“I’m traveling, actually,” he said, trying his best to sound buoyant.
“Traveling? Are you kidding me?”
“I’m not kidding.” But giving his sister proof of life—while something he should have done weeks ago—was not the reasonthat he’d called, nor was giving up his location. “Can I ask you something?”
Jess sighed. “Seems you’re going to.”
“When you first met Rose, what did you think of her?”
Jess didn’t respond immediately. He could hear her short, sharp breaths, and knew they would be in through her nose and out through her mouth, the way her yoga teacher preached. He was certain she was trying her hardest not to say the wrong thing. When she finally spoke, she said, “I thought she was beautiful. And warm, and gentle. Funny, but not in an obvious way. Not the way you’re funny.”
“That’s it?” Landon asked. He wasn’t sure what he’d expected, but knew it was more than adjectives you could use to describe just about anyone.
“You want the truth?”
“I wouldn’t have called otherwise.”
“Okay. I thought she seemed defiant.”
Landon ran a hand through the stubble that was just starting to sprout on his chin. “What on earth does that mean?”
“Listen, I know her dad had just died, so it probably wasn’t fair of me to think at the time, but it was like I could read on her face how many times she’d been knocked down and chosen to get back up again.”
The balcony door slid open, and even though he knew she would worry, Landon ended the call without saying goodbye. “I found I couldn’t stand the idea of you being out here all alone.” Rose held a half-full bottle of merlot in one hand and balanced two wineglasses effortlessly in the other. “What was it that was so important?”
“Oh, nothing,” he said, tilting his head.Defiantwas not a wordon the tip of his tongue when he thought of his Rose. It certainly wasn’t a word that had featured in his wedding vows. But now that Jess had named it, he realized the missed opportunity. “All Graham’s talk about his other’s obsession with liability insurance reminded me that I really meant to insure my trip. Figured there’s no time like the present.”
“That’s absolutely right.” Rose passed him a glass and placed the wine bottle on the wide railing. “Thanks again for coming tonight,” she said. “I knew you would be a great addition. I just had a feeling, when I met you.”
Landon wanted to ask her why: What was it about him that had made her so sure he would fit in with them, with her? But instead, he said, “I had a great time. Honored to be among the cast of characters.” Landon reached for the bottle at the same time Rose did. Their fingers met on the smooth glass. Rose froze, just for a second, then laughed and smoothed back a few wisps of hair.
“That was weird,” she said.
“Makes you wonder what the body remembers.” It was too much. But she smiled, like someone who had never been knocked down might.
“Yeah,” she said, “it does.”
“Can I ask you something?” Landon was pushing his luck at every turn.
Rose poured a few fingers of wine into each of their glasses. “Of course.”
“Why here?”
“As in, why Edinburgh?”
“Yes.”
Rose twirled the wine in her glass. “To be honest, it was a bit random at the start. I didn’t throw a dart at a board or anything likethat, but I thought, ‘Okay, my other wants to forget, so I should go somewhere that she can.’ And the more I read about this city, the more it seemed the perfect place. It’s old, which of course a lot of cities are, but its streets are layered and stacked above these hidden closes, like some sort of modern-day labyrinth. It felt comforting—the idea that I could exist among all this history without needing any myself. Even just from the photographs, Edinburgh seemed like a city that wouldn’t care whether I remembered it or not.”
“Spoken like a true artist,” he said, caught off guard by how touched he was by her explanation.
She laughed. “There were also less cerebral reasons. There’s a thriving arts scene here. Some of my first memories are just feelings, not thoughts. It’s hard to describe. I felt like if I didn’tcreatesomething, then what was the point of any of it? Like I would jump right out of my skin if I didn’t begin my new life authentically.”
“I felt like that, too,” Landon said, because he felt he had to.
“And then there’s the fact that Edinburgh has the most incredible natural landscape. I mean, the crags, Arthur’s Seat, the North Sea.”
“I’ve heard Arthur’s Seat is amazing.”
