by Jenny Hale
“Hello,” she said with a smile, trying to keep calm for the bride. “I’ve just called the musicians and left a message. Voicemail is good. It means they’re on their way.”
“And if they aren’t?” the bride nearly snapped. “How will I walk down the aisle with no music?” There was utter panic on her face.
“I’ll go pick them up myself if I have to. But if—and I stress the word ‘if’—they don’t show, we have music that can be played on the sound system. It’s beautiful and no one will be the wiser. Let’s give them a little more time before we worry.”
The bride was starting to cry. She was standing there, her hair in a curly up-do, a sparkly tiara, diamond earrings, perfect makeup, with jeans and a button-down shirt.
“It’ll be okay,” Emily said. “Please don’t ruin your eye makeup. Remember that you’re here to marry the man of your dreams. He’ll be yours no matter what music you have. We’ll do our best to make this evening amazing and we will deliver. I promise. Now, please, don’t worry at all. Get dressed, and I’ll check on the cake, the tables and chairs, the flowers, and the men. And I will not stop pestering the musicians.”
“Okay,” the bride said with a sniffle. “Thank you. I’m so glad you’re my wedding coordinator.”
“You’re welcome,” Emily said, and she meant it. Then she went to check on everything else.
Charlie came around the corner on the other side of the inn’s grand patio.
“Hi,” he said as Emily lined up the chairs to put them away.
Her head was pounding and she was tired. She took a deep breath and turned to greet him.
“How did the wedding go?”
“The musicians were late,” she said. He took the chair from her hands and stacked it up for her. “But they made it, and everything else went perfectly.”
He picked up the patio phone and dialed. “Hello, Libby. Would you mind sending some extra staff to assist Miss Tate with cleaning up the wedding? I’m going to steal her away for a meeting. Thank you.” He hung up the phone, grabbed two wine glasses from the small bar that had been set up for the event, and an open bottle of wine. “Walk with me,” he said.
She stood there, deliberating.
“You’ve had a long day. It’s time for a break.”
She still had a half-hour of work left, so technically, she was on the clock and he was the boss; she followed him.
They walked down to the beach where chairs were set up with umbrellas and little tables between them for the inn’s guests. Charlie set the glasses down and filled them up. Then, he handed one to her.
Reluctantly, she took it. She really didn’t think the alcohol would be good, given the state of her head, nor did she feel that being in Charlie’s presence would make it any better. “Thank you,” she said, kicking off her shoes so the sand wouldn’t get inside them.
“How’s your Gram?” he asked, sitting down with his glass and motioning for her to do the same.
“No change yet. She’s been sleeping.”
He nodded.
The breeze blew off the water, blowing her hair behind her shoulders as she dug her feet into the sand. It felt odd to be all dressed up, given her surroundings.
“I did catch the very end of the wedding,” he said. “You did a fantastic job.”
“Thanks.”
“But the whole time, I could see how much you were hurting. Your grandmother will be okay, you know?”
Emily took in a deep breath of salty air and let it out. “It’s not just that. It’s a lot of things,” she said. He knew exactly what things.
“Want to talk about them?”
“Not really.” There was nothing she could do sitting on the beach at the inn to change her predicament, so why talk about it?
Charlie looked out at the water and sipped his wine. “Well, I’ll talk about mine then.”
She looked over at him.
“I feel a mixture of emotions. Emily, I don’t want to take that house from you, but I can’t just stop this expansion. T & N Construction—your friends—would lose the contract and it’s probably the biggest contract they’ve ever had. City Council wants me to expand because they feel that we could capitalize on increased tourism in the summers and, at the very least, overflow from the Urbanna Oyster Festival every year. But it’s more than that. Robert Saunders, who’s on the planning commission—he’s a friend of my father’s. Not everyone on the commission agrees with Robert, but he’s the reason I bought the inn, the reason I even knew it existed. Robert called me in because he wants this expansion to keep up with the growing demands of the area, and we owed him a favor. I have to do this for him. I’m not lying when I say a lot of people will benefit from this and the more I scale back my plans, the less effect the expansion will have. Rocky is being stubborn; he’s the last person I have to convince. Everyone else is on my side. They all feel that expansion would be well-received by the public. And I plan to convince the public. I’m going to meet with the people who own neighboring properties to convince them expanding is a good idea.”
The concern on his face made her headache worse.
“You make me feel so guilty,” he said. “I enjoy being around you so much. But I know that, too, will eventually come to an end. I will worry about you once I’m gone.”
She couldn’t look at him anymore for fear she’d start to cry, so she looked out at the bay.
“Have you looked for a place to live yet?”
Emily shook her head. She felt terrible. She didn’t want to make him feel guilty.
“Would you like me to help with that?”
“I’ll be fine.”
“I know you’ll be fine,” he said. “You’ll make sure of it. But would you like my help anyway?”
“No. I know the area. I can find a place to live,” she said. She kept her eyes on the bay.
“Look,” he said. “Your grandmother will be okay, and you’ll adjust to not having the house. I mean, you were able to live without it for three years…”
“I didn’t live without it for three years,” she said, her frustration bubbling up. “The whole three years, it was there because it belonged to my family. Oyster Bay was waiting for me. I didn’t, for a second, live without it. And when I was ready to come home to it, it was here for me.”
Emily drank her wine, contemplating whether or not to get up and tell him she needed to leave. But she had more to say to him. “You don’t understand me or my family. You don’t understand how that house is part of me, how I spent night after night in Richmond, wishing I was there, worrying that I’d made the wrong choice and wondering what my life was supposed to look like. You don’t know what it is to have a home—a place you love where you can retreat when times get rough. You don’t understand the importance of memories because you don’t have any. You don’t understand how I start to shake every time I think about how my little family might have had some cracks in it… ”
She stopped, clapping her hand over her mouth, tears coming to her eyes. Her concerns had just tumbled out. She didn’t want to tell him about Winston. It was family business, and she shouldn’t bring him in on it. She clutched her wine glass.
Charlie leaned closer to her, his head tilted to the side, concern for her sheeting over his face. It only made the tears come faster.
“Cracks?” he asked quietly.
She shook her head, unwilling to say more, her lip quivering.
“Emily, you can tell me. I’m here for you.”
She wanted to tell him. She loved the way he listened to her. And if she didn’t talk about it, she might crumble into pieces. “I’m not sure Gram was faithful to Papa. I found a locket from another man that suggests it. What would that say about her character if she cheated on Papa, if she deceived him in some way?”
“I’m sure it would’ve hurt him.” Charlie sat in the chair, his hands resting on the armrest casually. “But it’s probably not what you think.” He had nothing to lose, and she had everything to lose i
n the next few weeks. Even though Gram had pulled through, she’d be leaving, and it was possible Gram would leave with all the answers Emily was looking for. “My ex-wife had an affair,” Charlie said suddenly. “I didn’t know him. He was a complete stranger. It was shocking. But it made me realize that I didn’t love her.”
“Oh.” She set her empty glass on the table.
Emily felt like she’d been hit in the stomach. If Papa had found out about an affair, he might have realized he didn’t really love Gram. But when Emily tried to relate Charlie’s story to Gram and Papa, it just didn’t add up. Gram and Papa were happy. So why would she have had an affair? There was no way their marriage could’ve been an act. Right? “Did your wife ever tell you why she did it?”
“He was very successful…”
“You’re very successful.”
“He was flashier, had more money, he owned an empire of hotels.”
“And that was her reason?” How awful.
“According to her, the reason for his success was passion and the reason for our demise was a lack of passion. It took me stepping away from the situation to realize why there was no passion—it was because I’d never really loved her. I married her because that was what I thought should be the next step. I respected her, so I tried to give her the life she wanted. It turns out she wasn’t the person I thought she was. And it made me actually take a look at my life.”
They sat together, side by side, the water stretching out before them as far as they could see. The silence between them belonged to their own thoughts. Finally, he said, “It hurts to find out the person you chose to spend your life with doesn’t love you. But, in my opinion, it’s better to know than not to know, and that’s what makes the story of your Gram and Papa so interesting to me. It seems like, from what you tell me, they had that passion. So why would she look elsewhere? Maybe he was just an admirer.”
“Wouldn’t it be odd to keep the necklace then? And why would this other man profess his love to her? It rubs me the wrong way.”
“Things all work out for a reason.”
“Do they? It’s easy to say that, but do they really work out to fulfill some grand plan, some reason that lies in the heavens? Or do we just fumble blindly with our own lives and hope to come out on top?”
“I’d like to believe there is a reason. And we just get frustrated when we can’t figure out that reason. But eventually, we see. I was a wreck when my wife left me. I’m not used to failing at things. But with time, I was able to see how right she was to leave. Did she handle things in the right way? Maybe not. But the end result was the right one.”
Emily thought about all the things in her life going wrong at the moment, and she wanted to believe him, but she just didn’t know if she could. “Time will tell,” she said.
“You seem tired,” he said. “Let me cook you dinner. I said I would. I’d like to stay true to my word.”
She wanted to spend time with him, but it just didn’t make sense. “I don’t think so.”
“I’ll be there to do the boat anyway. It would be no trouble at all.”
His cheeks were pink from too much sun and his hair had lightened slightly since he’d gotten there. Even those blue eyes of his had changed—now, when he looked at her, she saw so much care and interest. She wanted to have his arms around her, but instead, she took a deep breath.
“I’m sorry, Charlie, but I have to say no.”
Fourteen
“Is your Gram doing better?” Libby asked.
Emily had gone to the hospital last night to relieve Rachel of her duties for a bit, but the nurses finally shooed her out around midnight, telling her it was well past visiting hours and she needed to go home.
Libby and Emily had been organizing things and sorting flyers all day for the charity event that was being held in a few minutes and they had hardly even had a moment to talk. She took an orange stack of papers and set them by a peace lily on the corner of the table.
“She’s doing okay. I went to see her this morning and she was sleeping, but the doctors said she’d been awake. They told her where we were and what had happened.” She placed some more fliers next to a stack of giveaway magnets with a company’s logo on it. “I’m going to go see her again after work.”
“That’s good.
They both stood back to look at the table.
Libby turned to Emily. “I heard that Charles isn’t backing down on expanding.”
“I know,” she said with the sinking feeling that came whenever she thought about it. Emily was touched, though, by Libby’s concern. The older of the two of them by a year and a half, as kids, Libby had always watched over Emily as if she were a second big sister. It was clear, by the direct way that her friend was looking at her that Libby had wanted to ask.
“I can’t believe he isn’t even considering your feelings on the whole thing,” Libby said, a stack of leftover fliers in her hands, her head tilted in an apologetic way.
Emily took a deep breath and let it out. “He’s already bought it from Gram.”
Libby shook her head, clearly at a loss for words.
“What’s so unexpected is that I like him, but I don’t want to. I want to hate him for taking my family’s land. It makes the whole thing harder.”
“You’ve spent more time with him than I have. What’s he like?”
Emily ran her hand along a small bubble in the linen tablecloth, finishing off the display. “He’s strong-willed when it comes to business, but when he’s just hanging out, he’s nice, easygoing,” she said almost against her will. “He’s going to restore Papa’s boat for me.”
“Really?”
Emily nodded, wondering if she should still let him do it. “I have no idea what I’ll do with it if I have to move into a condo, but I suppose I’ll find something.”
“Put pillows in it and make it a sofa,” Libby said with a laugh.
“Ha! Don’t tempt me.”
Emily had successfully organized the charity event and spent the rest of the afternoon in her office, completing paperwork and booking events before heading to the hospital. She’d booked three more just today, and she was feeling good about her efforts.
As she left work, driving down the narrow road leading toward the farm, the bordering coastal grasses swaying from the speed of the cars, she let the wind blow in through her open window. The sun was bright today, causing her to squint even with her sunglasses. She slowed down as she passed Oyster Bay.
It was nearly hidden, the trees full and dense from spring growth, but she could make out, down the long, winding drive, the edge of the sea and the tip of Papa’s boat. She took in a deep breath of fresh air, and hit the gas. She couldn’t wait to get Gram home and back to her comfortable surroundings. Even if it was only for a short time.
When she finally got to Gram’s hospital room, the door was cracked, so she let herself in. Gram was partially sitting up, her bed at an incline, and her eyes were open.
“Hi, Gram,” she said, smiling. It was so good to see her awake.
Gram twisted a little to view her, the IV in her arm keeping her from turning the whole way. “Hello, dear.”
“How are you feeling?”
“Apart from my sore hip—we think from the fall when the heart attack happened—I feel fine.”
“Did the doctor say that you could come home soon?”
“Friday. As long as my tests remain normal.”
“I’m so happy to hear that! I can’t wait to get you home.”
Once, as a girl, she’d tried to make breakfast in bed for Gram, pouring dry cereal in a bowl and making instant coffee with cold water and coffee grounds. She’d balanced it on a small tray all the way upstairs to surprise her gram. Gram’s smile right now, at her comment, looked like it had then.
“Have I missed anything?” Gram asked.
“Not much. Charlie told me he’s meeting with our neighbors tomorrow to convince them that expanding Water’s Edge is a good idea.”
“Rocky’s giving him a hard time, but I don’t know if he can hold Charlie off forever if he already owns the land. Charlie’s got the City Council’s backing. Do you think it’ll really happen?”
“Does it matter?” Gram asked gently. “It’s not our land anymore. Not in three weeks anyway.”
“Are you still fine with that?”
“Of course. It was a decision that I didn’t take lightly the first time.”
“Oh.” Emily looked down and fiddled with her ring. She’d hoped for a different response. “You know what I noticed?”
“What’s that?”
“When you first became stable after your heart attack, you had a tear in your eye. I watched it go down your cheek. Do you remember why?”
Gram’s face dropped from its usual pleasant expression to one of contemplation. “I do.”
“Would you tell me why you were crying, Gram?”
“When I felt the tinglin’ in my arm and the kitchen began to spin, I couldn’t help but get excited because I thought it was finally my turn, that God wanted me now, and I’d see Papa again, but then I came to. I could hear y’all talkin’, the beep of the machines, and I could feel the bed underneath me. I knew Papa wasn’t there, and it felt like I’d lost him all over again.”
A lump formed in Emily’s throat, closing it up, the air catching on every attempt to get a breath. Gram wanted to be with Papa. Everything would change if Gram left them—nothing would be the same. While Rachel and Emily had always had each other, it was Gram and Papa who’d held them all together, and without Gram, what would happen to them? Emily feared the grief would just swallow her up. But through the tears that surfaced, she felt a wave of relief. This was the Gram she knew and loved, the one who would wrap her arms around Papa and kiss him right in the kitchen for everyone to see, the one who danced in her apron, grabbing Papa’s hands, their feet moving effortlessly on the kitchen rug.