Back Everything After
Chapters (108)
  1. Cover
  2. ALSO BY JILL SANTOPOLO
  3. Dedication
  4. i
  5. 1
  6. 2
  7. ii
  8. 3
  9. iii
  10. 4
  11. 5
  12. iv
  13. 6
  14. 7
  15. v
  16. 8
  17. vi
  18. 9
  19. vii
  20. 10
  21. 11
  22. viii
  23. 12
  24. ix
  25. 13
  26. x
  27. 14
  28. xi
  29. 15
  30. xii
  31. 16
  32. xiii
  33. 17
  34. xiv
  35. xv
  36. 18
  37. xvi
  38. 19
  39. xvii
  40. 20
  41. 21
  42. xviii
  43. 22
  44. 23
  45. xix
  46. 24
  47. xx
  48. 25
  49. xxi
  50. 26
  51. 27
  52. xxii
  53. 28
  54. 29
  55. 30
  56. xxiii
  57. 31
  58. 32
  59. 33
  60. xxiv
  61. 34
  62. xxv
  63. 35
  64. xxvi
  65. 36
  66. xxvii
  67. 37
  68. 38
  69. xxviii
  70. 39
  71. xxix
  72. 40
  73. xxx
  74. 41
  75. xxxi
  76. 42
  77. 43
  78. 44
  79. xxxii
  80. 45
  81. 46
  82. 47
  83. 48
  84. 49
  85. 50
  86. 51
  87. 52
  88. 53
  89. 54
  90. 55
  91. 56
  92. 57
  93. 58
  94. 59
  95. 60
  96. 61
  97. 62
  98. 63
  99. 64
  100. 65
  101. 66
  102. 67
  103. 68
  104. 69
  105. xxxiii
  106. acknowledgments
  107. about the author
  108. What’s next onyour reading list?

He shook his head. “Nah,” he said. “You were fine.” His hair looked windswept and he was holding a bag of breakfast pastries. “I heard your song,” he added. “While I was unlocking the door. It’s beautiful.”

He put the pastries down on the table.

“Thank you,” she answered. “I—I hope it’s okay I was using your guitar.”

“Of course.” Rob pulled a piece off a cinnamon roll, leaving the rest in the bag. “Are you writing a song about your husband?”

Emily nodded and all of a sudden felt guilty, like she was somehow betraying Rob by doing that. “It’s the song I started in New York,” she explained.

Rob sat down on the couch next to Emily, wiping his fingers on his shorts, and she handed him the guitar. “I write songs about you,” he said, strumming a few chords, almost as if he didn’t realize he was doing it, “and you write songs about him. Not about me.”

She felt like she needed to apologize. “I might write a song about you one day,” she said.

He looked at her, thoughtful, as if he were wondering if that statement was true or just something she said to placate him, and strummed again. The excitement of last night seemed to have bled out of both of them. “How are you feeling?” he asked.

“I’ll be fine,” she said. “Thank you for taking care of me last night. Are you feeling okay?”

“Not in the best shape of my career,” he said. “I kept drinking after I put you to bed.”

Emily stood. “Want some more coffee?” she asked.

He nodded and she walked over to fill two mugs with one of the one-cup machines.

As she was walking back to him, his phone rang. “It’s my girls on FaceTime,” he said. “Would you mind staying out of the frame?”

Emily put his mug on the end table next to the couch and walked, with her own mug, back to her room.

“Well hello there, lovely ladies!” she heard him say as she closed the door.

She missed Ezra. She missed Ari. Maybe she could jump on FaceTime with her sister. Coffee in hand, she walked over to her night table and found her phone there. Ezra had written back to her text: I read your journal. There aren’t enough words.

Emily stared at what he’d written. What did he mean? Enough words for what? Enough words to speak to her again?

Her coffee churned in her stomach and she walked out onto the hotel’s balcony to will the feeling away.

She dialed on her phone.

“Hello?”

“Priya?” Emily responded.

Priya’s voice came through, warm and clear. “Hey there. How’s your Mexican getaway? Are you and Ezra back on track?”