“I hope she knows what she had. Maybe it’s not too late.” She tilted her head. “Seize happiness, Blue. The right person doesn’t come around too often.”
When they’d finished their coffee, he walked her out. On the sidewalk, she hugged him and held on a little longer before she let go. He watched her walk toward the school.
She turned and waved, looking happier than he’d seen her in years.
Blue took the long way back to his mother’s home, walking slowly and taking in the changes.
He strolled past the corner grocery and past the church, and came to the intersection where, if he turned left and kept going, he’d reach the precinct where Charles had worked his last shift.
Blue waited to feel the pull home, but it didn’t come.
The El screeched somewhere behind him, and a car alarm went off and kept going. The air smelled like exhaust and hot concrete and, underneath it, the faint metallic bite of the lake.
He loved this city and these people. He would always be a Chicago Bears fan. But he didn’t fit here anymore and didn’t miss it.
What he missed was the sound of waves through an open window at night. Salt air and the scent of jasmine. He missed his beat, the slow cruise down Orange Avenue at dusk when sunburned tourists watched the sunset on the beach.
He missed Adrian’s guitar and Hank’s terrible jokes. He missed Miss Ella and Whitley at the Majestic.
These people had become his family. And they didn’t argue nearly as much.
He missed Jo’s neon sign on the corner and how it turned everything red at dusk.
Above all, he missed Jo and the light in her eyes. That curly, dark hair, her kindness, and her determination.
Crown Island was home. And so was Jo, forever at home in his heart.
He paused by the old basketball hoop he’d seen earlier. “I’m not you,” Blue said aloud. “I never was.”
And then, he let his brother go, knowing they’d shared the best of times. But there were good times ahead, too.
His mother was in the kitchen with the radio on and pots simmering on the stove.
“There you are,” Rhonda said. “I was worried about you. Sit. I’ll fix a plate for you. Did you see Athena?”
“Sit with me a minute, Ma. We need to talk.”
She wiped her hands on a dish towel and sat down across from him at the table.
He took her hand. “You know I love you, but I’m going back to Crown Island. That’s my home now.”
“But the job?—”
“I’m turning it down.”
“Blue—”
“I know what you and my sisters have been planning. That family dinner and seating me next to Athena. Ty calling me out of the blue. I’m not angry about it, because I know why you did it.” He paused. “But I’m not Charles.”
Her chin came up. “That’s not fair.”
“But it’s a little true. Athena, really?”
“She’s such a lovely woman.”
“You won’t lose her, but you will have to adjust. I can’t take over my brother’s old life. I loved him, and there isn’t a day I don’t think about him. But his shoes don’t fit me.”
She shifted in her chair. “Did you talk to Athena?”
