Kristen jumped off the front porch, landing squarely on both feet, just as she had hundreds of times in her childhood. But she wasn’t a child anymore, was she? No, this was one of the most adult days in her life and she would have traded anything to be the little girl with long brown braids that had skipped and jumped off this porch without a care in the world.
Those days had been simple. Easy. Carefree.
Now, with the passing of her grandmother, Kristen was the owner of a small-town Victorian she had no idea what to do with. She loved the brick two-story with its scalloped gables and trim, rounded porch, and towering turret with the walk-out balcony. Many summer nights at Grandma Laine’s had left Kristen pacing the balcony like Juliette, waiting for her Romeo (or Tommy Baker who lived next door) to come save her.
“Still afraid to step on that crack and break your mother’s back?”
Kristen felt the heat rise to her cheeks. She didn’t even have to turn around to know that Tommy Baker was standing behind her, grinning from ear to ear.
With a deep breath, Kristen spun on her heels. “Tommy Baker, what have I told you about sneaking up on people?” she chided, in her best Grandma Laine impersonation.
“Hey, it’s not my fault your grandma kept that gate oiled so well that you never could hear me entering the yard,” he laughed. “And it’s Thomas, now, Krissy. I’m all grown up!” He held his arms out wide to prove his point but his boy-like dimples showed that he hadn’t really changed all that much, after all.
“It’s Kristen, now, thank you very much,” she teased, just as transfixed by his silvery-blue eyes as she had been as a teenager, full of dreams and ambitions.
“Dr. Kristen Marsh, I believe it is, now,” Thomas corrected her with a smile that warmed her from the top of her head to the tips of her toes. “Eliza Laine told everyone in this town how proud she was of her granddaughter, the great doctor in Boston who was going to change the world.”
“I have a doctorate in English,” Kristen sighed. “I’m not changing the world. Only Grandma would think that-“
“-that you’re beautiful and talented and motivated more than anyone this town’s ever seen? No, Krissy, she’s not the only one that thinks that.”
Kristen bit her lower lip, unsure how to respond. For someone with a fancy degree from a fancy college, she sure couldn’t think of a single word in that moment. A smile finally crept into the corners of her cheeks and she turned to sit on the top step of the porch- a motion which Thomas considered an invitation to join her.
“Come on, Dr. Krissy,” he nudged her shoulder with his. “Your grandma was so proud of you. We all were. We all are! You always said you were going to write your way out of this tiny town and you did. Don’t look so embarrassed. We’re your biggest fans!”
“Ha!” Kristen scoffed, shaking her head. “You don’t know me anymore, Tommy. We haven’t seen each other in ten years, at least. I didn’t even know if you still lived here in Brighton.”
“But you were hoping I was still here, weren’t you? Huh?” He playfully nudged her shoulder again and she couldn’t help but laugh. Instinctively, she rested her head on his shoulders just as she had countless summer nights on this very porch, but this time sobs began to rack her shoulders and tears dripped from her eyes.
“Krissy, what’s wrong?” he asked, though he knew in his heart what was troubling her. Still, like the friend and protector he’d always been, he wrapped his arms around her as she cried. She didn’t answer right away and he didn’t press her. He would hold her all day if it would make her feel better in some small way.
“Tommy, I should have been here with her. I didn’t even know about the cancer.”
“I know,” he sighed. “She didn’t want anyone to tell you. She said cancer was coming for her and there was nothing she could do about it. You were everything to her and she didn’t want to spend her last few weeks having you worry about her. She couldn’t handle that. She went the way she wanted to, Krissy. Don’t blame yourself.”
Kristen wiped her eyes and stood up, turning to stare at the house.
“What are you going to do with Casa di Capulet?” he asked, joining her as they took in the old victorian that had witnessed the best part of their childhood.
“You remembered what we called this house?” she laughed in disbelief.
“Of course! I was your Romeo and you were my Juliette. You a Capulet, me a Montague. But our families never had a feud. We never had a reason we couldn’t be together. Except…”
“Except for my bull-headed insistence that I was too big for this town and I needed to pursue a life in Boston.”
Thomas shrugged. “Well, I was going to say ‘except that I could never give you the kind of life you deserved.’ Not here in Brighton. Krissy, you’ve always been smarter than everyone else. When we read poetry in high school, I complained that the words didn’t rhyme, but you… you would have tears in your eyes. The words moved you and stirred something in you that the rest of us just didn’t understand. You couldn’t stay here in Brighton. You needed to see the world. You needed to taste it and hear it and feel it. Grandma Laine understood that and she was so proud of you for going after it.”
“But Tommy, when my parents died when I was only two, Grandma never even hesitated to take me in. She raised me like I wasn’t the ingrateful inconvenience that I was. Then in her final days, I wasn’t here. What does that say about me?”
“It says you were living the life you were meant to live. Grandma Laine knew that and she never held it against you. She wanted that for you. You have to trust me, Krissy. Stop beating yourself up.”
“No anyone who wants to buy a house?” she asked, tired of being cheered up.
“You’re really going to sell it?” He sounded surprised. She wasn’t sure why.
“What, did you think I was going to come back here and decide to stay? Were you hoping Brighton would suddenly be enough for me?”
“No,” he sighed, shaking his head. “I was hoping I would be.”
