Page 39 of The Heart Remembers

“You moved to Florida for Alicia.”

I did do that, and I hate to admit it. We’d met in Tennessee, but she lived in Florida. When I finished my rehab there, I followed her south since I didn’t have any other plan.

“So?” I snap, still not understanding him.

“I love you, kid, but I love Katie, too, and I don’t want anyone heartbroken.”

“You’ve already said that,” I remind him, as we continue to glare at one another across the hall.

“You willing to move here for her because she has a good job.”

“What’s that mean?”

“It means, I know you aren’t happy with yours, but do you really want to give it up and come back here. You hate it here, remember?”

I have said that on numerous occasions. It’s one reason I left. I couldn’t get away fast enough, and I stayed away for over a decade unless I had to return. My father’s funeral was one of those times. It’s here that my life took a turn, and I always thought it was for the worst, except for a fleeting moment in an alley and now a week in a house on the lake.

Suddenly, I’m reconsidering a few things.

When I don’t know how to respond and take too long, Leon speaks. “I need to check on towels and toilet paper.” He turns for the bathroom, and I head to my own room, finding AJ sitting up in his crib but not crying. I had the monitor with me in Katie’s room just in case, but the night was AJ free and filled with her.

Katie.

Maybe what Leon’s really trying to say is I’m not good enough for his niece, and a half hour later, when she texts me about moving, I’m bitter that I won’t ever be enough for her.

+ + +

The family heads to dinner at Ethan Scott’s restaurant, The Red Barn Table, for a private meal before the event at the barn on the same property. Despite the chaos of us all leaving one place and moving like a herd to another, I don’t miss that Katie has not returned.

“Hey, where is your sister?” I eventually ask of Daisy as I’m too afraid to question Katie’s parents. Throughout the day, Emily keeps giving me painfully sympathetic looks while Jess narrows his eyes every time he glances in my direction. I can’t ask Lys about Katie as she’s been quiet and standoffish since the other night. Leon’s keeping his distance, caught up in the evening events as Tricia planned everything, and she’s losing her mind a bit about schedules.

“She’s fine,” Daisy says, and I find the response unsatisfactory.

“What do you mean, ‘she’s fine’?”

Daisy looks up from her phone at the question. “Sorry.” She wiggles her phone like it explains her vague answer. “I mean, she’ll be okay.”

“Why would you say that? What happened?”

“She was in a fender-bender on the way home. The car is crushed, but she’s okay.”

“What?” I shriek, causing several people to look in our direction. “Why didn’t anyone say something?” Daisy could be a twin for Katie at seventeen as they have similar freckles and blue eyes with long, blond hair and a summer tan.

“Well, Mom and Dad said it wasn’t a big deal, and they didn’t want everyone worked up before tonight. I mean, the car might be totaled, but Katie is okay. Dad went to get her.”

Fuuuuuck.

“I could have done that,” I blurt, although Daisy’s giving me a strange look.

“Why would you do that?”

Because I love her, I want to yell. Doesn’t anybody get it? Can’t they all see it? I’ve been following Katie around all week like a lost puppy who finally found a home.

Home.

This place. This town. Katie.

Fuck, when she asked me earlier if I ever considered moving here, I glibly stated Florida was my home, but it’s not.