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Upstairs, I curl up on the red velvet couch, and before I can even reach for it, Alex drapes the buttery-soft cream throw blanket over me. Cherry climbs up and nestles at my feet, her warm chin resting on my ankle. Lily grabs the television remote and settles into the matching chair across the room, chatting about being “Team Jess.” I smile in agreement while Alex lights a fire in the old stone fireplace, then disappears into the kitchen. The scent of chili wafts through the house, making my stomach growl.
An ethereal sense of comfort, of home, envelops me. It stirs a sensation of nostalgia, of buried memories nudging my soul. It whispers in the crackle of the fire and the dancing flames: You belong here.
Goose bumps prickle my skin.
For the first time, I wonder if it isn’t just a childhood dream, a fairy tale, or an odd fixation on this house and this family.
I wonder if there’s something more that led me here. Something I’ve been trying to remember all along.
Something that was never supposed to be forgotten.
Chapter 15
PENNY - 2024
“Mom, I’m going over to Lily’s house!” I yell as I grab a pear from the fruit bowl on the kitchen island.
“Come here for a minute before you leave,” she yells back from her home office at the end of the hall.
“What’s up?” I ask from her doorway.
“Have a seat for a sec. I need to talk to you about something.”
I sit on one of the brown leather chairs facing her desk and wait for her to look away from her computer screen.
When she finally does, I immediately notice the hesitation in her eyes.
“You know your father recently got a big promotion,” she says.
I nod and smile hopefully, sure that this conversation is leading to me getting the car I recently started asking for since my childhood fear of cars faded away. I can already see me and the girls cruising around with the top down, our hair blowing wildly in the wind, blasting our favorite tunes.
“Well, his company has this program where their senior executives spend time working at the other branches. To get to know the other staff, to head up new projects, to meet with different clients, all that sort of thing.”
Unease simmers behind my pearly smile. This doesn’t seem to be heading in the we’re taking you to get that cute car this weekend direction.
When I don’t say anything, she continues. “Your father has been asked to actually start up a new location.”
“That’s great.”
“It is. The thing is…it’s in California.”
The unease that was simmering a few moments ago is now ramping up to a rapid boil.
“Um, how will that work?” I ask. “Is he going to have to fly back and forth from California to New Hampshire?” That sounds like it will make my father even more irritated than his norm.
She takes a breath, making an expression I can’t read. “No, he’s going to have to relocate to California. At least for a year, possibly two.”
“Are you guys getting a divorce?”
It’s not really an off-the-wall question. My father is hardly ever home. He’s always been a workaholic, working fifty-plus hours a week, taking conference calls at all hours of the day and night when he actually is home. Other than sitting at the dinner table together every night, I barely see him or have any interaction with him. I suppose that should upset me, but we’ve never been close. He’s always kept me at a distance, quietly watching me like he’s not quite sure where I came from or what I’m doing here.
Same, Dad. Same.
“No, we’re not getting a divorce, Penny. What kind of question is that?”
“A realistic one? You guys are both always working. You never go out together, you go to bed at different times, you don’t take vacations, I never see you hugging or kissing, or even smiling at each other.”
“There’s much more to marriage than all that,” she says, shuffling paperwork on her desk.
“Aren’t those the really important things, though?”
She gives me an exasperated look. “No, they’re not.”
“I think they should be.”
“That’s because you’re seventeen, darling. You’re not old enough to understand what a marriage is.”
If I ever get married, I want my husband and me to be best friends and always be hugging, kissing, and smiling. I want us to always put each other and our happiness first, not our jobs.
My phone buzzes in my pocket. I’m sure it’s Lily texting me, wondering where I am.
“So, are you going to be in a long-distance marriage, then?”
“No, we’re going to move to California with your father. I think it’ll be a nice adventure for all of us. A change of scenery, an escape from all the snow in the winter. One of your father's associates will be coming here to fill in while your father is in California. He and his wife will be renting our house. It’ll work out perfectly.”
