Summer at the Shore Leave Cafe

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Authors: Abbie Williams
Tags: Romance, Family, love, Relationships, Identity, home, heartbreak
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back up here after that one summer,” Jillian went on.
    â€œWe didn’t often,” Blythe responded. “Mom likes it in Oklahoma, thinks that’s where Dad will come back to look for her.”
    â€œThat sounds familiar,” I said, referring to our own mother and Mick. “But our dad never got back the Landon way.”
    â€œYeah, sometimes I think we should try to hunt him down on the Internet,” Jilly said. We’d talked about it before, but it had only ever been talk.
    â€œNo, I say let sleeping dogs lie,” I said.
    â€œOkay, Gran,” Jilly teased, and I held up my right hand in defense, the other curled around my beer.
    â€œCan you just see a man trying to help Mom and Ellen run the café?” I laughed at the very idea of my independent mother putting up with a husband. It was something I had not inherited from her; I had been long dependent on Jackson.
    â€œNow that’s a picture,” Blythe said, and he nudged me companionably with his right shoulder, sending my heart cartwheeling from the contact. Flustered, I took another deep drink and felt Jilly’s speculative gaze linger on me for a fraction of a second.
    â€œTrue,” Jilly acknowledged. From outside came the elongated moan of a train whistle, on the tracks just outside of town. Jilly listened for a moment, then said, “Jo, remember that night Jackie and Justin hopped the train on a dare?”
    I shook my head slowly at the memory, wondering why she’d bring this up right now, other than the fact that she’d just heard a train. I said, sarcastically, “No, I’d forgotten.”
    â€œWhat happened?” Blythe asked.
    â€œThey would have been fine, probably, but Jackie slipped and fell off the train, and then Justin freaked out and jumped off to see if he’d been hurt, and they both wound up in the hospital,” Jilly filled in. For me, the most vivid memory of that night was my fear that Jackson had been badly or permanently injured; I’d run into that hospital room with my heart in my throat, and cradled him to me, sobbing.  It was only a few weeks before the fateful prom night during which we’d ended up conceiving Camille. I had never confessed to anyone that I’d been secretly thrilled to be pregnant, beneath the fear and terror about telling everyone the news, because it meant that Jackie belonged to me, and me only, from then on; God, I’d been so stupid and naïve it was almost laughable.
    â€œI’ve done that a time or two,” Blythe was saying, drawing me back to the present. “But I never did fall off.  My grandma Pam always said my guardian angel worked overtime.”
    â€œFrom the stories I’ve heard Rich tell about you, she’s right,” Jillian commented, and he grinned again, shrugging his shoulders and then draining the last of his soda. 
    â€œWell, I’ll let you two enjoy the rest of your night,” Blythe said then, rising to his feet and putting a couple of dollar bills onto the bar. He angled a quick look at Jilly and then his eyes came to rest on me. I leaned my right elbow on the bar and met his gaze, my chin tilted high; he was so tall.  He added, his tone light but his eyes intent on mine for a fraction of a second, “Call over to Rich’s if you need a ride, all right?”
    â€œThanks, buddy,” Jilly said and I pulled myself together.
    â€œWe’ll be good,” I told him, and the right side of his lips tipped up in a teasing grin.
    â€œSee you tomorrow then,” he said, and walked out the door with his shoulders shifting so amazingly beneath his t-shirt. Moments later I heard the sound of his truck firing to life and only then realized I was still staring after him.  I turned back to find Jillian studying me with her arms folded like an annoyed schoolteacher.
    â€œWhat?” I muttered.
    â€œJo, Jo, Jo,” she said, sounding exactly like Gran.

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