Page 156 of Key West Homecoming

He drove her back to Winslow's at half past nine.

They didn't talk much on the way. Emma didn't feel any need to fill the quiet. The day had been full enough.

At the gate, she got out and stood beside the truck with her hat in one hand.

“Thank you for today.”

“You've now seen Key West.”

“I've seen about a tenth of Key West.”

“You've seen the tenth that's in the brochures. The rest takes years.” Jake rested his hand on the top of the door. “That's not pressure. It's a scheduling observation.”

Emma smiled. “Understood.”

“Em.”

She looked at him.

It was the first time he'd called her that since Edmund's veranda.

“Yeah?”

“There are about forty more days like this one available. We never used the swimsuits, so there's still a beach day in your future.”

“Only one?”

Jake smiled. “As many as you want.”

Emma looked at him. Eighteen days ago, she would have heard the question hiding beneath those words and immediately started searching for an answer.

Tonight she didn't need one.

“I'd like that.”

Jake leaned over and kissed her. Emma rested a hand against his cheek and kissed him back.

When they separated, he smiled. “Good night, Em.”

“Good night.”

She watched his taillights disappear up the road before walking toward the bungalow.

Her feet hurt, and she was tired enough to fall asleep the moment her head touched the pillow. Still, she didn't want the day to end. She wanted to remember Roland's jokes, the view from the lighthouse and the ridiculous rooster guarding its chair.

Most of all, she wanted to remember Jake looking at her in Mallory Square while everyone else watched the sunset.

Emma lay in bed and thought about what Edmund had told her.

Pay attention to what you keep reaching for.

She closed her eyes.

For the first time, she didn't have to wonder what that was.

CHAPTER 25

Jake sat on the porch step with a cup of coffee and a Saturday that had nothing in it. The pergola was finished. He had been thinking about building a shelf beneath the workshop overhang, but even that didn’t interest him this morning.