Page 2
Jude
On the Road Again
Friday dawned bright and sunny. Unfortunately, Jude felt like a grumpy raincloud. He, Ronan, and Fitz might have agreed to give team building and camping a try, but the impending weekend trip was the last thing they’d agreed on since Tuesday.
As the week progressed, Cope had gone shopping with Ten and Jace for all the gear, tools, and food the detectives would need for their virgin camping adventure. Jude could only hope their first trip wouldn’t end in disaster. He wasn’t sure how many more rough days their partnership could survive.
“Okay,” Cope said cheerily, from the front door. “You’re all packed and ready to go. Fitz is parked out front and he and Ronan are loading the SUV.”
Jude sighed. “Be right there.” He’d been procrastinating over his bowl of now soggy Cheerios, which he dumped down the sink. As he washed his bowl, Jude’s thoughts turned to how he was going to help strengthen the bonds between himself, Ronan, and Fitz. The idea of their relationship devolving further was out of the question.
“Hey, there he is,” Cope greeted, when Jude walked into the kitchen. “You’re looking pretty hot this morning.” Cope wrapped his arms around his husband and gave him a hug.
“I’m scared.” Usually Jude would soak in Cope’s compliment, but his own ego was the last thing on his mind this morning. “What if I make things worse? What if I’m the reason our friend group ends? Wolfie loves playing with Everly and Aurora. What if he never gets the chance again? Same with Lizbet and Ezzie.” Jude was on the verge of tears.
“Don’t think about worse case scenarios. I’ve been reliving all the good times we’ve had together over the years. Remember the watermelon eating contest?” Cope snorted.
Jude found his first smile of the day. “Yeah, that was a lot of fun. Ronan has mad skills.”
“Exactly. Pick funny stories to tell where the kids or the husbands are the butt of the joke, not each other.”
“I can do that,” Jude agreed. “But there’s going to be a moment when we have to reckon with what’s happened this week.”
“All you can do is admit what you did wrong and ask for help to make sure it doesn’t happen again.” Cope made it all sound so simple.
“I’m not real good at either of those things.” Jude’s heart felt like it was clamped in an icy fist. He knew he was partly responsible for what was happening with his partners, but wasn’t entirely sure his friends would forgive him for being such a dickhead.
“Don’t I know it!” Cope barked a quick laugh. “Listen to each other. Learn from each other. I have all the faith in the world in you, Jude.”
“Thanks.” Jude hugged Cope tightly before grabbing his rolling suitcase and heading out the door. Wolf and Lizbet were laughing at something Ronan was saying. “Okay, kids, I’m off!”
Wolf ran to Jude. “Have the bestest time camping, but watch out for bears.”
“Bears?” Jude asked. “Are we going somewhere with bears?”
“Bears live in the woods, dumbass,” Ronan said, without any hint of his usual smile.
Tennyson whacked his arm and whispered something to his husband.
Ronan shot Ten a dirty look before he turned to Jude. “Black bears live in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, but they’re usually more afraid of us than we are of them.” Ronan shot Ten a self-satisfied look.
Jude wasn’t so sure about bears being scared of him. He was pretty fucking afraid of getting his dumb, tasty ass snacked on by a hungry animal.
“You’ll be fine, Uncle Jude.” Everly tapped the side of her head, as if to say her gift had told her Jude wasn’t going to be crunch and munched.
“Okay, that’s everything. Time to get this show on the road.” Fitzgibbon sounded less than enthusiastic. He moved to hug Jace and Aurora before he climbed into the black SUV and started the engine.
Jude had watched as Jace and Tennyson each whispered into their husbands’ ears. He had a feeling they’d gotten the kind of pep talk Cope had delivered earlier.
“Da! Da!” Lizbet toddled to Jude and wrapped her little arms around his legs.
Jude scooped his daughter into his arms. “Take good care of Dad and Wolfie while I’m gone, okay?”
“Woofie!” Lizbet agreed. She giggled when Jude dropped loud, smacking kisses on her head.
Jude handed her back to Cope and turned to Wolf.
“Everything’s gonna be okay, Dad,” Wolf said in a serious tone. “If you see a bear, all you gotta do is trip Uncle Ronan and Fitz and he’ll eat them, not you.”
“That’s a great plan, buddy.” Jude gave his son a hug. Opening the back door, Jude hopped into the SUV, he took the seat behind Ronan, so that he wouldn’t have to look at Fitzgibbon in the rearview mirror.
With one last wave, Fitzgibbon pulled away from the curb. The vehicle was dead silent. Jude had a surefire way to get the trip off on the right foot. He grabbed his phone and navigated to the music app. Seconds later, Willie Nelson’s twangy voice filled the silence with “On the Road Again.”
“What the actual fuck is that?” Ronan asked, covering his ears.
“Sounds like an animal who needs to be put out of his misery.” Fitz wore a sour look.
“Fuck you both!” Jude laughed, turning the music up louder. “This song is a classic!”
“Yeah, the kind of classic that should be sent to the glue factory like an old horse.” Fitzgibbon roared with laughter.
“You people suck. Just for that, I’m putting this song on repeat!” Jude wasn’t above doing that very thing, especially with the way Fitz was laughing.
“I swear to God, Jude,” Fitzgibbon began, sounding annoyed, until the song changed and the opening guitar chords sounded to Steppenwolf’s “Born to Be Wild.”
Ronan started playing air guitar and singing along with his usual off-key warble. Seconds later, Fitzgibbon joined in, drumming on the steering wheel. With a smile of his own, Jude joined in. This was one of his all-time favorite songs. It seemed to be popular with his friends as well.
Agreeing on road trip music was a small victory, but it was a start. Maybe it wouldn’t be so hard to get their relationship on the road to recovery, Jude thought, as the next song started to play, “Highway to Hell,” by AC/DC. He hoped to hell that song wouldn’t be a harbinger of things to come.