Page 194 of Rewind It Back

He watches her like I watch this girl in my lap.

“He is, isn’t he?”

“Kind of makes you wonder,” Hallie says. “He never married. He never brought anyone around in all the years I knew him. Maybe he’s always felt that way about your mom.”

“What are you saying?” I ask with a laugh. “That my dad just got there first?”

“I could see it. He and your dad never got along. It’s not that far-fetched to think he may have been pining for her all this time.”

“Okay, let’s stop romanticizing my mom’s love life. AndGod...” I grimace. “Don’t ever let me use the words ‘love life’ and ‘my mom’ in the same sentence ever again.”

Hallie chuckles against me, her head resting on my shoulder.

We sit there a while, silently observing the party around us. Everyone is having a good time, flowing in and out of the house.

Ourhouse.

“We did good, Hallie Hart.”

Her smile tilts. “We did do good. This is the first of many.”

This house will host future birthday parties and celebrations, maybe even a few family dinners. We’ll have our friends over. One day, our kids will have their friends over, and I’m looking forward to giving our future family the same sense of home and community that Hallie and I were raised with back in our old neighborhood.

Hallie slips an arm over my shoulders as she sits in my lap, and while she watches the party happen around us, I can practically see the same picture being painted in her head of our future here.

“I love you, Hal.”

She turns back, smiling at me. “I love you, Rio. Always have. Always will.”

Hallie leans her head against mine as I hold her.

Before, when we were kids, I felt lucky. Love fell into our hands. We were neighbors turned friends who eventually fell in love. But this time, it feels like we earned it. We get to be in love because we worked for it. We decided to forgive and understand one another.

This second chance doesn’t feel like luck. It feels like a reward.

“Look who made it,” I say as Hallie’s dad and brother walk out into the backyard.

I go to stand, but Hallie doesn’t move from my lap.

“He looks good, right?” From this distance, she watches him.

He does look good. He looks healthy and sturdier than the last time we saw him. There’s more color to his skin. He’s gained a bit of weight.

“He looks really good.”

A relieved smile ghosts her lips, and when I go to stand, she stops me again. “Wait. Rio, look.”

I follow her line of sight to watch as my mom and her dad make eye contact from across the yard. Mr. Hart freezes in place, as does my mom.

As far as I know, they haven’t seen or spoken to each other since the day they both found out about their spouses, regardless that they were great friends prior. I didn’t exactly think this through when I invited them both here.

It sounds like the music has cut out. It feels like the yard has emptied. All I can do is focus on the two of them and pray that this goes okay.

Mr. Hart’s face lights up with a smile, and I watch a mirrored one lift on my mom’s lips before she quickly crosses the yard to meet him.

They hug. They hug the way you do when you see a long-lost friend again, because that’s exactly what they are.

Fuck, that kind of makes me want to cry. It makes me feel more emotional than I assumed it would. Checking on Hallie, I can tell she feels the same way with her pink nose and sheen-coated eyes.

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