Page 10 of Love Again

“No, it’s not anything like that. He’s a good man. He’s a . . .” I’m realizing now that saying this out loud makes it real, and I sound ridiculous. I left a good man. That’s a terrible thing I did, and Travis, in the way that brothers do, will point that out immediately. I try to recoup.

“I left this man because I couldn’t function around him.I couldn’t do my work the way that I needed to. It made me sloppy. It wasn’t safe.”

“What made you sloppy?” Geo, highly skilled in the Socratic method of parenting, asks a lot of questions.

“Being in love.”

“Being in love, or being in love with him?”

Oh, he’s good.

“Being in love with . . . him. Specifically.”

Travis catches a glance from Geo. “I’m out,” says Travis. “I’m lost.”

Geo wipes his face. “What you’re saying is that this person is very important to you, but you feel the relationship compromises how you relate to your job and to other people? It gets in your way?”

Travis shakes his head at Geo. “Man, you’re good. You got all of that from two sentences?”

I look at him. “I said more than two sentences.”

Travis shakes his head again, this time at me, and holds up two fingers like a peace sign. “I think if a guy that you fell in love with in Colorado comes to Echo Bay and tries to get you back . . . I don’t know. Isn’t that like the stuff out of romantic chick flicks?”

“He didn’t come to woo me back. He made that clear.”

Geo seems to find this interesting. He knows everyone in Mid-Coast, Maine, or at least he thinks he does. “Devon, who is this guy? Does he have a connection to Saxton’s Bay? To Echo Bay?”

“It turns out he does, but I didn’t know it when I was with him in Colorado.”

They both look at me expectantly.

I take a deep breath and sigh. This is going to be hard. Not for them, but for me. And it will involve a lot of eating crow or hats or pie, or probably all three. “Okay, but don’t laugh. Apparently, David Keller has a half brother.”

Travis looks confused and surprised.

Geo’s reaction is twofold. First, there’s the quiet, taking-it-all-in-with-a-deep-breath-exhale combo that is signature Geo. And then, he starts laughing. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

“Wait a minute,” says Travis. “That’s your boss, right? The guy that kicked you off the soccer team in high school? The guy that you got the lawyer to sue? Oh my God.” He pauses. “You stepped in it good.”

“I know. It seems ridiculous. Keller and I have been professional this last year and a half. But all this time, he’s known that his brother and I were together in Colorado, and now, the brother is here.”

Travis wipes his eyes with one hand and then squeezes my shoulder again with the other. “Are you sure he’s not here to try to win you back?”

“Believe me, he’s not. He said he’s here because someone in his family is sick. He’s been here for three weeks and—no, not for me.”

Travis gives me a long look. “I’m not buying it.”

“You are too much of a romantic,” I say.

“And whose fault is that?” His eyes grow wide. “I mean, I thought rom-coms were like documentaries. If I watched enough of them, I would understand women.”

Geo looks thoughtful. “Devon, you do what you always do.”

“What’s that?”

“You get on about your business. Unless you don’t want to.” Geo stands and gazes down at me like Socrates. All he needs is the long, flowing beard. “How do you feel about this man?”

That’s the question that echoes from a line from a Shakespearian tragedy. How do I feel about Luke? I loved him. I’m still in love with him, that’s the problem. If I weren’t in love with him, I wouldn’t put his needs first and mine second.