I spun back to face him with a wide smile. “That is exactly where I’m staying. Dean, we’re about to become neighbors.” I dug Linda’s keys from my purse and walked toward her stoop, sniffing a little at the smell of the trash in the empty lot. “I meant to tell you at the bar that I was staying on your old street. I had no idea you lived here too.”

I peered up at his row home, which was near identical to Linda’s. Red brick and slightly run down like everyone else’s. White trim, white door, curtains slightly parted. He had a tiny chair and table next to his stoop.

“I like your house,” I said. “I’m guessing it doesn’t contain as many embarrassing photos of me and Alexis during our teen years. That’s really the whole vibe Aunt Linda was going for, decor-wise, in this place. Plus a lot of photos of both Bruce Springsteen and Jon Bon Jovi. Right over her TV is a framed copy of the Inquirer the day after the Eagles won the Super Bowl. I think she and my uncle have the final score tattooed on their arms. They wouldn’t be the only people on the block with 41–33 inked somewhere on their body.”

My old friend—and new neighbor—studied me apprehensively. “You and me…we’re neighbors.”

“Yep.”

“We’ll definitely be seeing each other, then.”

“If by seeing you mean dancing all night in bars uptown, then yeah. We sure will.”

He looked at me. Looked at Linda’s house. Back and forth for a few seconds. Then he said, “I don’t have any embarrassing pictures of you. I do have that same article framed on my wall. And I listen to more Springsteen than most people would guess.”

“And that Super Bowl tattoo?”

He hesitated. “Not yet.”

I leaned against my front door. “See? That’s pretty wild. Call me up when you go through with it. I’ll come with. And I’m a good neighbor, I swear. Quiet. Respectful. I sing loudly in the shower, so you might hear that, but feel free to bang on the wall and I’ll shut up.”

“Um. Okay.” His voice was rough.

I slid the keys into the front door and cracked it open an inch. “Do you know the story about this lot? Linda mentioned when I was moving in that it might be a bit of a problem, though you know our street growing up had plenty of empty lots, so I’m used to it.” I scrunched up my nose. “Funny that she made sure to bring up the possibility of possums running rampant next door but not that her neighbor was Philly’s most famous boxer.”