Page 200 of Just One More Thing

Music.

String lights are strung across The Green in every direction. Between the oaks, the lampposts, the awning of Tall Tales, the railing of The Knuckle’s upper deck. Somebody hung them in a hurry, and it shows, but Blue Crab Bay has never cared about perfect.

Just present.

And they are all present.

There must be a hundred people here. Lawn chairs. Coolers. A new white screen replaying Mo and me at the stadium.

They waited up.

“Now this is the kind of welcome I can get used to,” Wayne says. Then he starts dancing.

“Wayne, you’re such an idiot,” Bethany tells him.

“I feel seen.”

“I’m going to take Hank to the house,” Ryan says, scratching behind Hank’s ears. “He’s done.”

He’s right. Hank is leaning against Ryan’s leg with the thousand-yard stare of a bulldog who exceeded his social battery several hours ago.

“Thanks, man.”

“The big idiot and I have rooms at Huey and the Snooze,” Ryan says, nodding toward Wayne. “I’ll pick him up on the way back through.”

Wayne stops mid-dance. “Who’s the big idiot?”

Nobody answers.

Wayne shrugs.

Then keeps dancing.

Bethany shakes her head. “I’m going home. My bed misses me.” She punches my arm once. “Good game, Wheeler.”

Then she looks at Mo. Something passes between them that I’m not invited to understand.

“Welcome home,” Bethany says.

Mo nods. “Thanks.”

Then it’s just us and the town.

Maddy reaches us first. She doesn’t say a word. She just opens her arms, and Mo walks straight into them and stays there.

I watch Mo’s shoulders shake once.

Maddy looks at me over her granddaughter’s shoulder. Her eyes are wet, and her chin is steady, and she mouths two words I’ll carry for the rest of my life.

Thank you.

I nod. That’s all I can manage.

Miss Hattie is next, with a tuba. She attempts one celebratory note. The sound it produces is somewhere between a foghorn and a moose in distress.

Hank, who was halfway down the dock with Ryan, stops dead. His ears pin back. He looks back at me with an expression that clearly communicates his displeasure.

Ryan picks up the pace.