“It’s pretty incredible.” Dakota laughed. “To be able to do most of my work in the little shed I built on my property makes it perfect. I only have to leave for groceries.”
This sounded absolutely nothing like the girl Emilia grew up knowing. She was vivacious and the life of the party. In fact, she was the reason she was at the party that the Sheriff had busted up so many years ago. If there were anyone who wanted to become a hermit, she would have thought it was Josh, but she was apparently wrong about many things.
“I guess people grow up, huh?” Emilia asked, teasing. “Last I remember, you wanted to join a sorority and—”
“A sorority with you,” Dakota interrupted. “I wanted to join a sorority with you, remember? We were going to go off to college in Arizona and party it up and then in our last year of college, we were going to settle down. You were going to marry Josh, and I was going to find someone to marry.”
Emilia laughed. “Sounds about right.” She’d done an outstanding job of pushing out those memories. If she hadn’t, she would have started her young adult life riddled with guilt and the inability to do what she wanted, which was to start over far from Silver Ridge.
“And then we grew up.” Dakota’s friendly smile put Emilia at ease. “Well, I’m sure Josh will be bummed he missed you. He was here earlier this week visiting my parents.”
Dakota’s eyes stayed on Emilia’s, and Emilia’s entire dinner felt as if it were at her throat, ready to make another appearance. It was one thing to imagine Josh coming and going from Silver Ridge, but it was quite another to hear his sister telling her she’d just missed him.
“You don’t look so good,” Dakota said, her eyes narrowing. “You okay?”
“Yeah. Sorry. I don’t know what came over me.” A cold sweat washed over Emilia’s entire body, and the room began to spin as she thought about everything and everyone she’d left behind.
“It was for the better,” Dakota assured Emilia. “I probably would have dropped out of college anyway.”
Emilia nodded and took a deep breath, trying to keep standing as Dakota started telling her about her latest glass commission, when everything went black.
Chapter Six
“She fainted,” Dakota informed her brother.
Josh had been stewing all night, and now that morning had arrived, he realized how little good that did for him. He had a pounding headache and could barely keep his lids open, which was a shame considering the two meetings he’d scheduled for later in the afternoon after learning about Hailee.
“Is she okay?” Josh realized he was a little too quick with his question.
“Emilia had a soft landing, if that’s what you mean.”
“Don’t call her that,” Josh snapped, rubbing his temples.
“That’s her name, Josh. She legally changed it.”
Josh ignored his sister’s statement. “Is she okay though? Do you know why she fainted?” He didn’t like the fact that he still cared.
He couldn’t get over the nerve she had to offer advice to women all across the globe about a subject she obviously knew very little about.
“She wouldn’t go to the hospital. She just brushed it off and said it was because she hadn’t had enough water.” Dakota went silent on the other end of the phone.
“But?” Josh prompted.
“It happened fairly quickly after I mentioned you.”
“What did you say?”
“Only that she’d barely missed your visit to Silver Ridge or something. I can’t remember.”
“That shouldn’t make her collapse.”
“Maybe she was nervous she’d see you.” She let out a sigh. “You remember how nervous she’d get back in high school. She fainted in the choir, fell right off the back bleacher. One minute she was singing, and the next there was a hole where she once stood. My guess is that it had nothing to do with hydration and everything to do with her high school crush.”
Hearing him referred to as nothing more than a crush stung even though he knew his sister meant nothing by it.
“Then why’d she come back to town if she was that freaked out about seeing me?”
“Maybe she knew you weren’t living there any longer.”
“I doubt she’s given me much thought at all, Dakota.” Josh laughed. “But thank you for trying to make me feel like I’m still the man she—”
“First of all, you were only eighteen, so you were kind of in the boy category, not man.” Dakota chuckled. “You still slept with your door cracked.”
Josh laughed and threw his head back with pure adoration. His sister could always make him laugh, even when he was feeling pretty low like he was now.
“I only kept my door cracked because you were afraid of the dark growing up. It was habit.”
“Whatever you say to get you through the day, big brother,” Dakota teased. “I’m sure it would hurt your cred with the ladies if they knew you were afraid of the dark. I think that’s why you had to move to some big city. So you wouldn’t be alone at night. You’d have a building full of people in case you got scared.”
“You got me.” Josh smiled, knowing his sister got most of her pleasure from ribbing him, and if it were anyone except her, he wouldn’t put up with it, but he’d always had a soft spot for Dakota. Not only was she a fantastic sister, but she was also one of his best friends.
He knew how hurt she was when Hailee left as well. It wasn’t only his heart that was broken.
“So did anyone help Hailee back to wherever she was staying?”
“It’s Emilia, and yes, Joel drove her back to the cottage she’s renting from him.”
“Hailee’s renting a cottage from Joel, and he didn’t tell me?”
What kind of cousin code did the North brothers live by?
“I suppose you could surmise that. Anyway, Emilia seemed genuinely touched by all the people who came out to see her.”
“Was that before or after she went down for the count?”
“After. She’d managed to stay upright for a good couple of hours, I’d say. Maybe a little less.” Dakota let out a deep breath. “Do you plan on flying out here?”
“For her?” Josh asked and then answered his own question. “No.”
“Have you looked her up?”
“Sure did, and it’s such a crock.”
“You think so?” Dakota asked.
“I do. How can she write about any of that stuff considering her past?”
“You mean her past with you eighteen years ago?” Dakota sounded exasperated. “I’m sure quite a lot has happened to her in the last eighteen years to give her some kind of insight beyond high school.”
Dakota had usually sided with Josh over the years, so he was surprised she was so lenient when it came to Hailee.
“You know what I mean,” he grumbled.
“So you’re pissed because she hasn’t been mourning the loss of your relationship for the last two decades? That’s not very realistic.”
“Is she in a relationship?” Josh wished he hadn’t asked the question because he really didn’t want to know the answer.
“No. Emilia is only casually dating, which she said gave her great stories for her blog.”
“Is that so?” Josh folded his arms across his chest and sank deeper into the couch. There was a part of him that wanted to call off the meetings he’d scheduled and forget that Hailee landed back in Silver Ridge and he now knew how to contact her.
Josh pulled his laptop from the coffee table and sighed into the phone.
“Cheer up, Josh.” Dakota chuckled softly. “I’m sure she’d see you if you want.”
“I don’t want.” Josh laughed, realizing he sounded like a toddler. He pulled up Hailee’s blog and let out a sigh.
Her last several entries were light and funny, but they all had a definite pattern. She wanted to empower women with humor and levity while instilling confidence and a widespread cynicism for the male species.
He highly doubted he p
roduced that skepticism in her from his mere high school existence, but he also didn’t want to spend any time thinking about who might have.
“Well, I’m back on Fireweed, but if I hear anything juicy, I’ll let you know. I told her she could stop by my studio if she wanted to, but I don’t know if she’ll take me up on that offer. It’s kind of out of the way on her way back to Oregon.”
Josh grunted as he half listened to his sister, but wholly read Hailee’s blog post. There was no doubt about it. She had a gift for writing. She knew her audience and narrowed in on the topics they wanted to hear about.
“Okay, so I’ll talk to you later. Love ya.” Dakota blew a kiss into the phone.
“Love you too.” Josh hung up and debated about whether he wanted to go through with what he was about to do.
Sure. Some people might think he wasn’t playing fairly, and they’d be right. But Josh never believed in fair. As his father always used to say, “There’s no such thing as fair except for the kind you go to.” And ever since Hailee had walked out of his life, he fully believed that.
Josh also didn’t believe in luck other than the kind a person created for themselves. If a person waited around for someone else to make their dreams and goals a reality, they’d be waiting an awfully long time wondering why the world wasn’t fair. It was a vicious cycle and one he’d never let himself fall into.
He landed on Hailee’s homepage and couldn’t help but notice how beautiful she was. While not getting any sleep last night, all he could think about was how gorgeous and filled with light she seemed to be. She’d let her hair go back to her natural strawberry-blonde, and the wholesomeness he’d loved back in high school still glowed all around her.
He laced his fingers behind his head and stretched his legs in front of him, thinking about Hailee. Why had she left without a word? Was it something he did? After her grandparents died, she’d pulled away a little bit, but nothing more than would be expected. He’d tried to be there for her and thought he did a good job, but at eighteen, how quickly can a burden like that be lifted? He let out a deep breath and shook his head as the memories of Hailee Howard flooded his world.
There was a reason he couldn’t get her out of his mind after all these years.
Josh was still in love with her or at least the version of her he last knew.
He sat up on the couch and leaned forward toward his laptop and clicked on her last blog post. The last line read, You can’t be genuine if you genuinely don’t know who you are, and Josh realized Hailee was talking about herself more than to the woman who’d reached out.
Josh let out a disgruntled sigh as he thought about the woman he’d let slip away so many years ago. Whether it was Hailee or Emilia, he understood who she was whether she wanted to believe it or not.
The one thing Josh knew with absolute certainty was that he wouldn’t meet Emilia Hudson on her terms. He wasn’t about to play her games. If anything, it was about time she played his.
Chapter Seven
What a way to go unnoticed in a person’s hometown. Nothing more incognito than fainting at your own Welcome Back party.
Emilia rolled her eyes and let out a groan as she sprawled out on the couch and thought about what a fiasco last night had turned into. Everything was going wonderfully until Dakota mentioned Josh, and then all of a sudden, it was as if her life had zipped right back to high school.
So many emotions came rushing back that she couldn’t handle the pressure of all the thoughts swirling around. It was mortifying. She would have much rather fainted over actual dehydration while talking to the Sheriff, not Dakota.
She was sure word got right back to Josh about her fainting spell. That is if he even cared one way or another. There she went again, actually pretending he even remembered who she was. Although Dakota certainly did.
Creating a new life was the easy part. Coming back to the old one was far more trying than she ever realized, and she hadn’t even gotten to the hard parts yet. All she did was show up for a meet and greet and manage to royally make it one for the record books. It didn’t help that someone had called the paramedics and Kyle North showed up. Another North blast from the past.
Emilia closed her eyes and pulled a blanket over her body as she thought about whether she was really up to driving by her grandparents’ home this morning. She knew she definitely wasn’t up for visiting the cemetery like she’d planned, but that could happen on another day.
With her eyes closed, Emilia thought back to Dakota and the way she’d looked at her. Emilia knew she owed her an apology, but last night hadn’t seemed like the right place. Emilia was happy that Dakota had offered her a tour of her studio so she could go there and privately apologize. She also wanted to see Dakota’s passion.
She knew she owed an apology to Dakota’s brother as well. That was going to be a lot more difficult, especially since he lived in New York, but of all people, he deserved one more than anyone.
When Emilia arrived in Silver Ridge at her grandparents’ home, she knew in her heart she was never going back to live with her parents. That was the unspoken truth she knew deep in her heart that even Mama Cam and Papa Jack wouldn’t admit.
Of course, there were the optimistic social workers who thought a pizza party with the parents could solve everything, but there were also the other more experienced caseworkers who understood that some parents didn’t want to parent.
Or they simply couldn’t.
Knowing that didn’t make it better or worse, it just was.
Emilia never knew which box her parents fit into other than the fact that their disease chose for them, and she was luckier than most because she had terrific grandparents who took her in. Many children aren’t that lucky, and they get caught up in the system with nowhere to run.
So when she finally landed in Silver Ridge after getting bounced around temporary foster homes before the social workers solidified everything with her grandparents, she knew this place was her only shot at a halfway normal place to grow up.
It was Josh and Dakota who took her in immediately and made her feel like her family went beyond only her grandparents. Josh had shielded her from the darkness that often wanted to take over her teenage years. He’d protected her from the hurts that her parents caused by reminding her of the love her grandparents gave her.
Josh had loved her unconditionally, as had Dakota. But what neither of them understood was that more than anything, she wanted her parents’ love. She appreciated her Mama Cam and Papa Jack more than anything in the world, and she loved them deeper than she ever thought possible, but underneath all of that, she still wanted her parents’ love and acceptance.
Emilia wanted to be important enough to her parents to make them stop.
To put their daughter as a priority.
To make them love her.
To make them remember her.
She wanted to be a significant part of her parents’ lives.
It wasn’t until her grandparents were killed that she realized Hailee wasn’t worth remembering.
So arose the existence of Emilia Hudson, a woman one couldn’t forget and would always remember. Emilia wasn’t sure how she was going to make that happen. It wasn’t that she wanted to become famous. That was the least of her desires, but she wanted to feel important, as if she mattered.
And it just so happened that getting letters asking for advice did precisely that for Emilia.
Or at least it used to.
Emilia grabbed a tissue and blew her nose precisely when a text message came across her cellphone. Of course, it was her pesky agent barging into her life at the most inopportune time.
But what he had to text this time caught her eye, and she nearly fainted yet again.
We’ve got a seven-figure deal on the table, Emilia. Don’t stop now. Get another post up. I’m taking this offer and hoping we get a counter from one of the other publishing houses, but I think this is the moment we’ve been waiting for. You did it, Emilia! Now, do
n’t screw it up.
Emilia laughed at the last bit of advice from her agent as an enormous surge of excitement and uncertainty completely took her by surprise. She felt like a wave was about to sweep her up into a publishing sea she wouldn’t recognize and possibly couldn’t navigate. Her hands were shaking with fear and trepidation as she stared at her agent’s text and tried to wrap her head around the sum of money.
Seven figures. As in more than six figures. And Emilia would have been happy with five or ten thousand but would have taken less.
She let out a shaky breath, and in all of her excitement, she realized there wasn’t a soul she could call about her good news. Even with all of her friends in Oregon, there wasn’t one that she felt like picking up the phone and telling them the good news.
Emilia could call her parents, but their relationship hadn’t really gone to that place yet where news like this was openly shared. Not to mention, they were still trying to get their lives back on track, and revealing she was up for a deal worth this much money wasn’t exactly the best idea. She’d already loaned them twelve thousand dollars several months ago to help them out, and while they vowed it was only a loan, she knew better and was purely grateful she could help them in a time of need. She didn’t want it to look like she was bragging about her situation.
Instead of feeling sorry for herself, she decided the people who would be most excited to hear about her news were also excellent listeners—the best, actually.
She grabbed her purse and keys and headed out the door to the local cemetery to visit Mama Cam and Papa Jack.
By the time she’d wound through the gates and up the rolling hill to where her grandparents were buried, her phone had gone off several more times. This wasn’t exactly how she’d planned on visiting Mama Cam and Papa Jack. She’d intended to go to the florist and pick up some flowers before stopping by, but she desperately needed someone to talk to now.
I got another publishing house on the line. This is getting good.
A Funny Thing About Love Page 5