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“Liz?” Easton yells.
She stops at the end of the driveway, looking up to see who said it.
“Liz, right?” Easton races up to her.
She stares at him a moment. “Sean?”
“Yeah. I used to live with you. You remember me?”
Her face lights up. “Of course I remember you!” She hugs him, then stands back, beaming. “Look at you, all grown up.”
I remain where I’m at, too shocked to move.
“Nova, get over here!” Easton yells.
“Nova?” Liz says, her gaze going to me.
I slowly walk up to her, still not believing it’s her.
“Hi.” It’s all I can manage to say. Seeing her again, I’m overcome with emotion. She was like a mom to me, the first person who treated me like she cared about me, like I wasn’t an annoyance that just got in her way. I loved her. I still do.
“Oh, how I’ve missed you,” she says, pulling me in for a hug. “I’ve missed both of you.” She lets me go and looks at Easton and me, tears welling up in her eyes. “I can’t believe what I’m seeing. You’re both so grown up.”
“Yeah, I’m going to college here,” Easton says.
Liz smiles. “So is my grandson. That’s why I’m here. Grandma’s helping him get settled in his new apartment. He’s a junior, studying engineering.” She looks at me. “You’re going here too?”
“No. I’m just living here. I have a job.”
Easton takes my hand. “She moved here with me. I’ll live in the dorms and she’ll be living here, with my mom’s friend.”
Liz glances at our joined hands. “Does that mean—”
“We’re dating,” Easton says, smiling at me. “Nova’s my girlfriend.”
Liz laughs a little. “I’m not surprised. You two couldn’t stand to be without each other.” She points at Easton. “Don’t think I didn’t know you snuck into her room that night we had the storm.”
She thinks that only happened once? He snuck in my room all the time. She just didn’t catch us. But it was completely innocent back then. It was like she said, we couldn’t stand being apart, even at night.
Easton laughs. “Sorry. I didn’t want her being scared.”
She looks at us both. “So when did you two reconnect?”
“Last year,” Easton says. “I ran into her at the diner where she worked. I didn’t know she was in Milwaukee until that night.”
“That’s a shame. I always hoped you two would find each other after you left. And you did, just years later.”
Easton gives my hand a squeeze. “I wish I’d found her sooner, but it didn’t work out that way.”
“And how is your grandfather?” Liz asks me.
“He died. Last Thanksgiving.”
“Oh. I’m sorry to hear that.”
She obviously doesn’t know how horrible he was, and I’m not going to tell her. She doesn’t need to know.
“She didn’t have anywhere to go,” Easton says, “so she moved in with us, with my family.”
