Page 37 of The Heart Remembers

“I might know a guy. Can you give me a few days to ask him?”

Maxwell tilts his head. “You know a guy? Sounds gangster.”

“Not gangster,” I tease. “Former Marine in IT and not too happy where he works.” The bigger question is whether Levi would be willing to move from sunny Florida to the cold winters of Michigan again, and even more importantly if he’d like to live near me.

“Well, send me his resume.” Max gives me his easy smile, and I rush off another text to Levi after Max leaves me at my classroom.

Me: Have you ever considered moving back home?

Levi: I have a home in Florida.

The quick response startles me, and I fight the pit in my belly, accepting that I’ve definitely gotten ahead of myself. Maybe all we were was one night, and I missed the signs. I don’t want to believe that’s true, but I don’t have anything else to go by. I need to not make assumptions that it was more to him when it was everything to me.

+ + +

As soon as I enter my car, I call my mom.

“Katie bug, are you sure you’re going to make it?”

“Just hitting the highway now. Two hours, maybe two and a half.” I’m running late as it is as I stayed an hour longer to help Carmela Macias with an assignment in her ASL learning. She’s former Army who lost her voice in a surgery gone wrong and a single mother of three. I adore her, and she’s such a hard worker. I didn’t want to leave her until she felt she had the assignment done.

“I want your eyes on the road, but I feel like I need to tell you something. Derek called your dad.”

“Why?” It wasn’t that Derek disliked my family, but he didn’t exactly fit in with the crowd, with his private schooling and Ivy League education. He was a respectable doctor, despite the jokes from my family, but he also didn’t share their humor.

“Dad didn’t tell me, and I didn’t feel it was my place to tell him about you and Derek.” This surprises me as my mom tells my dad everything, and then he has to pretend he doesn’t already know when I tell him something. Not to mention, I assumed my dad told Mom everything and didn’t keep secrets between them.

“Well, whatever it is, Derek and I are over, and I’ll explain everything to Dad after the party. I don’t want anything getting in the way of tonight. I know it’s important to Tom.” I also know it’s important to my grandmother. I don’t want to detract from the evening with a sob story that isn’t a sob story. Derek and I are done. We aren’t getting married, and I’ll deal with the fallout after the party.

“Baby, have you ever considered that you shook Derek up with the breakup? Sometimes the potential of permanently losing someone forces the other to make decisions and change.”

“I don’t think this is the same thing as you and Dad.” I know that’s what she’s referencing. After meeting my father, my mother went back to her home in Chicago, thinking their relationship was hopeless. My dad went to visit her, and it was the catalyst to prompt Mom to give up her life in the big city. She took a leap of faith with my dad, but it wasn’t much of a jump. He was hoping she’d come back.

Strangely, I wonder if Levi would ever take a leap. Would he want to take a chance on me? On us? Telling him about the job would mean suggesting he move here. Then I consider his response. He doesn’t see Elk Lake City or even the state of Michigan as his home anymore. He expressed as much the other day when he said ELC was his hometown but not a place he recognized anymore.

The fact I’m thinking more about Levi than Derek confirms how much things are over between Derek and me.

“Mom, I gotta—”

BAM!

The back of my car is hit, and I look up before colliding with the one before me.

16

[Levi]

After texting Katie, I leave her room. It’s still early, and I expect the house to be asleep, but as I’m closing her door, I turn to face Leon.

We stare at one another a second, and suddenly, I feel like that fifteen-year-old kid, never wanting to disappoint a man who acted kinder than the dad I had and took me under his wing as the brother he lost.

“What are you doing up here?” I ask, trying to avoid the awkward position I’m in of exiting Katie’s room.

“Tricia sent me up here to check on towels and toilet paper, like I’m some damn errand boy,” he teasingly mocks. Shaking his head, he snorts. “Women.”

“But you’d do anything for that woman, right?” I ask, lowering my voice and my eyes as if my foot is the most interesting thing in the world.

“Yeah.” Leon softens his voice, hinting he’d check towels and toilet paper or any other thing she asked. “Between towels and toilet paper, though, I can think of other things I’d rather do for that woman.”