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“What do you want to know?”
“I want to know if he’s worth staying in New York for.”
“Ah, now I see.”
“What do you see?”
“You’re mad at me because you know I’m not back for good.”
One corner of her mouth twitched. “Like I said. I’m not mad.”
“Carla, I missed you every single day. I thought about you all the time.”
“Ditto. I’m just glad you’re okay. Or better than okay, it seems.”
“Is it that obvious?”
“Completely. You’re different. I guess love will do that to a person.”
“Maybe it was being hunted down and kidnapped by two psychotic criminals. Puts things into perspective.”
Carla laughed for what seemed like the first time all day. “Or that.”
I hated admitting it, but I actually missed Staten Island. I’d been forced to start a new life there, and it never quite felt like home. However, being away now made me realize that home had nothing to do with a physical place. Home was about the people you surrounded yourself with. I didn’t want my old life back. I wanted the people in my new one. One tall, dark, and handsome person, in particular.
“I wish you could come to New York with me.”
“Maybe I’ll come for a visit one day. Maybe I’ll move up there.”
“What?”
She shrugged. “There’s nothing here for me anymore.”
“Uh … what about Joe? And your family?”
Carla’s eyes dropped to her lap. “Joe and I broke up.”
I gasped. “Carla! When? Why? What happened?”
“Last month.”
“That answers the when. What happened?”
She ran her fingers through her hair and sighed. “We graduated, and I guess things got too real for him. He wasn’t ready to step up and be a man.”
“That doesn’t sound like him. What did he say? He just broke up with you?”
“Look, I really don’t want to talk about it. It’s behind me. You’ve been gone a long time. Things have changed.”
I swallowed hard. “I’m sorry, Carla. I’m sorry I wasn’t here for you when you needed me.”
“It’s fine.”
“No, it’s not.”
Silence descended upon the porch once more. Carla was shutting me out. There was more to the story than she was telling me.
Before I left Florida, Carla was with Joe, her boyfriend of three years. High school sweethearts. They’d had a plan to move in together after graduation and then get married.
