Category: Fiction

24 Just when I think I might be able to get the toothy grin under control, the bathroom door swings back open and Hayden steps out in my clothes. I dissolve into giggles, and his white smile flashes in the dark as he stalks toward me. “I’m glad this amuses you,” he says. The shirt fits

23 “Where’s Jodi?” I ask Margaret as she’s walking me back through her house to the front door at the end of our session. “Taking some much-needed time off.” She gives me a dry look. “Apparently, I’m something of a pill.” “Hard to swallow, but ultimately good for your health?” I ask. She laughs, grabs my

22 “I should’ve known you’d be out here,” I say, crossing the garden to the stone bench where Hayden sits beneath the starlight. “Couldn’t sleep?” he asks. I lower myself beside him. “I’m so far off this schedule. Early to bed, early to rise—not really my thing.” “And I’m just early to rise,” he says. In the

21 The untrained eye might think this is a guest room. Or that, even if it was Audrey’s room at one time, it’s long since been emptied out and converted to the sparse little office with the fold-down Murphy bed that Hayden and I are standing before. The untrained eye would be wrong. This is exactly what Audrey’s

20 “They did their best,” Margaret says. “The truth is, I think all my mother ever really wanted was to make her art. And I think all my father ever wanted was to be my mother’s husband. When either of them felt like those things were being challenged…well, they never really learned to compromise. Not until

19 Margaret answers her own door on Saturday morning, and I’m so caught off guard that for three seconds after she greets me, I just stare. “Where’s Jodi?” I finally ask when I step inside and slip my shoes off. “Day off,” Margaret says shortly, and leads me down the hallway. “Too hot to be outside

18 Old Mo’s Sugar House is a hit from the beginning. For one thing, the entire exterior is painted in three separate shades of frosting pink. It’s a little grungy from the passing of time, but still looks like the setting of my childhood dreams. It’s the same kind of fare as Ray’s or the Atomic Café,

17 We wander the quaint streets of Savannah, past old stone buildings and Greek revival homes with porches stacked up three levels, live oaks sweeping low and draped in Spanish moss. It’s late, but we’re not alone. Pockets of revelers spill out of a redbrick bar on the corner, and a woman on the steps of

16 “My mother,” Margaret says, “was a magnificent woman.” “Everything I’ve ever read about her agrees,” I say quietly, matching Margaret’s volume, trying not to jerk her from the memory fogging over her eyes. I want her to linger. We’ve finally reached the people who shaped her most, and I want to stay here. “My father

15 Normally I don’t have trouble sleeping, but Thursday arrives, for me, well before the sun rises, and no matter how many times I turn over beneath the top sheet, the bed feels too warm, and I can’t drift back off. Around four thirty, I finally flick on the bedside lamp, the buttery glow hitting the