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3 It's a Cedar thing
Three days and a hurricane have passed in the Outer Banks since the latest party.
Gracie, John B and JJ—the dream team—with the help of Cody, barricaded both the Chateau and the Cedar house with old sandbags and sat in John B's kitchen praying neither blew down or withered away with the angry storm. Hurricanes are not uncommon on Kildare, so they know how to deal with it. Giselle and Maxim were held up on the mainland anyway, too busy loving each other more than they did their own children.
In the Chateau, the sound of rain on the window was deafening. Jo and Cody, by some miracle, had fallen asleep in the guest room and didn't even wake up to John B slipping out of the house to go on an impulsive and dangerous surf with Pope in the evening. JJ was sprawled out across from Gracie on the sofa bed, and they passed a joint with her legs over his.
"You think they're scared?" he had asked her, blowing out the smoke. When she shot him a confused look, he pointed to the corridor with his head. "The kids."
"Nah," Gracie shook her head. "It's louder in the house."
She means what she says in the moment and she's glad to be alone with the boy. Like she does for everyone else, she holds him accountable of fucking shit up over and over again but she never manages to feel any resentment towards JJ like she does for the others.
Maybe it's because she sees herself when she looks at him. She always has, ever since they were kids.
But in the morning, when she wakes and he has half his weight on her legs, she sure as hell wants to slap him upside the head. John B's back, he probably has been home for a while, and he startles her with his rummaging and the anger he expresses when he flips the light switch and receives no sign of life. He aids her in pushing JJ off her, who mumbles relentless that he has polio or something so they don't force him up. Gracie's first instinct is to go check on the kids, and she feels the worry bubble in her throat when the door is closed instead of slightly cracked open.
The guest room lost that title years ago; it belongs to the Cedars now. She recons she still calls it that to not feel bad about it. To not feel kind of homeless. Inside, Jo is still sleeping peacefully, looking so delicate and peaceful with her cheek pressed against the cover. She's dressed in Gracie's clothes and the older girl almost can't breathe at how small she seems. Like, if Gracie's too rough with her for almost a second, she'd shatter. Except she knows it's not the case: Josephine's tougher than the rest of them though she doesn't look like it.
Cody sleeps like Gracie, all angry and tense. But he wakes up at the sound of the old door creaking and doesn't ignore her like he always does. "Hurricane's over?" he asks with a groggy voice, running his hand over his face.
