Being injured makes this trip back home a lot easier to schedule.
Production was somehow greenlit to follow me to surgery, and was still there when Amara picked me up. I was out of it on painkillers at the time, and I had Amara promise me that I didn’t say anything stupid that would end up in the TV show.
And now, she’s in the passenger seat of my truck as we head back to Rehoboth.
I knock my head against my seat.
We had to tell production that we were going, and of course, they werenotgoing to miss an opportunity to film us in our hometown. Are you kidding me? Of course, they were going to do it. We knew that before we even told them.
They’re going to meet us at my grandfather’s house. Since we’re leaving in the evening, we told Natalia that we would come by tomorrow.
Amara looks uncomfortable next to me, her arms wrapped around her body like some kind of protective barrier.
“When was the last time you were back?” I ask over the low hum of the radio.
I watch her from my peripheral vision as she looks over at me. “After you left for college.”
Ouch.
“You haven’t been back since?”
She shakes her head, her curls lit up in the sunset. “Nope. Didn’t want to.”
I regret it the second I ask, “Why not?”
I see her eyes close. She sighs. “It didn’t feel like home anymore. I had my people in Maryland.”
It makes sense, but it hurts all the same.
I wish I had done a lot of things differently.
The rest of the ride is quiet, with Amara curled up, reading something on her e-reader, and my music playing softly on the stereo.
She only lifts her head when I pull onto the familiar stone road to my grandpa’s house.
I see production before I see the house.
With a groan, I pull up the driveway, cameras already on us. “Ready for this shit show?” I ask.
She doesn’t look like she is, but after a second to gather herself, she nods.
I turn into the small garage, pulling all the way in until Grandpa’s tennis ball hits my windshield with a softthunk.Amara watches it thoughtfully, chewing at her lip.
Hopping out, I round the car to open Amara’s door for her. I take her hand as she turns, and she shoots me a thankful smile before getting down. She looks around, breathing in the air.
“Let’s get us inside and situated for the night,” I say, grabbing our bags and slinging them both over my shoulder.
We enter the house wordlessly. Amara trails right behind me, the cameras following our every move. I can see Edward standing back, making sure everything is going to plan.
The truth is, I haven’t been here in a long time, either. Notquite as long, but it’s been a while. Before my sister went through and emptied a lot of the rooms.
We were going to sell it. After all, it’s a lot of work to make sure that a beach house is kept up. The wind and saltwater are not exactly kind to houses.
But she couldn’t do it. I couldn’t do it. We couldn’t pull the plug.
So for now, it’s an empty house on the beach. We’re honestly lucky it hasn’t been broken into.
Natalia takes good care of it, checking on it every few days.
