Page 139 of No Longer Just Neighbors

“Where are you going?” Mom asks when Conlin gets up.

“To stand somewhere nobody is planning my romantic future.”

“You can stand anywhere you want. I can still see you.”

He points at her as he walks away. “Exactly the problem.”

Ruby comes over a few minutes later with Jack in her arms. “What did I miss?”

“Mom worrying that Conlin is single and needs to find a woman.”

Ruby looks toward him. “How’d that go?”

“He threatened to move.”

This is the life I used to worry I’d lose every time I left.

I did miss things. Birthdays, random dinners, days my nephew learned something new while I was three states away. That turned out not to be the same thing as losing them.

When I’m gone, I’m still part of this family. When I come home, nobody acts like I need to earn my place back.

Especially Ruby.

By ten, the house is quiet again.

Jack left half a cracker under the coffee table, Mom reorganized stuff in our kitchen without asking, and Conlin headed into town after dinner. He told Mom he was meeting a woman, then refused to answer a single follow-up question.

Ruby and I clean up just enough that tomorrow morning will be soon enough to deal with the rest, then head to bed.

She’s curled against me beneath the blankets, one leg tangled with mine, while rain taps softly against the windows. I run my fingers through the ends of her hair, enjoying the simple fact that she’s here and I don’t have to say goodnight through a phone.

After a while, she traces one finger along the tattoo on my upper arm.

“Do you ever think about the duplex?”

“You mean the place where you made it your personal mission to destroy my delicate ego through a shared wall?”

“Seriously?”