Page 53 of Key West Homecoming

“Why?”

“They liked it here. The ones that were already growing kept coming back stronger, so I figured I’d give them some company.”

Emma smiled.

Jake pointed toward the far end of the bed.

“I drew the garden out on paper when I first moved in. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do with the yard, but the lilies were one of the things I knew I wanted to keep. I bought a small flat at a nursery on Stock Island and planted them along the fence. They took off.”

Emma reached down and touched one of the leaves.

Jake had taken something Gloria left behind and kept it alive without knowing that one day her granddaughter would stand beside him and recognize it.

“They’re beautiful,” she said.

“I’m glad you think so.”

They continued toward the back of the cottage.

Near the kitchen door, rosemary and basil had grown together with mint that seemed determined to take over the corner. An old thyme plant had been there when Jake moved in and had somehow survived everything around it.

Emma broke off a mint leaf and rubbed it between her fingers.

The smell brought back Gloria’s kitchen so quickly that Emma stopped walking.

Her grandmother stood at the sink in Emma’s memory, rinsing mint beneath the faucet before dropping it into a glass pitcher of tea. Emma could see the pitcher on the counter and the condensation running down the sides.

She lifted her fingers and breathed in again.

“You okay?” Jake asked.

Emma nodded wiping a tear from her cheek.

“My grandmother used to put this in iced tea.”

Jake looked toward the mint.

“Take some.”

“What?”

“Take some with you.”

Emma smiled.

“I wouldn’t know what to do with it.”

“Put it in iced tea.”

She laughed.

“I walked into that one.”

“You did.”

They came around to the front of the cottage.

The key lime tree sat in its clay pot beside the steps. The three small fruits Emma had noticed on her first day were still there, a little larger now.