Michelle appears at my elbow approximately two seconds later. “Well. That was intense.”
“You were listening.”
“Obviously.” She starts clearing my untouched coffee. “Seven o’clock, huh? That’s a long time to wait.”
“Tell me about it.”
The next elevenhours are the longest of my life.
I try to write. Nothing comes. I try to play guitar. My fingers won’t cooperate. I try to read, but I’ve read the same paragraph six times and I still don’t know what it says.
At noon, Dean shows up at my rental with Rex and a suspicious expression.
“Jo says you had breakfast with Delilah.”
“News travels fast.”
“News travels at the speed of light in this town. You know that.” He drops onto my couch while Rex immediately starts investigating the kitchen for unattended food. “So? What happened?”
I tell him. Not everything—some things are private—but enough. The time capsule. The letters. The misunderstanding that’s been festering for a decade.
Dean listens without interrupting. When I finish, he lets out a low whistle.
“She thought she was holding you back.”
“Yeah.”
“And you never told her about Dad.”
“Nobody knew about Dad until the end. He didn’t want?—”
“I know. I know.” Dean scrubs a hand over his face. “It’s just...you two have been torturing yourselves for ten years over a conversation you should’ve had when you were twenty-seven.”
“Thanks. That’s helpful.”
“I’m not trying to be helpful. I’m trying to pointout that you’re both idiots.” He says it with affection. Mostly. “What happens now?”
“I’m going to her mom’s tonight. We’re going to listen to a tape I made when I was seventeen.”
Dean winces. “A tape? Like, a song?”
“Yeah.”
“A song you wrote when you wereseventeen?”
“Yeah.”
“Is it...good?”
I think back. Seventeen-year-old me, hunched over a guitar in my bedroom, trying to put feelings into words for the first time. “Probably not.”
“This should be interesting.”
“Thanks for the support.”
“Anytime.” He stands, then looks at Rex, who has given up on finding food and is now sprawled dramatically across the kitchen floor. “Hey, can you watch him for a few hours? Jo’s got some wedding vendor meeting, and Rex gets weird when he’s alone too long.”
“Define weird.”
