Aquamarine (22 page)

And then the screen door opens and there—after all this time, after all this—there she simply is. Jesse looks up at Marty Finch and feels time warp around the two of them as they stand in its fold. Her first impulse, ridiculous after how much she has gone through to arrive here, is to turn heel and flee, but from there she moves into the dead calm at the eye of her storm. She’s ready.

Marty doesn’t give off so much as a blink of wondering who Jesse is, or trying to put her into this context, or wondering why she is here—none of the things that happen when you’re not expecting someone. Rather it appears she has been expecting Jesse all along, as she leans forward against the railing and moves straight into a smile of pure pleasure, her eyes filled with lies.

Jesse waits to, wants to, hear them.