about Rhett. They would never run out of ideas of things to talk about, because Rhett’s mind was always ten steps ahead. At that moment, though, he could imagine exactly what Rhett was thinking about, because he was thinking the same. He couldn’t imagine his life without the whole McLaughlin clan.
In the afternoon, Link watched as Rhett and Jessie walked hand in hand down the beach, the giant towering over his tiny wife. He and Christy danced in the surf, Link lifting her up and nearly dropping her in the water while she laughed and her blonde hair fell down around her face. The sun glittered in her eyes and she pushed him away. He tripped and stumbled, nearly falling backwards into the water, but he caught himself at the last minute. Link pulled Christy to him and they sank into the sand, their toes just touching the water. He kissed her lips and then laughed as the water tickled their feet, thinking about how lucky he was to have someone like her to stand by him, to laugh along with him, and to support him in all his endeavors.
Further down the beach, Jessie stood on her tiptoes, and Rhett still had to bend down to meet her lips. Gingerly, he laid down in the sand, inviting his wife to join him. She settled into the crook of his arm, laying her head on his heart. They were quiet, listening to the wind and the waves, and to the sound of each other's breathing. “I’m so proud of you,” Jessie whispered, and Rhett kissed her forehead. She would always be proud of him; he knew that. But it always meant a lot when she said it out loud. He and Link had never worked harder, and even if the world hated it, his wife would still be there for him.
As evening began to settle over them, Lily, the oldest and most mature of the children, helped Lando begin a sand castle, and organized the other boys to help haul sand and water in buckets. Jessie and Christy relaxed nearby, keeping an eye on them, even though the kids were all old enough to manage themselves.
Rhett put a hand on Link’s shoulder. “Take a walk with me, man.”
Link nodded, and the two men began to walk down the shoreline, silently at first. They listened to peels of laughter from the children, and the whispers of secrets that passed between their wives, who had also grown into excellent friends. They couldn’t have orchestrated it all better if they had tried.
Link noticed Rhett had put on a sweater at some point. Link had been having too much fun to notice the approaching chill, but it wasn’t too bad yet. Still, he stuck his hands in his pockets to keep them from shaking.
“What a week,” Link mused as they continued their stroll.
“No kidding.” Rhett chuckled. “I can’t believe we did it.”
“Which part?”
“All of it, man!”
“I thought you just meant being taped together.”
Rhett let out a belly laugh, and soon Link joined in. The memory of them writhing on the floor, laughing so hard they were almost crying, would go down as one of the funniest and most fun things they’d ever done together.
When the laughter subsided, Rhett cleared his throat. “Seriously, though. All of it. I mean, did you ever think we’d be here?”
Link nearly made another joke, but held back. “Honestly?”
“Yeah, honestly.”
“Well, I didn’t quite picture this exactly, but yeah. I always knew there’d be something like this. It’s what we said we would do. And we did it.”
Rhett nodded. Link was right. They never knew exactly where they were heading, but they swore to do something big together. One thousand episodes and a scripted series? That was big. And they’d walked every step of of that path together.
Up ahead, Link spotted a cluster of rocks near the water. Most of them were smaller, but there was one larger boulder and one more medium sized one right next to it.
“Look,” he said, pointing.
Rhett followed Link’s finger, and his eyes lit up. “Come on, man!”
Rhett jogged ahead and claimed the larger rock, sitting cross legged atop it. “This is perfect. We’ve just hit a milestone. What better time than now to talk about the future.”
Link settled onto the slightly smaller rock, pulling his knees to his chest, ready to listen.
But it turned out, Rhett had very little to say. “I don’t know. What’s bigger than this? I mean, I want to keep doing it. We keep doing GMM, we make another series, or a movie. But this is it. This is the life we wanted.”
Link waited. It wasn’t his turn to talk. He was on the small rock. But as he sat and the sun began its descent, he started to shiver a bit.
“You cold, man?”
“Just a little.”
“Well, come up here.”
“But it’s your turn on the rock.”
Rhett sighed. “I think it’s pretty clear by now that we’re both driving this vehicle. We don’t have to take turns on the rock. Just get up here.” Rhett gestured with his hand for Link to join him.
Link clambered up the rock and settled in next to Rhett. Rhett put an arm around Link’s shoulders and pulled him in closer, wrapping his big body and both of his his long arms around Link, enveloping him in the soft tan sweater he wore.
Rhett’s hand’s found Link’s, and he crossed Link’s arms, pulling his hands inside the sweater’s sleeves. For a moment, Link’s body shivered even more and his teeth chattered for a few seconds, but soon, he was bathed in Rhett’s warmth and the chill subsided.
Link settled back into Rhett’s chest and Rhett knew his breath was on Link’s neck. That same phenomenon had been awkward and funny in the studio when they were taped together, but here, it didn’t seem strange at all. Here, they were the same two boys they had always been, two halves of a whole that couldn’t be separated.
“I love you, Link.”
He refused to qualify it. Not “as a brother” or “as a friend.” It didn’t matter. Love was wanting the best for someone else, putting them before yourself, and he felt that in abundance for this man, his best friend, who had been through everything with him for more than 30 years.
Link smiled and nuzzled his cheek against Rhett’s, feeling the bristle of his beard against his own skin. He wanted nothing more than to make Rhett happy and to make him proud, and to keep doing what they were doing, together, as long as they could. And that was love, wasn’t it?
“I love you, too, Rhett.”
The sun plunged beneath the waves, ending the day, and closing the chapter of their lives where they wondered if they would ever make it. But they both knew that as the sun arose and the light of a new day dawned, nothing would ever change between them.