Chapter 8

 

 

My new favorite thing in the world: catching up on lost time. I spent the next month in Boston with Keegan. He showed me everything there was to see. I had enough money saved from working all those weekend for years to take time off.

The highlight was definitely his house.

We made up for all our lost time apart, acting out the things we could only dream about when we were fifteen. More importantly, we got to know the adult versions of each other. Keegan’s intensity as a teenager had grown into a fierceness he held within him. It was sexy as hell.

Over that month, something within me healed. I would probably always hate Peg for the way she spun my life in a horrible new direction, but I could live with it. I could remember the parts of my life I had locked away without being overwhelming by the stinging pain in my chest.

I put my wholeness down to Keegan. We talked… a lot. He reminded me of all the great things my Dad and I had done together growing up. He even held some of the memories of my mother that I had long forgotten. Keegan was my memory keeper and I would always be grateful for that.

In a way, I knew I was always meant to return to New Orleans. In his final act, my father had reunited me with the one person in the world I needed most. Even from the hereafter, he knew what would make me happy.

And, my God, did Keegan make me happy. We approached our relationship as two adults, not the teenagers we were. It allowed us to fall in love all over again and be accepting of the people we were today. Not the ghosts of the past.

By the end of the month, I had given notice on my apartment and applied for a transfer at work. Keegan offered to move to New York but it wasn’t what I wanted. I needed a fresh start and had never been opposed to moving cities. God knows I’d done it enough over the last ten years.

But I had a feeling Boston was going to be the end of the line. I had found a place for my heart and wherever Keegan was would be home for me now. It always was, I just wasn’t brave enough to believe it.

It still seemed surreal that I got a second chance with Keegan. It would have been so easy to let him slip through my fingers altogether. When I think about how lucky I was, how deeply he loved me, I just wanted to burst with the warmth that flooded me.

Anne was gone. She wasn’t needed anymore. All that hurt no longer existed inside of her. She didn’t have to be so strong anymore. Finally, Annie was back. And I embraced her like never before.