Hope, Levy, Marc [good summer reads TXT] 📗

stopped when she reached a fence at the corner of Swan and Wenonah Avenue, and pointed out the house.

“See that window on the second floor? That was my bedroom.”

“Should we ring the bell? Maybe the people who live there now will let us see inside,” Josh suggested.

“No. I’d prefer to keep things just as I remember them.”

“Hope?” Josh looked at her. “How did your mom die?”

The question caught her off guard. She hesitated, before taking Josh by the hand.

“Follow me.”

They walked back up Michigan Avenue and skirted the lake that stretched from the road to Cape May’s tennis courts.

“There was a truck that turned onto this street,” Hope said as they stopped at the intersection. “She didn’t see it coming.”

She said it as coolly and calmly as a police officer reporting to her superiors. She surprised herself, continuing on in the same impartial tone. “The collision sent her skidding. The car flipped and went flying into the lake.”

“I’m so sorry, Hope . . .”

“Don’t be. It’s not your fault. And I don’t need a sorry man in my life. Why don’t you ever tell me about your parents?” She turned to him.

“I love them, but we don’t have much in common.”

“What happened when you were twelve?”

“What?”

“The only time you ever mentioned your childhood, you told me you wanted to stay as excited as when you were twelve.”

Josh hesitated before starting. “It was the night of my birthday. My dad looked me deep in the eyes, this kind of dazed expression on his face. So I asked him what was wrong. And he said, ‘When did I lose that lightness I’m seeing in you now?’ It made me want to never grow old. He did his best, but it wasn’t enough for my mom,” Josh sighed. “I think she stopped loving him really early on. There was nothing I could do to stop her, either.”

“My parents were crazy about each other,” Hope said, turning away from the lake. “Seeing how they loved each other . . . They set the bar really high. And all it took was a split second to mess everything up.”

“It was an accident. You can hardly blame her.”

“I meant me. I was in gym class. I got hurt and I started bleeding. I panicked and asked the school to call my mom so she could come and pick me up. It was my fault she died. Let’s get out of here. I came to find her perfume, not her ghost.”

Night was falling fast, and darkness cloaked the space around them sooner than they had expected. They used their phone flashlights to pick their way back to the Camaro, and Hope gave Josh directions to Cape May’s little harbor.

After dinner, they wandered through town under the lighthouse lights and found a small motel sandwiched between two roadside dunes.

The room was spartan, with nothing more than a bed and bathroom, but it was all they needed.

Their trip to Cape May marked a turning point in their relationship. As morning sunshine spilled over the bed, Hope watched Josh sleep and felt certain that he was the only man she ever wanted beside her.

A little later in the day, Josh felt the same tug of feeling as he watched Hope in her happiness, dancing on the sand and laughing, as if she alone knew all the secrets of the world.

They loved each other, but it was more than that. They had chosen one another.

Stepping out of the sea, Hope smiled at him.

“You know what, Joshy? All the small things in life . . . They’re not so small after all.”

The next day, Josh set out early to buy supplies from the grocery store. Loaded down with chips and cake and a six-pack of beer, he staggered back to the motel, where he found Hope sitting cross-legged, a book across her lap and her phone in her hand.

“Message from Luke?”

“No, I’m trying to research something.”

“What’s that?”

“How fragrance molecules are broken down, or more specifically, whether a solvent can be used to reactivate them. I had hoped it would be something within my reach, but I’m less talented than I thought.”

Josh looked at the book and put down the grocery bags.

“First of all, have you tried wetting the paper?”

Hope looked up, wondering whether he was teasing her, and continued to hold his gaze as she wet her index finger and pressed down on the corner of a page before lifting it to her nose.

She breathed in deep and experienced a rush of feeling as the book’s most memorable story rose up to meet her nostrils. Hope recognized the smell of those sleepy evenings when she would drift away, her cheek resting in the palm of her mother’s hand.

She closed the book, tucking it into her bag.

Hope had everything she needed now. She and Josh went for one last stroll down the beach and then headed home.

The return drive to town brought them crashing back to reality. Luke was there to meet them at the door in his underwear, and Tyla had enveloped herself in Hope’s robe.

The next morning, Hope and Josh jumped out of bed and headed straight for the nearest Starbucks. As Hope scoured the online ads, Josh worked his way through the local papers.

They spent the whole week viewing apartments, before Josh decided to broaden their options. Finally, a bright, airy loft caught their eye, although the neighborhood couldn’t have been more unappealing. But the price was right, so they couldn’t afford to be picky.

Hope called her dad—who let slip that he was intending to take Amelia away on vacation at Christmas—and he offered her the security deposit.

They signed the rental agreement and moved in the next day.

Summer drew to an end, and September saw them back at school. After class, Josh would leave campus to meet his tutoring client, who was as slow as ever, before jumping back on the bike Hope had given him after a Sunday of