Chapter 52
Keith didn’t wait for Shawn to get up. He didn’t wait for Terrence and Kelsey.
He sure as shit didn’t wait for Corey. Bobby would call him later, that he knew.
Keith knocked on Scotty’s door and kissed him on the forehead.
Lars the security guard was asleep in Scotty’s bed, his red hair loose and spread out on the white sheets like a mermaid’s.
Then Keith put his hat and sunglasses on and pulled his suitcase to the gangway.
The Talkers flooded the halls, some of them with eye masks on their foreheads and travel pillows clipped around their necks, and some still in their prom dresses, reeking of booze.
Keith hugged them all, as many as he could, and didn’t let go until they did.
Sarah was waiting at the bridge to the terminal, and the stanchions were back up, as if the Talkers would be held back by some nylon ropes.
There weren’t ropes strong enough to hold back that kind of love.
Keith turned toward Sarah, and if the wind had been just the tiniest bit different, he would have burst into tears.
It might not be done forever—that was hard to say.
He would have said so the last time, and look at everything that happened instead.
They had already made something that would last forever, for the Talkers and for themselves. That was enough. It had to be.