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The ache that I felt at this was almost more than I could stand.

I could picture that room now. Where she was lying, the blanket she was tucked under. I could be there. Or she could be here. Or we could be anywhere, as long as we were together, and everything would be okay again.

“Where are you?” she asked.

“In my bed.”

Now she went quiet, and I wondered if she was thinking the same thing I had.

“Is your room dark?” she asked.

“Yeah. But I forgot to turn the light off in the bathroom, so there’s a little light coming from under the door. Is yours dark?”

“Totally dark.”

There was something intimate about calling someone in the pitch black of your bedroom in the middle of the night. It’s like a whisper. It’s private. It means something.

I wanted to ask her if the things I’d given her were still on the nightstand. If she was wearing one of my hoodies. But it would break my heart either way.

“So how is everyone?” she asked.

I rubbed my forehead. “They’re good. Kevin Bacon has a hashtag on Instagram now. Doug just sort of gave up keeping him locked up, so Kevin hangs out by the fudge shop begging for handouts and taking selfies with tourists.”

“So he’s living his best life.”

“Oh, yes.”

“And Hunter?”

I paused, debating if I should tell her how he’d actually been. “He’s good. He’s here, with me.”

He wasn’t. He was sleeping on the porch of the house, waiting for her to come home.

“Liz left Jake,” I said, changing the subject.

“She did?” Her voice brightened.

“Yeah. She showed up a few weeks ago with a black eye and Doreen. She took that stuff you were keeping for her. Brought it down to the police station in Rochester.”

“She got a restraining order?”

“Yup.” I scoffed. “But he violated it anyway. Came back looking for her. Pops pulled a gun on him.”

“What?”

“Right in the middle of Main Street, in front of everyone. Told him he would shoot his balls off if he ever came back.” I laughed a little. “Jake filed an assault charge, but nobody saw anything.”

She snorted. “Of course they didn’t.”

“Anyway, Liz had him arrested for violating the restraining order. Then I guess she had a bunch of other dirt on him. He got fired. He’ll be at least two years in jail. He won’t be back.”

“Good. What did Brian say?”

“He was happy. They went on a date last night, actually.”

I felt her beaming through the phone.

“I have it on the highest authority that Liz’s car was still parked outside of Brian’s house this morning,” I said.