Page 24

They walked up Pelican Way and through the cold night warmly lit with the glow of houses and streetlamps.

He stopped by the Feinbergs to tell Bentley where he was going.“But at eight, head to your grandparents. Got it?”

“Got it.” He looked up at Emery. “Going walking? That’s old-fashioned. You kids have fun.”

“What was that about?” Emery said as they started off again.

“Bentley being eleven. By the way, he thinks you’re good-looking. Not pretty or beautiful, but good-looking.”

“Oh, how nice of him to notice. Tell him thanks. I think. Is good-looking cool to an eleven-year-old?”

“Extremely cool.” He should add his thoughts, but...

They went up the slight hill of Pelican Way to Port Fressa Avenue. “Have you ever been here? This is the Original Homestead,” Caleb said. “These houses are the ones Mac and his crew want to bulldoze.”

“No, I haven’t, but I should have. These are adorably shabby.” Emery started up one of the broken, uneven walkways to a Florida Cracker porch. “Yet there’s something romantic about them.”

“It’s hard to imagine families living in them, kids running up and down the street. But other than Sea Blue Way, this was the heart of our town.” He pointed to the house on the corner. “I’ve seen black-and-whites of that one. Proverbial picket fence, family with a dog gathered on the porch.”

“Now it looks sad. Even haunted. Do you really think they’re worth restoring?”

“I think everything is worth restoring.” Caleb glanced back at her, then continued down the lane, pausing by a couple of the houses, making mental notes.

He’d have to walk the street in the light of day, choose one to refurbish first, then see what Simon could do for backing and money.

“Mac will have to buy the houses on either side of this neighborhood to build his golf course. I’m not sure he can do it, but I bet he’s playing a long game. ”

“Why hasn’t anyone done anything with them before now? How long have they been abandoned?”

“Lots of reasons. Red tape. Owners died, left it to family who live somewhere else. Unpaid taxes, foreclosure, if there’s a loan.

The city has to prove the property is abandoned, which requires a lot of due diligence.

Some of the houses may have the taxes up to date, but no one pays for upkeep.

Frankly, we’ve been so busy building up the West End, I don’t think anyone noticed the Org. Homestead.”

“Well, they care now, don’t they?” Emery said as they’d stopped in front of the last house on the street. Beyond was a dark wood. “She told me I run away.”

“Who told you—ah, Ava said you run away?”

“Yeah, after she confessed her panic over marrying Jamie, which sounds to me like nothing but freezing cold feet and varying expectations. I asked if she was running away, and she said she’d seen me do it enough times.”

Caleb started up the walkway to the porch. The sidewalk, the front walks, all of it would have to be redone to restore the Org. Homestead. “Is she right? Do you run away?”

“This morning I would have said no, but now I don’t know. Maybe.”

“I’m going to need evidence, Quinn. How’d you run away? If it wasn’t from a fiancé, Ava may not have a case.” He liked that she laughed.

“She may have reset the bar. No fiancé for me.”

“Then how’d you run away?”

“According to her? Sports, friends, college, my career. Living a block from the Free Voice instead of near them. Missing family events. When I moved home out of necessity, I didn’t really join in, according to her.

She’s probably right. But the pièce de résistance was accepting a job nine hundred miles away the night she got engaged. ”

“Isn’t that life? You were seventeen, right? When your dad married her mom. A senior in high school. I was so busy my senior year I was hardly ever home. Then I went to a college twelve hundred miles away before moving to the West Coast.”

“She admitted her reasoning wasn’t sound before clarifying I was more emotionally absent than present. She claims I never put my heart into the family. I emotionally ran away, she said.”

“What do you say?” Caleb sat on the bottom step of the dilapidated porch and patted the space next to him.

“I never intended to stay on the outside, Caleb. But I didn’t want another mom.

I didn’t want sisters. I didn’t want to share my dad.

” Emery picked up a broken twig next to the step and started peeling away the dried bark.

“Yet I wanted Dad happy. I understood he couldn’t build his life around me.

Still, after Mom passed, I thought he’d drink craft beer with his fellow professors and have a weekly poker night, visiting me when I was living in Costa Rica for a year. Not create another family.”

“Did you live in Costa Rica?”

“It’s a metaphor, Ransom.”

“As for the family, you are part of it. Like it or not.”

“I know, I know, but I never felt like I was. Not deep down. And Ava felt it too.”

“I did a bit of pushing away with Cassidy. I wished she’d just go away and never come back. Stop making things hard and uncomfortable. I feel bad about that now. But she scared me. When love hurts, we disconnect. Find other things to occupy our hearts.”

“Is that why you didn’t want to commit to your ex? Is that why she told you to seek help?”

“Pretty astute observation, Quinn.” He could chuckle about it now, but that night ... “We never officially verbalized it, but yeah, she probably picked up on a few things.”

“From where I sit, you’re not afraid to love. Maybe she just wasn’t right for you.”

“Maybe.” Most definitely. “Now I get scared for Bentley. That Cassidy is going to hurt him. She chose a man who doesn’t want kids, Emery. She dropped him at his uncle’s for the rest of the school year. What does that say to him? He tried to FaceTime her again this week. She never answered.”

“He’s got you, Caleb, one of the good guys. You can help him understand her.”

“But he’ll always carry that wound,” he said more to himself than Emery. “Hey, do you ever think about our summer?”

“Lately, quite a bit. No offense, but I tried to forget everything about the year my mother died, except for her.”

“I wanted to forget Cassidy and remember you.”

“Was she really so bad?”

“Probably not, but I was angry at her for so long. Did I tell you she dropped out of high school? Her senior year. Our parents were devastated.”

“You did. Caleb, she’s not the first kid to rebel and choose a different path. If we ever have kids, we’d have to—” She angled back, laughing. “Hold up, I didn’t mean ‘we’ as in you and me. Just the general ‘we.’ People who might one day have kids. And moving on...”

She was pretty when she was flustered—so very pretty. Bentley hadn’t seen this side of her—the slightly lost and unsure girl, forgetting what she possessed. Caleb liked how their sixteen years apart melted the moment they found each other again. At least it seemed that way to him.

“So, your sister,” he said. “What are you going to tell her?”

“I don’t know. Maybe ‘I’m sorry’ since she believes I was emotionally absent.

Then encourage her to have an honest conversation with Jamie about how she’s feeling and what she wants.

I’ve known him a long time, and he’s definitely in love with my sister.

He’d give her the moon if possible.” Emery looked over at him. “That’s the right answer, isn’t it?”

“Come on, Quinn. You don’t need me to tell you what’s already in your heart. You just said it out loud.”

She leaned against him. “Thank you,” she said softly. After another minute or two, she stood. “I’m cold and should probably get my emotionally unavailable self back to my sister.”

Down the street toward Caleb’s, she paused and turned back to the Org. Homestead. “I wish I had the money to save each one.”

“Me too. But saving it needs to mean something to the town. If it doesn’t, we’ll end up back here in another, what, fifty years?

Maybe that’s why we’re so divided. Do we invest in our past history or our future history?

Most people just want to have a nice place to live and a steady job and hope for their kids. A chance to dream a little.”

“Isn’t that what this neighborhood stands for, Caleb? If you can restore one of the houses, I think people will see the Org. Neighborhood as a really beautiful part of the city. I’d live here.”

“I just don’t know if the East End has enough clout to sway the West. They have more control than we like to admit.”

“Then we need to find a way to bring everyone together.”

“All ideas are welcome.” He liked that she said “we,” as if Sea Blue Beach was already her home. Even more, he liked walking with her through the quiet night. “I’m glad you came over.”

“I interrupted your basketball watching.”

“Let’s see ... watching sweaty guys toss around a ball or have a deep conversation with the lovely, sweet, perfumed Emery Quinn? Not a hard choice.”

At the end of Port Fressa Avenue, they cut across Pelican Way to pick up Bentley at his parents. Mom fussed over Emery, welcoming her back to Sea Blue Beach. Dad asked about her dad, which made them all laugh.

When they left, Bentley ran ahead for his nightly bowl of cereal, though Caleb was pretty sure he’d just finished one at his folks’.

“Can I give you a lift to the Sands?” he said in the light of his kitchen windows.

“Nah, you have Bentley,” she said with a shiver. “If I keep moving, the cold isn’t so bad.” She tugged on Caleb’s hoodie sleeve. “Thanks again. For the tour and the talk, Ransom.”

“Anytime, Quinn. On your walk home, remember one thing: Ava may claim you were emotionally unavailable, but you were the one she ran to when she needed help.”