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“Can we just talk about it?” he said quietly. “Please.”

I didn’t answer.

“Are you coming in or what?” Debra called. “I’m standing here letting out all the warm air.”

When I didn’t give him the reply he wanted, my “date” gave up and took my hand and led me down the walkway toward the house. I let him. And my heart leapt out of my chest the entire time.

It felt like being plugged in. The energy from his touch coursing through me. Everything spun, my hand tingled, my brain raced.

It made me feel instantly despondent, because when was the last time I felt like this? Alive like this? Beau hadn’t made me feel this way. He’d tried. I’d tried. But clearly it was a gift only Jermey possessed, and he took it with him when he left. Like a connection that had lain limp and dormant for nine years, it was suddenly jolted back to life.

I hated that he had that power over me. That he still did.

Debra watched us coming and I knew exactly the moment she recognized my face. Her hands flew to her mouth. “Anna?” she breathed as we made it to the bottom of the first step.

I beamed.

“Boys! He brought Anna!” She hurried down the steps and gathered me into a warm, soft hug.

I watched the doorway fill up with men behind her.

Jeremy had four younger brothers, no sisters, each one just a year apart.

Debra pulled away and held me out by the arms. “I’m speechless. Absolutely speechless. Jeremy, where did you find her?”

“That’s a great story,” he said. “Anna, you should tell it.” Then he leaned down to whisper in my ear. “Don’t use the potato thing, that’s mine.”

I snorted.

Jeremy’s dad, Frank, came in behind his sons with wide eyes. “Anna!”

“Hi, Mr. Todd.” I waved.

“Well, if this is why you’re late, you’re forgiven,” Frank said, coming down the steps to hug me too.

I was ushered inside, where all his brothers either hugged or fist-bumped me before melting back into the house. Simon, Leo, Paulie, and Matty, the youngest. Matty had been fourteen when

Jeremy and I broke up. He was a full-grown man now, and a handsome carbon copy of his brother. A slightly older version of the boy who’d left me, and a younger version than the one in front of me now. A reminder of the in-between that I didn’t get to witness.

I unwound my scarf and looked around. “The new place is beautiful,” I said.

“Thanks,” Debra said, closing the front door. “The old one burned down.”

I jerked around to look at her. “What?”

“Yup. Nobody was hurt. Struck by lightning, if you can believe it. Almost what? Seven years ago now?”

Jeremy took my coat and hung it up.

“Was the dog okay? Where’s Cody?” I asked, looking around for the black Lab that used to sit with us in Jeremy’s room while we played video games.

“He made it, but he died three years ago,” Debra said. “He was fourteen. It was his time.”

My face fell.

Cody was gone? And the old house burned down? His brothers had grown into burly six-foot-tall men and his six-foot-tall dad had shrunk a little. Debra was gray now, with deeper smile lines around her eyes.

I don’t know why but in my mind his family was frozen in time. It was jarring to find so many things changed. Things I wasn’t here for.