She shot back a response.
None. I’ll drop you the number of the guy with the ticket. Might have to meet him at the event to get it, but I figured you might be interested.
Interested in seeing one of my favorite bands? Hell yes.
I’m in.
Chapter five
August
“We need to talk” was one of the worst phrases in history.
Coming from my parents made it even worse. I’d already gone through a breakup this month—were they going to break up with me too? Not that I thought I’d show up and Mom and Dad would say, “Hey, Son, we hate you now.” We’d always had a rock-solid relationship.
I pulled up in front of their two-story on the outskirts of Kennett, and a wash of memories flooded over me, the way they always did when I returned home. From skinning my knees on the driveway trying to make obstacle courses to the butterfly bushes out front with the flowers I used to make “soup” with that my parents would pretend to choke down, this house was filled with so much happiness I could burst.
My heart thumped hard as I hopped out of my car and headed up the walkway. Maybe they bought a puppy, and that was all they wanted to talk about. I didn’t bother knocking, just walked inside.
“Hey,” I called out. “You guys in the kitchen?”
“Living room,” Mom called back.
I detoured to the left and walked in to find my parents both chilling on the couch, my mom working on one of her knitting projects while my dad read a book on foraging. Both of them had plentiful hobbies in their retirement, and it comforted me to see them sinking into theirs.
“So, a talk?” I asked, shoving my hands in my pockets and rocking back and forth on my feet.
Mom wrinkled her nose, and my stomach dropped. That was her bad news tell.
“So, your dad and I have been trying to figure out some things,” she started, then paused. They both glanced to each other.
“The winters have been getting harder,” Dad continued for her, placing his book down beside him. “And we’ve started to look at properties in Florida.”
My mind stopped. “To go down to for the winter?”
Mom shook her head, sadness tugging at her expression. “We’re going to put our house on the market.”
No. My chest sank, and I slumped onto the loveseat. Where was this even coming from? They’d never sought out that Jimmy Buffet life in the past, just the occasional family visits to Grandma and Grandpa. “You’re kidding, right? This is some April Fool’s prank?”
“You could always come down to Florida with us,” Dad offered. “We’d help you relocate.”
I couldn’t.
My home was Kennett Square. It had always been. I’d built my client following here, my place at Alchemy Ink. Starting over in tattooing, especially in a whole new region, sounded exhausting.
“But we also understand you wanting to stay,” Mom said. “A lot of our friends have been moving down there, and a space opened up in one of their communities. It’s not that we want to leave you…”
“But you’re going to leave me,” I said, the sadness washing over me fast and fierce. Both Mom and Dad settled into silence, and none of us spoke for a few minutes. Part of me wanted to lash out like I was a kid, even though I was well aware moving was a normal thing for people to do.
I just didn’t think my parents would.
Even though I was an only child, we still celebrated every holiday together, and I stopped at their place to eat dinner with them regularly.
“When did you guys start thinking about this?” I asked, not sure if I even wanted the answer.
“We’ve been discussing it for six months,” Mom said. “I didn’t want to bring up a move if we weren’t going to go through with it.”
Right, because dropping the news on me was better.
