Page 105 of Townshipped
He smiles and lets out a soft laugh like I’m amusing, like this whole situation is some play we’ve been acting out and now the curtain is drawing closed on the final night of our show. We’ll have the cast party and go our separate ways.
“I’ll come visit someday,” he promises.
I know he won’t.
He knows he won’t.
But it’s best we pretend right now.
“Yeah, someday,” I agree.
“And we’ll have beans and cod.”
I scrunch up my nose. “I think I’d rather have burgers and corn.”
36
AIDEN
Idrive by Karina’s after breakfast to drop Paisley and Ty off at her house. I don’t want them to witness Em packing up and leaving.
Em said her goodbyes to them before we got in the van, promising them she’d call and visit. We should have thought this through before we started playing house with them in the mix.
It was never my intention for them all to become so attached. Em was supposed to be staying downstairs as a guest—so I didn’t mess up her need for a sense of constancy while she healed and regained her memory.
Paisley and Ty were supposed to adjust to life with me as their guardian while Em stayed out of things. But Em is Em. She loved Paisley and Ty from the first minute she met them, and they opened up to her in ways I never expected.
Watching them connect to her made the transition smooth, so I told myself it wouldn’t matter. Somehow I believed, or at least hoped, that she would stay. Denial isn’t only a river in Egypt. Denial was my friend—until it wasn’t.
This morning as we loaded up the van, Ty cried when Em told him she’d be going away for a while. When a tear leaked down Em’s cheek, he wiped it and said, “Don’t cwy, Em. I’ll send you pichures.” That only caused Em to shed a few more tears.
Paisley remained neutral, but gave Em a longer hug than usual, and then said goodbye with a wave before turning to get in the van without any other show of emotion.
I’m driving straight from my sister’s to Duke’s.
He lives in a house on a street a lot like the one I grew up on. His Shelby is always parked in the detached garage at the end of the driveway, but he keeps his motorcycle out front next to the house when the weather’s good. It’s the first thing that catches my eye as I approach his one-story dark green craftsman bungalow.
When I pull up, he’s mowing the lawn in only a T-shirt and jeans despite the fact that the high today will be in the forties.
I hop out and walk up the driveway as Duke kills the engine on the mower.
“Do you mow the lawn in the snow too?” I tease.
“If it needed it, I would. What brings your scarce self over here on a Saturday?”
“Em’s leaving.”
“Yeah. I heard.”
“You heard?”
I shouldn’t be surprised. I only told Mom, Trevor, and Karina. But one of them probably said something to someone and now it’s town news. Well, then there’s Jesse. He’s the second-biggest gossip this town has, next to Ella Mae. Both of them make the gray-haired seniors at the Dippity Do seem like tight-lipped queens of discretion.
Duke rests his hands on the mower handle. “So you’re just going to let her go?”
“What else can I do? Her parents are coming to get her in a few hours.”
“Does she know how you feel?”
