I thought Juliet might want to keep questioning me, but she’d already dropped my phone to go back to enjoying her grilled cheese, which wasn’t a decision I could fault her for. It was a Drew Tyler specialty.

I leaned across the table. “I just confirmed my next contract. I’m heading out to Austin at the end of the month.”

My sister’s eyes went wide. “Can we come visit? We’ve been wanting to go there for years.”

“I’m in,” Eric said. “We’ll still be off from school for most of August. Could be our summer vacation destination.”

“If Dad and Kathleen come, she will leave a trail of tequila and destruction through that city,” Alexis said. “And, personally, I can’t wait.”

The characterization of my wild and raunchy stepmom was accurate. But my own physical response to what I’d normally consider great news was a little muted. Perhaps it was sitting in this cracked, red-vinyl booth, draped in affection and bittersweet nostalgia, and thinking about everything I had to do only to leave again—the long plane rides, the empty hotel room, the temporary housing, the loneliness of being on your own in a new city.

My headspace was all over the map tonight.

“Austin is probably ripe for a hot summer fling, right?” Alexis asked.

I took a giant bite of my cheesesteak to avoid answering. Dean wouldn’t be in Austin, obviously. And that was fine. Obviously.

The bell over the door jingled, and I smelled Kathleen’s perfume. She slid into our booth just as my dad returned, passing me a Styrofoam container with Eddie scrawled in black marker.

“I happened to make extra chicken tonight if he wants some,” he said.

Thank you, I mouthed, squeezing his wrist.

“Hi, Grandma,” Juliet said, sounding shocked. “What are you doing here?”

“Hi, baby,” she said, picking a piece of lint off her leopard-print top. “I’m here because I wanted to see pictures of your Pop-Pop.”

Dad was trying to wrestle the photo album out of Alexis’s hands.

“The world deserves to see this,” she said, swatting him away. “You can’t keep the people from the truth of your platform shoes.”

Alexis shoved it to me, and Kathleen immediately moved in close. I was squashed at the very end, with Dad and Kathleen next to me, our plates of food and drinks in a colorful array around us. With each flip of the page, she and my dad burst into laughter. My sister and I hadn’t been born yet, but the pictures of Aunt Linda’s house and the street were essentially the same.