Page 193 of Key West Homecoming

“I’m not staying in the hotel. I’m moving into the cottage tomorrow, and you can stay there while we work on this place.”

Jake raised an eyebrow. “Where exactly am I sleeping?”

“The sofa until we buy you a bed.”

He laughed. “Why didn’t I think of that?”

“Because you’ve been preoccupied with your new house.”

Emma closed his fingers around the key.

“Keep it. You’re four blocks away, not moving to another country.”

“That sofa isn’t very comfortable.”

“Then I suggest we buy a bed today.”

Jake smiled. “Now you’re talking.”

When they returned to Hibiscus Lane, Jake stopped at the gate.

The pergola stood finished in the garden. His herb pots lined the porch. For three years, his mornings had begun here. He had drunk coffee on those steps, worked in the yard and learned how to live with the quiet when quiet was all he could manage.

Emma saw the change in his face.

“You okay?”

Jake nodded, but he took his time answering.

“Three years.” He looked toward the porch. “This place was my sanctuary. I don’t know what I would’ve done without it.”

Emma slipped her hand into his.

“I know.”

He looked at her then.

“And now it’s yours again.”

Gloria had kept the cottage for her. Jake had cared for it when Emma couldn’t. Now he was leaving it better than he found it and moving toward a home of his own.

Nothing about that felt like loss.

Jake glanced toward the lane.

“Would you mind if I took my sleeping bag over to the new house tonight?”

“Tonight?”

“I know there’s no furniture. I just want to wake up there once before we start tearing things apart.”

Emma smiled. “Of course.”

“You can stay here instead of Winslow’s if you want.”

“I’m checking out tomorrow, remember?”

“Right.”