it had been my phone. I grabbed it off the nightstand and saw that it was my brother Travis Facetiming me.
I pushed myself up and my legs swung over the side of the bed as I sat up. Clearing my throat, I answered the call. The screen filled with a tiny baby wearing a pink and blue striped cap swaddled in a white blanket lying in a clear bassinet.
“It’s a girl!” My brother exclaimed off-screen. “Meet your niece Willow Faith Briggs.”
“She’s beautiful, man. Congratulations. How’s Mia doing?”
Travis flipped the screen, so the camera faced him. He was beaming with pride. “Good. Tired, but good. She’s glad she had her now. She was scared that she was going to be late and end up missing the screening.”
“Oh, right.” The cast and crew screening of What is Love? was in a month. They were having it in Wishing Well at the community center. I’d gotten an evite for it last week.
I heard someone talking in the background, but I couldn’t make out what they were saying.
“Mia wants to know if you think you’re gonna make it. She said you didn’t RSVP.”
“I can’t. I’m still going to be here.”
The shoot wasn’t going well. Lancaster was a brilliant director, but he was going over budget and we weren’t making our days. As of last week, we were a month behind schedule.
Something caught Travis’s attention, and he looked up and smiled before turning back to me. “Gotta go, bro. Sawyer, Delilah, JJ, and Destiny just showed up.”
“Tell them I said…”—the call disconnected before I finished saying—“hi.”
I sat staring at my phone, and I couldn’t help but feel the silence. The only sound in my empty room was the swoosh of the fan blades as they cut through the air. If loneliness was a sound, that was it.
It wasn’t just Josie that I missed. I missed my family. I wanted to show up at the hospital to meet my new niece in person, not over the phone.
Instead, I was going to be spending my day off in my room. I stared at my camera, sitting on the otherwise bare desk. I hadn’t taken a single picture since I’d arrived here. I’d been so inspired when I was back home, but it was gone now.
I grabbed my computer and pulled up my photo gallery. It was filled with pictures of Josie that I’d taken on my phone and still camera. The first one was Josie with Duchess. Their foreheads were pressed against one another’s. The next was Josie standing at the Wishing Well. Her long golden red hair shimmered in the sun.
There were several shots of Josie at Sunday dinner. My favorite was the one of her holding my niece Lilah Rose. There were some shots of her at the Dreamy Bean on Firefly Island speaking with the harbormaster. A series at the river in Harper’s Crossing when she saved the snail. In Whisper Lake, she was sitting with Charlotte and getting her nails painted. And in Hope Falls, I’d taken several shots while she was speaking to the reporters.
As I flipped through the photos, I realized that I didn’t just miss Josie, I loved her. I was in love with her. I missed my family and was homesick, but if Josie were here with me or I was with her, I wouldn’t be lonely. I’d be home.
My phone rang, and I looked down fully expecting it to be Josie calling. For a split second, I was convinced that she must’ve had the same epiphany that I had and was calling to tell me. My heart sank when I saw my mom’s number.
“Hey, Mama.” I tried to sound upbeat to disguise my disappointment.
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.”
“We’ll get back to that.” She pulled out the phrase she’d used my entire childhood when she wanted to let one of us know we weren’t off the hook but there were more pressing matters she needed to discuss. “I was just calling to tell you that you are an uncle again. Miss Willow Faith Briggs made her debut at seven p.m. She weighs six pounds, nine ounces, and is nineteen inches long. She and mama are healthy and your brother is over the moon!”
“I know. Travis called. She’s beautiful.”
“She is, isn’t she?”
“She’s perfect. I can’t wait to meet her in person.”
“And when might that be? Are you coming home for the premier?”
“It’s a cast and crew screening, and no. I’m still going to be here.”