THE NIGHT ETHAN COLE FINALLY FELT AT HOME
Chapter 15
That night, Ethan sat on his porch.
The ocean was dark.
The town lights shimmered in the distance.
He opened his phone.
There were hundreds of photographs from the festival.
Most were imperfect.
Blurry.
Poorly framed.
Too dark.
Too bright.
But he kept them all.
Because they weren’t photographs of a perfect night.
They were photographs of his life.
A life he had once been afraid to have.
He looked at one final picture.
The fire.
The crowd.
The harbor.
And Ethan standing among them.
Not at the edge.
Not behind anyone.
Among them.
He put the phone down.
Somewhere in the distance, someone laughed.
A car door slammed.
A dog barked.
A boat horn sounded from the harbor.
Greyhaven was still awake.
So was Ethan.
He leaned back in his chair.
For a long time, he watched the stars.
He thought about the road behind him.
All the places he had passed through.
All the people he had lost.
All the reasons he had once believed he needed to keep moving.
Then he looked at the town.
And for the first time, he wasn’t thinking about where the road might take him next.
He was thinking about tomorrow morning.
Coffee at June’s.
Work at Walter’s.
Lily’s bicycle probably breaking again.
Another ordinary day.
Another day in Greyhaven.
Another day in the life he had never expected to have.
Ethan smiled.
Then whispered to himself:
“Not bad.”
The ocean answered with the sound of waves against the shore.
And somewhere behind him, Greyhaven kept breathing.
Ethan stayed on the porch.
He didn’t need to go anywhere.
Not tonight.
Not tomorrow.
Maybe not for a very long time.
