The Summer I Spent With You {L.H} ~ Book 2

Chapter Twelve

I sat patiently on the wall facing the beach as I waited on my newly found sister arriving. I was still shaken from the whole ordeal and to be honest, I hated being away from Luke, but we'd literally spent the last two days wrapped up in duvet sheets at his parents house; it was time I went back to actual real life and stopped being a shell of a human being.

A light tap on my shoulders made me jump in fright and I turned round to see Riley grinning at me. "Hey Tusen." - She always called me that, it was my name in Swedish. "How are you?" Her accent was the sweetest thing I'd ever heard. Probably because my own accent was all mixed up, as was my brothers. Matias had declined the offer for some bonding time with his two older sisters; he's the loser for missing out on ice-cream. 

"What's up?" We began to walk along the beach that stretched for miles along the edge of town and at some point, would reach my parents house. "How have you been?"

"I am good, how are you? I know the episode with the burglar must have frightened you greatly." English wasn't Riley's first language and so she spoke a lot of broken English, but it was amazing that she could speak more than one language. I could speak a little Spanish from my mother but that was it. 

"This is the first time I've left Luke's house in two days. I'm going to go back to my apartment tonight." I explained. "My mother tells me that your boyfriend is coming over?" I quickly changed the subject. I didn't want to speak about it anymore.

"Yes, Adam. He is flying out next week. I do hope you and Luke can come meet him? I was hoping we could go for a family meal?" I grabbed Riley's arm as a couple of kids on  bikes came flying towards us and she laughed before continuing. "I would like very much for us to be a family, he is the only person I have in Sweden." 

It made me sad when Riley said shit like that. She had Adam and that was it. Her mother passed away and she didn't know any of the rest of her family; so we were all she had now. It made sense that she wanted us to be together. I didn't have much family either; it had always just been the four of us and now that Riley was here, there was another person in my life that could only make the next generation better. 

"Of course we'll come." I smiled. 

"I also like Luke, I do not understand why father does not like him?" I always forgot we had the same dad, it kinda threw my off guard when she said it so casually.

"There's a lot of bad blood between them, I think. A lot of stuff that he's finding difficult to move past." The tide was quite far in and so when the waves crashed into the sand, it covered our feet as we held our shoes in our hands. 

"What kinds of things? Sorry. Is that too forward?" Riley said, retracting her first statement. 

"No, it's fine." Riley was my sister, I could trust her. "Well when we were younger; high school age. Luke and I didn't really get along very well. We didn't get along at all, to be completely honest, he was horrible to me. And a lot of shit happened, and so my- our dad got really mad as he should because I went slightly off the rails and so he now just hates Luke. Even though everyone else has moved on. I also think it's because he liked my ex-boyfriend a lot, so he's finding it difficult to accept a new one."

"Why was Luke unkind to you?" She asked, tucking a loose strand of hair behind her ear and squinting in the sun. 

"He was just a dick. There's no real reason for it I don't think. Everything just spiraled out of control until he didn't know how to be nice. It's all the past and he's come out the other side a better person. If I, the person who received the torment, can move on; I think everyone should be able to."

"I cannot imagine Luke as  an unkind person. He has friendly face and good sense of humor. You two are well suited." I blushed as Riley said this and internally squealed. "He has never struck me as a person who would intentionally do wrong."

"Well I'm glad someone is aboard the Luke and Mila ship, because there's a few members still overboard. I just wish everyone would at least get some life jackets or something."

"That was very deep Tusen. And I would be honored to be the captain of your ship; I can steer whilst you two go have good time together." I spluttered as she said this and Riley grinned cheekily. Good to know we both had an extremely dirty sense of humor. 

We continued down the beach as it grew into evening time and we reached my parents house. I really liked Riley. Hell, she was my sister, I loved her. Even though we'd only known each other a few weeks, it felt right that she was here with us now. And although she had an illness, she showed no sign of weakness; a strength I saw in all three of us. Matias as he came to terms with who he was, as he grew older and made the choices that determined his future; me, as I moved on with my own life, growing into my own person and trying to better myself; and Riley as she battled through not only her illness, but the loss of her mother and the feared rejection of a new family. 

We stamped our feet on the ground to remove all the sand before climbing over the fence and into the back-garden. A long, rectangle pool at the bottom and a patio at the top, complete with a barbecue, outside table and chairs and oh-so-nice plants that my mother spin fit classmates gave her. The smell of BBQ Chicken filled my nose as we met my parents and my brother cooking our dinner. 

This is how it should've been. All of us together; Riley would come on different weeks and we'd spend time together because she had to go back to her mum's house on Monday; our dad would burn the sausages and my mother would laugh as she sat on a deck chair and sipped on some red wine. Riley, Matias and I would laugh as we jumped in and out the pool; our tanned skin burning from the Australian sky and receiving kisses from the sun that left little freckles behind. Our laughter would fill the air as we ganged up on our little brother; but he'd laugh anyway because his sisters where his best friends. Then they'd call us over to the table because the food was ready and we'd sit, dripping in chlorine, as we dug into the barbecued goodness and talked about our day.

That's how it's going to be now. When we all gather together on a hot summer's day; our children running round our feet as Grandpa chases after them, and Grandma takes pictures for her already full to the brim albums. We'll laugh as our niece does something silly and sip on Diet Cokes because one of us have to drive later. Riley is expecting her third and I'm going to be an Auntie again and I'm super excited about it. Matias wraps his arm around his wife and I smile at the two of them; knowing he's okay and she's definitely the one. Then the sun sets and we all set off in our opposite directions, but we know this will always be home.