Leaning my head back, I can’t answer her either. It’s way too complicated, too deep, and too much to get into over text. I simply press my head against the seat and keep it short.
Owen
I’m good. I’ll explain when I’m home.
Now, sitting on the small passenger plane miles above the earth, I finally read the texts from Gina. Each one is more urgent than the last, and they all say the same thing,Please talk to me.
Gazing out the window, I picture her green eyes, her full lips, her pretty smile. I remember holding her in my arms, how good it felt, and the pain in my chest is like a knife pushing through my lungs.
I will talk to her. I will explain, but I have to go home first.
“Come here and give me a hug.”My stepmom Britt meets me at the door.
Her blonde hair is tied up in a ponytail, and her green eyes sparkle with joy. I bend down to hug her, and she pats my back, making a grunting noise as she squeezes.
“Hey, Mom.” I hug her, straightening.
“I can never get over how tall you’ve gotten. Let me see those teeth.” I smile at her, and she squeezes my cheeks. “Perfect. Now where is my sweet grandbaby?”
“In LA with Heather. I’m just making a quick trip. I need to talk to Dad about something.”
Grammy Gwen steps up in her flowing caftan and frizzy white hair. Gold bangles are stacked on both arms, and her eyes narrow.
She circles a finger around my face. “Your aura is off. What’s wrong?”
Forcing a laugh through the tightness in my chest, I shake my head. “You know I don’t believe in all that stuff.”
“That doesn’t mean it isn’t real,” she answers, sounding just like my sister.
Heather’s a chip off the ole block.
“It’s always good to see you, son.” Dad steps forward to pull me into a hug. “What brings you all the way over here during hockey season?”
“Do you have time to talk? I need to run something by you.”
His dark brow furrows, but he nods. We walk outside, strolling down the street of the old neighborhood I know so well. We pass homes of my relatives and friends, homes I know so well from when I was a boy, running, playing hide-and-seek, fishing with my friends.
We walk past my grandmother’s house with the massive live oak tree out front. It’s the same yard where I would play with Britt’s old bloodhound Edward. Man, I loved that dog. He’s the reason I got Ladybird for Maddie.
We continue out to the end of the lane, over a narrow wooden bridge, down a small hill to a wooden fishing pier. It was built out over the marshy grasslands leading out to the ocean.
It’s the same old fishing pier where my great-grandfather would take my uncle Alex when he was a boy. The old man was dead long before I was born, but I’ve heard all the stories about him passing his secret recipe for award-winning bourbon to my dad’s younger brother.
My great-grandfather was close to all my uncles, but he had a special relationship with Alex. I imagine it being similar to my relationship with my dad. Some family members just seem to speak your language better than others.
“What’s on your mind?” Dad asks when we reach the end of the wooden platform.
He’s dressed in his khaki sheriff’s uniform, and I consider how different he is from Gina’s dad, who is also the sheriff of a small town on the coast.
They both take their jobs seriously, but my dad is quiet, thoughtful, no-nonsense… Which made him falling for my mom with her family of fortune tellers, magicians, and escape artists all the more unexpected—and they’ve been happily married for more than twenty years.
“Do you remember how it was before you met Mama Britt? When it was just you and me?” I glance up at him.
His brown hair is gray at the temples now, but his shoulders are still broad. We’re the same height, but in my mind, he’ll always be taller than me, always wiser.
He nods, his brow furrowing over blue eyes just like mine. “It was pretty rough, but Mom helped me a lot. Are you worried about Maddie?”
“No.” I shake my head, choosing my words. “I’ve been thinking about how you used to take me to Sunday School and drop me off, then pick me up after because you didn’t believe in that stuff.”
