Page 76 of Stony Point Summer
“That’s probably not a good idea. And she’s not here, anyway.”
Neil looks up at Jason. “What do you mean?”
“She’s in Westcreek. Went with Kyle to his apartment.”
Again, Neil throws a quick look down the driveway before drawing a hand along his face. “So you didn’t bring her back?”
Jason says nothing. Doesn’t shake his head. Doesn’t back off. Instead, he walks over to the motorcycle and sits backward on the seat. Crooking a leg over the rear fender, he leans an elbow on his thigh and looks at Neil. “Why don’t you just let it go?”
“Easy for you to say. You’vegota girl. Maureen. So what the hell do you know?”
“Shut up, Neil. I know what I just saw. Lauren’s coming undone with all this. Lay off her before she cracks up.”
“You don’t know shit. I love her, man.”
“Idoknow shit. I knowyou; you’re my brother. And what I know,” Jason says, still leaning an arm on his leg hitched over the bike’s rear fender, “is this. You’re in love with the goddamn chase. Lauren turned into some lousy competition between you and Kyle.”
“No, Jay. You couldn’t be more wrong.”
“Wrong?”
Neil stares at him for a long second. “I’m telling you, Lauren’s the one.”
“Kyle feels the same way,” Jason tosses back.
Neil shoves his brother off the Harley. Once Jason steps away, Neil stands beside the motorcycle, puts both hands on the handlebars, leans down and starts walking it across the driveway.
“You going out? Taking a ride?” Jason asks, following behind Neil. “Come on, we’ll talk over a beer at Sound View. Or hell, we’ll grab an Italian ice at Vecchitto’s.”
“No.” Neil pushes the bike toward the open barn doors. “I’m putting this away and packing.”
“What?Packing?”
“Hitting the road tomorrow,” Neil calls over his shoulder. “I got to get out of Stony Point.”
“What about our flip? We’re tearing out the kitchen cabinets tomorrow.”
Neil rolls the Harley straight to the barn, stopping just inside the doorway. “I’m no use to you right now, Jay,” he admits, his booted foot putting down the kickstand. “Got to clear my head. Taking a few days off, man.”
Jason crosses his arms and leans against the barn doorjamb. “But where you going?”
His brother looks at him, pulls that rag from his jeans back pocket and swipes dust off the motorcycle’s gas tank.
Jason still leans there, arms crossed. “I said, where you going?”
Neil steps back from the bike and walks outside, glancing at Jason as he does. “Wherever the road takes me,” he says, shoving that rag in his back pocket. The sun’s gone down; the barn rises like a silhouette against the night sky.
And Neil keeps walking. Jason quietly watches him crossing the shadowed lawn and heading toward the dark, gabled house beyond.
twenty-nine
— Now —
ALWAYS.
Maris walks along Sea View Road with that one word in her mind. She clutches the strap of her denim tote close. It’s the tote in which several pages of her manuscript are tucked. After visiting Jason’s secret old cottage at dawn, she’d written these very pages and pages of words.
But none of them say as much as that one word.Always.
