Her smile is soft. “You could have. But probably not as well. I’m fantastic.”
“You’re more than fantastic. You’re the best thing in my life, Jo. I hate being away from you.”
“I hate it too, but Halloween isn’t that far away.”
Suddenly, the five weeks between now and Halloween feels like longer than forever. There is no way I’m going to last that long apart from her. But to keep myself from doing something ridiculous, like professing my undying love for her over the phone and begging her to come to Boston, I change the subject.
“How’s it going at the museum? You never told me how the fall after-schools are going.”
Jo shifts on the couch, visibly uncomfortable, the same way she has been every time I’ve asked her about the museum for the past two weeks. But before I can figure out why, my mom comes flying down the stairs.
“Is that Jo?” She rounds the island, plucking the phone out of my hand and flopping down at the kitchen table.
“No problem—I didn’t want to talk to my girlfriend anyway,” I mutter.
My mom gives me a grin and an exaggerated wink, turning her attention back to the phone. “Jo Evans, that book your sister chose permanently changed my brain chemistry.”
Jo’s laugh comes through the phone. “I know, right? Hannah never misses.”
Unbeknownst to me, when I was here with Jo over the summer, she and my mom started talking books and formed a book club of sorts with Jo’s sister, Hannah. When I asked Jo about it, she told me it was a no boys allowed kind of thing, and when I asked my mom about it, she told me not to stick my nose into things that don’t concern me.
I love that they have their own relationship. It’s just one more way Jo is folded into my life. I want her in my life in every way imaginable.
I just have to tell her that.
“Want a beer?” My dad’s voice breaks me out of my thoughts. I turn and he’s holding a bottle out to me.
I shrug and take it. “Why not?”
“Let’s sit on the porch. Your mom’s going to keep your girl busy for a while.”
He looks at my mom chatting away with Jo, his face full of the love I see every time his eyes land on her. They’ve been married for thirty-eight years, and they still look at each other like that. I wonder what it’s like to feel so much for someone for so long.
You can have that too.
With that thought in my head, I follow my dad out to the front porch, settling onto the swing he hung there when my brothers and I were kids. It’s full dark outside, and the porch is decorated in an explosion of fall color. My first thought when I settle into the swing is how much Jo would love it. The cool September night air. The way the porch screams of the season. My mom goes all out for every season, and I can see Jo out here with her, laughing over my mom’s collection of quirky decorations.
I can see her everywhere.
I want her everywhere.
“So, what’s stopping you?”
I whip my head around to look at my dad, who takes a pull of his beer, smirking at me over the bottle.
“Are you a mind reader?”
He chuckles. “You were talking out loud.”
“No, I wasn’t,” I say immediately.
Shit was I?
“You were. So, you want to talk about it?”
I shrug and take a sip of my beer. “It’s not that complicated. I miss Jo. I miss her so much it’s hard to breathe sometimes.”
My dad leans back on the swing and gets that look he gets when he’s about to drop some truths. The same look Elliot inherited from him. “Do you regret moving back to Boston?”
