Page 19 of Willow in the Wind

“You answered.”

James closed his eyes. Her voice brought him back to their two-year-long relationship—breakfasts and sleepovers and trips to Maine, long conversations about books and movies and music, concerts and laughter. They’d built a life together that was almost too easily abandoned. Why had they killed it? He couldn’t remember right then.

“How are you?” James asked.

“Where are you? It sounds loud,” Kinsey said.

“I’m at a restaurant,” he said.

“By yourself?”

Was she fishing to see if he had a girlfriend in London?

“I’m alone,” he said. “Indian food.”

“You always said New York’s Indian couldn’t stack up to London’s.”

“I still say that.” James laughed.

Maybe she was calling because she suspected he was coming back for the gig at Madison Square Garden.

“How are you?” James asked again.

But again, she evaded the question. “How’s the weather over there?”

“It hasn’t stopped raining in six months,” he said.

“You’ve been there for six months.”

“Exactly,” James said.

Kinsey laughed softly. It was a beautiful sound. James wanted to record it.

“Listen, I’m coming back to New York next week,” he said, trying to keep his voice easy. “I’m interviewing Frank Baxter forSpinmagazine before his gig at Madison Square Garden.”

“I wondered if you were going to do that,” Kinsey said. “I know how much you like him.”

“It’s a dream come true to cover him,” James said. He tugged at his collar. “Maybe you could come with me. I have a guest list and backstage passes for the gig.”

Kinsey took a breath. He tried to picture her. Was she in her office at the publishing house, sunlight pouring through the big glass window? Did she have a healthy summer tan from her runs in Central Park?

He suddenly needed to see her. Desperately.

“I don’t know,” Kinsey said after a long pause.

“No pressure,” James assured her. “But I think it would be fun. We always had fun at gigs together.”

Kinsey sighed. James could feel the ache in her heart. It was the same as his.

“Maybe we can grab dinner beforehand?” Kinsey offered. “I have something to tell you.”

James felt a lurch in his stomach.Something to tell you.

It can’t be. I thought I was so careful. I thought we were so careful.

It was as though history was repeating itself.

All at once, it was twenty-plus years ago. All at once, he was receiving a phone call that had pulled him back to New York City and changed his life forever.

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