Page 132 of Key West Homecoming

Connie kept her hand over Emma’s for another second before letting go.

“Thank you.”

Connie smiled. “Now I’ve got somebody at home waiting for me, so I’ve got to run.” She looked at her niece. “Maeve, I’ll see you later. You have a good day.”

She stopped beside Lloyd on her way out and put a hand on his shoulder.

“Give her my regards, Con,” he said.

“I will.”

The screen door closed behind her.

Emma watched the door after Connie left. She didn’t know the details of Connie’s life. Still, she understood enough to know someone at home needed her.

Leah followed Emma’s gaze.

“Eat your soup.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Emma smiled and picked up her spoon.

For a while, Emma listened to the room around her. Joey played in the corner, and Tess called something toward the kitchen that made Leah laugh. Lloyd argued with Patrick about a boat motor. At the window table, a family tried to keep a toddler from feeding crackers to a dog outside.

None of it had anything to do with Emma. That was what made it feel so good.

She’d spent most of her adult life in a city filled with people. Even so, she had rarely felt as surrounded as she did sitting at this bar.

Key West had given her Gloria’s history and a house she hadn’t known belonged to her. It had also given her people who seemed willing to make room for her before she had decided whether she needed it.

Jake had become part of that too.

Emma thought about the morning at the cottage. She could still smell cedar on her hands and remembered how easy it had felt to work beside him. Yesterday, Jake had told her he wanted her to stay. Today, he hadn’t mentioned it once because he was giving her room.

“Maeve.”

“Yeah?”

“I think I’m going to be all right.”

Maeve looked at her and smiled. “I know you are.”

“I wanted to say it out loud.”

“Then I’m glad you did.”

Maeve squeezed Emma’s hand once before letting go.

Emma finished her soup and paid for it despite Tess’s objections.

Outside, she stopped beside the rental car and looked back at Margarita Max’s. The building wasn’t remarkable. The trim needed paint. Bougainvillea had taken over more of the porch railing than anyone had probably intended, and Joey’s guitar drifted through the screen door.

Two weeks earlier, Emma would have seen it as an old Key West bar. Now she knew who sat on which stool. Tess would argue if she tried to pay for something Tess thought should be free. Leah could tell when someone needed water before they asked. Maeve would listen without rushing to solve anything. Even Lloyd would move his stool two inches for someone he liked while insisting he hadn’t moved at all.

Emma smiled.

Later, as she sat on the bungalow patio with Gloria’s notebook open in her lap, she marveled at the peace she’d found living in Key West. She felt she belonged here.