Dear Darling

83

Dylan

Dinner goes well, and by the time we're all stuffed, there's something in the air that has changed. It's subtle, and I don't know where to place it, but I can tell that it's coming from Jo's parents, and my mom.

Tess keeps looking to David, and then to my mother, all of them seeming not really nervous, but looking like they have something to say.

"What is it?" I ask when I can't take it any longer. Jo looks on beside me with a look of confusion that I'm sure matches mine as we wait for our parents to speak.

"Jo, you're planning to stay the summer and then leave for school, right?" Tess asks.

"That's the plan," Jo looks at me and I nod supportingly.

I want her to come to New York as soon as possible, but I understand that when she does, she'll be leaving her family, which won't be easy. We had talked about it and both of us thought it would be better for her to spend one last summer with her parents before she got on a plane and flew across the country.

"Well, the three of us were talking," She continues.

"Scheming, more like," I joke. I can tell by the looks on their faces that I'm right.

"We love you, honey," David says. "And we want you here as long as we can have you, but we also want you to be happy,"

"What do you mean?" Jo asks. "I am happy,"

"That's true, but you're not as happy as you are right now. We see how you and Dylan transform each other, and we want you to have that," David turns his gaze to me. "Now don't go getting any ideas about moving anything ahead too quickly. All we're saying is that Jo is eighteen, and we want her to spread her wings and find all the pieces of her life that make her happiest."

"So what are you hinting at?" I ask.

"If she wants to," Mom says. "I'd like to bring Jo back to New York with us. She can stay at the house until school begins and it also gives her time to become better acquainted with the city,"

I look to Josephine for help as I take in the information, but she's just as shocked as I am.

I stare at her, a million fantasies about what she will say flooding my head. I know how important her family is to her, and I would never want her to leave them before she was ready, but I want her to say yes.

I want her to come home with me, where our future can finally start. She could live with me, if she wanted, or with Mom until she could get into the dorms of NYU. I didn't care, so long as I knew we were breathing the same city air.

Everyone is look to Josephine, waiting for her to answer, and I feel bad that she's put on the spot like this, but it is all her decision.

Does she even want to come to New York now?

"What are you thinking?" David asks her.

She opens her mouth to speak, and I feel like screaming to high Heaven when she speaks.

"I'd like that," She smiles brightly before she seems to catch herself. "Are you sure you guys are okay with this?"

"Don't worry about us," Tess tells her. "This is your choice, and we'll still come visit you before the school year begins. You're just getting a head start on being settled,"

Josephine's hands shake slightly as she grabs my hand and looks at me with the biggest smile I've ever seen on her face.

"What do you think?" I don't even know why she's asking. How many times have we both expressed how much we want to be in the same city for more than a passing trip?