Page 116 of Tony

Midnight doesn’t even turn around. “Airport, Soshee. Tomorrow at noon. Then you’ll never have to think about that bug again.”

She walks through the door and leaves us standing there in silence.

None of us says anything for at least a minute.

But then Vann turns to us and says, “Follow me.”

We all follow Vann out of Soshee’s apartment, down the stairs, and cross the street to Anna Ameci’s. Soshee lets her aunt know we’re taking a table in the corner.

We all sit down and look at each other. Surrounded by the bustling chatter of dozens of conversations inside the restaurant. Safe from spying ears.

Vann’s blue eyes look at each of us in turn and then finally settle on mine. He says, “Fuck this shit. You in?”

And I find myself liking Vann Vaughn.

I find myself liking Vann Vaughn a whole helluva lot.

Because I say, “Fuck yeah. I’m in.”

EPILOGUE 1 - TONY

Everything about my life has changed since Soshee came back to Key West with me.

Wait. No. Let me try that again.

Everything about my life is better since Soshee came back to Key West with me.

I own a fifteen-hundred square foot cottage about mid-way down my family’s street and there wasn’t a single stand-out thing inside this place until Soshee Ameci moved in.

Most girls who walk away from the only life they’ve ever known would feel at least a little out of place, but not my Sosh. She came in, looked around with her lips pressed together, and then nodded and said, “OK. I can work with this.”

I didn’t understand what that meant, exactly. But I do now. Clean. Slate. As she so eloquently put it when I made a big deal about her amazing loft in Fort Collins.

She went shopping yesterday while I was at work and when I came home last night I felt like… well… I felt like I was coming home for the very first time.

I had never had that feeling before. This street has always been my home. There is nothing new to see here. Nothing exotic to discover. And I’m not complaining about that, it’s just a fact.

But when I came home from the marina last night and walked into a room transformed by candles, and beaded curtains, and throw pillows made of crushed velvet. And I saw my sexy supervillain standing barefoot in the center of the living room wearing a pair of cut-off shorts and a light green bikini top that made her eyes look like flashing emeralds… well that?

That felt like coming home.

And I thought to myself… I’m gonna fall in love with this girl.

Tonight when I come home the first thing she says to me is, “I called a guy and had the whole place swept for bugs. I got your mom to let me into Luke and Alonzo’s cottages too, and they’re clean as well. So.” She blows a stray piece of fire-red hair out of her face and nods. “I think we’re good now.”

And then I think to myself… Nah. I fell for this girl the very first moment I saw her.

I walk across the room, take her in my arms, spin her around until she laughs hysterically, and dip her backwards for one of those dramatic old-fashioned kisses.

We fall to the floor. That move is harder than it looks. But we laugh all the way down.

“Hey Sosh,” I say. Once we’ve stopped laughing and are sprawled out in the middle of the small living room.

“Hmm?” she hums back.

“Would you like to be my partner in crime?”

She turns over on her stomach and props her hands under her chin as she grins at me. “What kind of things come with being your partner in crime? Anything cool?”