Sunny road

Round 16: September 2026

Dawn Whitfield is 22, Josh Cooper and Finn Harris are 21, Shea Harris is 6.

Narrated by Finn.

Josh living with us has gone much better than I expected. He's surprisingly tidy and he's willing to babysit whenever we ask if he doesn't have classes.

Shea likes him very much and often bakes him muffins on her little stove. She already calls him "uncle Josh" so it's clear that she considers him being part of our family.

Dawn and I have had our ups and downs in the past but now things have settled a lot. We've made decisions about our future and it has helped us relax and just enjoy life.

We went on a date in this new restaurant in Exmoor and while it was very romantic we also talked business a bit. Dawn will be running Café Carousel soon and we want to check out the competition. She doesn't want to make too many changes at once but she wants to make the restaurant hers. Her mom's been really supportive about her ideas so we've been dining in other restaurants to see what's out there and what we should do.

Besides babysitting we rarely even see Josh unless he's watching a game on TV. He's still building his portfolio for the future and also studying really hard. He puts me to shame because I really don't have the motivation to do all my assignments and I just can't wait for this last semester to be over.

He's also very low-key on the romance front at the moment. The only girl I've even heard him talking to is Lilly and that's just on phone. She's casually dating several people at the moment and I can tell it's eating him up that he's not one of them. I think they're both idiots and should just sit down and talk things through but I don't want to meddle so I keep my mouth shut.

We've finally decided where we'll live. We've bought a little house in Allerdale. The property is so much cheaper there and we figured that once I get my trust fund then we can move to a bigger house and pick any location we want. The house is right next to a playground which is really nice for Shea.

She also loves the family restaurant nearby that also has some playground equipment. She says mommy's restaurant should also have a playground.

The restaurant isn't really a true competitor for Café Carousel though because the focus group is totally different.

Still, it has some nice features like a photo booth where Dawn and Shea took pictures. I'm trying to convince Dawn to give me the photos so I can take them to my workplace - if I actually find a job after I graduate.

I never thought I could love anyone as much as I love my daughter and I try to make the most of all the time I spend with her. Dawn laughs at me when I say that I'm going to miss these moments when Shea grows up but it'll only be a few years until she doesn't want to hear a bedtime story anymore.

Luckily she's inherited Dawn's love for school so she's getting good grades. I'm so proud of her.

She's really excited about moving to Allerdale because she'll be closer to all of her friends. And she assures me that she'll still spend time with me too even if she plays with her friends after school.


Grades, autumn semester 2026
- Josh: photography (art), A+, GPA 3.8
- Finn: entrepreneurial studies (economics), C+, GPA 3.4


Notes:

• Title reference: Sunny road by Emilíana Torrini.
• Josh and Finn are now graduated and you'll see them in the January 2027 birthdays. Josh did really well especially on his senior year and I think Finn also did well for a guy who initially didn't even want to go to college.
• Finn, Dawn and Shea will move to a house in Allerdale but I haven't decided where Josh will live just yet. I also don't have any clue about Josh and Finn's jobs after they graduate although Josh's GPA is high enough to secure him a place in his desired career. Deacon will most likely be able to pull some strings to get Finn working for him (seeing he's the CEO) if Finn wants to.