Page 163 of Key West Homecoming

Leah returned and caught the end of it.

“See? Even Lloyd knows.”

“I’m sitting right here,” Lloyd said.

“I know, honey.”

Emma finished her soup.

At seven-thirty, Connie came out from the back so Leah could leave early.

“Jack’s cooking,” Leah said as she untied her apron. “I’m a lucky woman.”

Emma noticed the change in Leah’s face when she said his name. There was nothing dramatic about it. She simply looked happy.

“You love him,” Emma said.

Leah looked at her. “Of course I do.”

The answer came so easily that Emma almost laughed.

Leah picked up her purse.

“You know something? You look pretty happy yourself. Maybe that’s worth paying attention to.”

Emma thought about Edmund’s words from the day before.

Pay attention to what you keep reaching for.

Apparently everyone in Key West had decided to tell her the same thing in different ways.

“Thank you, Leah.”

“Now go home. Or go to Jake’s. Go anywhere you want. Just don’t spend your whole life in this bar or you’ll end up like Lloyd.”

Emma paid the bill.

Without turning around, Lloyd muttered, “My life’s not so bad.”

“No one said it was,” Emma told him.

Outside, the Saturday evening had settled into blue.

Emma stood on Simonton with her keys in her hand.

Winslow’s was quiet. Gloria’s notebook was waiting for her there.

Jake was on Hibiscus Lane.

Emma smiled, then she walked toward her car.

CHAPTER 26

On Sunday morning, Emma and Jake walked down the dock with a small cooler between them and a bag of plantain chips.

The pelican was on its usual piling and barely acknowledged them. Two boats down, a charter captain leaned over an engine that refused to start.

Patrick was aboard No Worries with a brush in his hand and half the deck still wet. He straightened when he saw them.