“Thanks.” Jana smiled. “It was a perfect day.”
“The show was really fun,” Rick said.
“Yeah, the kids are pretty amazing.” Emily’s eyes were bright. She looked happy.
“So’s their director,” Hollis said quietly.
She found his eyes, and a smile skittered across her lips.
“Thanks for teaching Jolie,” Jana said. “It’s all she talks about. She’s already looking forward to next summer.”
“She’s a great kid,” Emily said. “Really, I have her to thank for helping me remember why I loved the stage in the first place.”
“We should go shopping or something while I’m here,” Jana said, turning Emily into one of her girlfriends.
Emily glanced at Hollis, then back to Jana. “I’d love that.”
“Great,” Jana said. “We’re going to head out. Hollis, tell Jolie we’ll see her in the morning.”
“You got it.”
They disappeared, leaving Hollis wishing the rest of the crowd would do the same so he’d have Emily all to himself.
The thought was fleeting because seconds later, Eliza Ackerman exited the auditorium and made a beeline straight for them.
Emily’s face turned pale. “I had no idea she was here.”
“I should go.”
She reached out and grabbed his hand. “Please don’t.”
The simple gesture made him feel wanted. She’d given him permission, not to protect her, but to stand beside her, even though this could be a potentially difficult confrontation.
She was letting him in, and that knowledge settled in a warm spot inside his belly.
Emily wasn’t prepared to see her grandmother. She hadn’t come back to the island for Eliza Ackerman—where the older woman was concerned, Emily still had a lot of mixed emotions. Actually, her emotions weren’t mixed; they simply weren’t kind.
She’d prayed about her grandma while she was away. She found herself unmoved. She’d keep praying, but how would that help her right now?
“Maybe she’s here to say she’s sorry?” Hollis whispered as Grandma approached.
But Emily knew better. Emily knew that Eliza Ackerman didn’t apologize to anyone. Ever. Besides, her grandma didn’t regret what she’d done. Nothing would change that.
Grandma stood in front of her now, chin jutted upward as if she needed to look down her nose on the rest of them. “I thought you might come back.”
Emily inhaled slowly. “I came back for the kids.” And for Hollis.
But she wouldn’t say that. She wouldn’t let her grandmother in on the part of her life that brought her joy. Grandma had lost the right to know her most personal thoughts.
“They did a lovely job,” Grandma said.
“Yes, they did,” Emily agreed.
“I’m glad you’re here.” Grandma began rummaging through her purse until she found a small key ring with two silver keys on it. “I thought you should have these.”
Emily held her breath as her grandma pressed the keys into her hand. “What are they?”
“They’re my keys to the house,” Grandma said. “It’s your house now, so I don’t really need them.”
Emily watched as Eliza looked away, plastering a smile on her face as she waved to Gladys Middlebury and another older woman.
“You don’t have to do that, Grandma,” Emily said.
Eliza brought her eyes back to Emily’s. “It’s what your grandfather wanted.” She reached out and took Emily’s hands. “And what I want. You deserve it, and you’ve done a lovely job with the renovations so far.”
“Really?” Why her grandmother’s approval still bolstered her confidence, Emily wasn’t sure.
“Really. And I hope one day you can come to understand that everything I did I did because I thought it was what was best for you and for your mother.”
It wasn’t an apology—Emily knew that was too much to hope for—but it was an indication that her grandmother wanted things to be right between them. She just didn’t want to admit any wrongdoing on her own part.
Emily didn’t have forgiveness to offer her—not yet. But maybe one day she would. She hoped she would. She’d have to work on it, to pray about it, because it wasn’t going to magically appear.
As if her grandmother read her mind, the older woman took a step back, dropped Emily’s hands, and straightened.
“I’m heading out tonight,” she said. “The house is all yours.”
“Thank you,” Emily said.
Grandma looked at Hollis. “You take good care of her.”
Hollis tightened his hand around Emily’s. “I plan to.”
His touch was familiar, and yet it still sent her insides swirling. She knew now that relationships weren’t easy—they were messy and challenging and filled with emotions, but for the first time in her life she wanted to brave those things in order to see what was on the other side.
Was she scared? Yes. But Hollis was worth it. They were worth it.
Grandma gave a pointed nod, then walked off. Emily wondered when she would see her again. It could be months. It could be never.
She stood in her spot for a long moment, then glanced at Hollis, whose eyebrows shot up as if to ask a question.
“I’ll be right back,” she said.
The crowd had only slightly thinned out, so it was a struggle to make her way through the lobby and to the front door, but she pushed on until she did, muttering, “Excuse me” on a continuous loop. She shoved the door open and walked out onto the street, where she spotted her grandmother hurrying toward the parking lot.
She jogged toward the older woman. “Grandma?”
Her grandmother turned around just as Emily reached her. Emily wasn’t prepared to see her grandmother’s tearstained face, a rare, jarring sight.
Grandma sniffled, then looked away, wiping her cheeks dry as discreetly as she could. Turns out it wasn’t very discreet at all. Grandma had been found out.
The woman did have a soul.
Emily stared at her grandmother for several seconds, then remembered she was the one who chased after her. What did she say?
“I don’t know if I’ll ever understand what you did, Grandma,” she finally said. “I can find a lot of issues with your thinking.”
Grandma didn’t respond.
“But I do believe you had good intentions. Misguided though they were. Mom told me you always wanted what was best for me. I believe her.” Emily reached out and took her grandmother’s hand. She didn’t feel a magical jolt of peace that took her anger away. She didn’t feel a change in her emotion at all—in fact, she was still angry. But she didn’t want to let her grandmother leave the island thinking they weren’t on speaking terms.
She’d forgive her, in time and without an apology, but for today she’d just say good-bye.
“I’m proud of you, Emily,” Grandma said.
The words hit Emily square in the chest. Nobody had said that to her since her mother died.
“And your grandfather was proud of you too.” She squeezed Emily’s hands, then smiled at her. “I’ve got to go.”
Emily nodded. She would’ve said something, but she couldn’t speak around the lump in her throat.
Instead, she watched as her grandmother made her way to the parking lot, got in the Lexus, and drove away.
Help me forgive her, Lord.
She’d pray it every day if she had to, and she might, because she didn’t much feel like forgiving her right now.
Emily turned back and looked at the theatre. Through the front doors, she could see the crowd of people still gathered in the lobby. Costumed kids wove their way through a sea of adults and every single one seemed to have a cheerful expression on their face.
She’d helped create that happiness.
That thought made her smile.
And while she’d spent so much of her life as a loner, with acquaintances scattered all over the world and no real friends to speak of, she now felt exactly
the opposite.
She was home.
CHAPTER 49
EMILY HADN’T INTENDED to be the last one to leave the theatre, but here she was, standing on the stage in the darkened space, the rest of the building empty.
Hollis appeared in the wing, illuminated only by the ghost light she’d dragged onto the stage and plugged in. The faint cloud of light from the single bulb attached to the top of a pole did very little to brighten the shadowed areas around her and nothing to light the seats in the auditorium.
“Why’s it called a ghost light?” Hollis asked, standing in front of her, only the skinny light between them.
“It’s supposed to keep away ghosts,” Emily said with a smile. “Don’t you know theatres are haunted?”
Hollis’s face was barely lit enough to make out his features, but she thought maybe his eyebrows shot up as he said, “Is that right?”
“Actually, I have to leave it here so nobody accidentally walks off the stage in the dark.”
Hollis grabbed her shirt and used it to tug her toward him. “That makes a little more sense.”
She put her hands on his chest and inhaled the masculine scent of him. He didn’t wear cologne, but the lingering smell of whatever soap he used was distinctly Hollis, and it was a smell she’d grown to love.
He brushed her hair back and studied her face, and surprisingly, she didn’t shrink under the weight of his attention. Instead she met his eyes, then let her gaze fall to his lips, his strong jawline, then back to his crisp hazel eyes.
“I’m proud of you,” Hollis said.
Two in one night? After years of making no one proud, it was turning out to be a banner day.
“You’re a natural at this, you know?” he continued. “It was fun to watch.”
“I’m surprised how much I loved it.”
He leaned closer and let his lips graze hers, softly, gently, not really a kiss so much as an exploration, as if he wanted to uncover every part of her one second at a time.
“The cast is meeting down at the beach for a bonfire,” she said.
“I know. My parents took Jolie.”
“Do you want to go?”
He shrugged. “A case could be made for staying here.”
“Or having our own picnic on the beach?”
“Or that.”
She inched up on her tiptoes and brought her mouth back to his. She tried to memorize the movement of his lips, the way they felt on hers, the way his muscles felt underneath her hands, the way she wanted that moment to go on forever.
His arms slid around her waist, drawing her closer, deepening the kiss.
She abruptly pulled away and searched his eyes. “I’m still a little scared, Hollis. What if this ends?”
He kissed her again; then, slowly, he knelt down in front of her, picked up her left hand, and smiled.
“I’ve made a lot of mistakes in my life, but loving you is the best thing I’ve ever done. I’ve always known when it came time for me to settle down, it would be forever. I don’t want you worrying that this is only temporary or that I’m going to hurt you. I’m not. The only thing I’m going to do is love you forever, if you’ll let me.”
Emily’s eyes widened. “Hollis, what are you saying?”
He reached into his pocket and pulled out a tiny blue box. “I’m saying I want you to marry me. I’m saying this isn’t going to be perfect. We’re going to hit hard times. I don’t even have a job right now—”
Emily laughed as her eyes clouded over with tears of happiness.
“But we’ll figure it out together. We’ll muddle our way through the hard stuff until it turns into something else, until it becomes our story.”
“Hollis, I don’t know what to say.”
“You belong with me, Em. I hope you’ll say yes.”
She scanned his eyes, his face, looking for a reason to run, but there wasn’t one there. There was only love.
She belonged with him. With Jolie. With Nan and Jeffrey. She belonged on Nantucket or in Boston or wherever life took them. She belonged.
And that was a beautiful feeling.
She slid to her knees and squared her gaze with his, then took his face in her hands, his slight stubble rough to the touch. “Of course, yes. There’s nothing in the world I want more than to marry you.”
“Well, thank goodness,” he said. “You had me worried for a second.”
She laughed, then fell into his arms, relishing his kiss, as the ghost light flickered and her heart latched on to the promise of a future.
Hollis pulled into the circle drive in front of the Ackerman cottage, and Emily turned over the keys in her hands. Her grandmother had officially relinquished control, which meant this house was all hers. For real this time.
“You gonna add those to the rest of your keys?” he asked.
Emily nodded. “Sort of appropriate, don’t you think? That these keys will be the end of my collection? I mean, that part of my life is over.”
He looked at her. “You’re not sad about that, are you?”
She smiled. “Not even a little.”
“Good.”
“I want to go in and change; then I can meet you down on the beach if that’s okay?”
Hollis leaned over and kissed her forehead, then grazed her nose, settling fully on her lips. Seconds later and she was lost in it.
Good night, this man knew how to kiss.
He pulled back, then picked up her hand and kissed the ring he’d slid onto her finger.
Emily had never been one to wear a lot of jewelry, and Hollis must’ve known it. It was as if this ring had been made for her unique personality. A simple white-gold band with a large round diamond, encircled by a ring of smaller diamonds, it was beautiful without being flashy, and she loved the way it looked on her hand.
“I’ll meet you down there,” she said.
He nodded as she leaned over for one more kiss, then got out of his Jeep and started up the walk toward the house.
Grandma must’ve left some lights on because the entryway and living room lights both shone through the windows into the yard outside.
She pushed the door open and walked inside. She inhaled the smell of fresh paint, then took a moment to admire the work they’d done over the last couple of months.
When she’d arrived, the house had been an empty box of tormenting memories. Now, it had become something else entirely—it had become a place where she’d figured out who she was. The house had been instrumental in giving her a purpose, in showing her that there was a lot of life left to live, and she wanted to live it well.
She was proud of what they’d accomplished, though she was more eager than ever to get it finished, which presented a strange conundrum. Did she call Jack and ask him to come back? He knew the plans; he had a crew.
Or did she find someone else to do the last of the work—someone less complicated?
Emily startled at the sound of movement in the kitchen. Maybe Hollis had come in through the back door? But she hadn’t heard the door, only the sound of someone rummaging around.
Against her better judgment, she walked through the entryway and toward the doorway that led to the kitchen, surprised when she spotted a familiar silhouette.
Jack.
She watched as he ran a rag over the freshly installed sliding-glass door, unaware that he wasn’t alone.
She wasn’t prepared to speak to him. She didn’t know how she felt or what she thought or what she wanted to say, but here he was, the father she’d always imagined and also the father she’d never imagined.
She cleared her throat and he stopped midswipe as his head snapped in her direction. “Emily?”
“Hi.”
“I thought you were gone.” He dropped his arm to his side and faced her.
“I came back.” She watched him shift his weight from one foot to the other. “What are you doing here?”
Jack tucked the rag into his back pocket. “Your grandmother called me to come back a
nd finish the remodel. As of about five minutes ago, I think I’m officially done.”
Emily couldn’t hide her surprise. “My grandma called you?”
“Shocker, right?”
“Huge shocker.”
“She said she still doesn’t like me, but she knew it was important to you that I finish the job.”
Emily smiled, mostly because that sounded like Grandma and also because she wasn’t sure what to say.
“Have you talked to her?”
“Just for a minute after the show,” she said.
“I wanted to come to the show,” Jack said. “I wasn’t sure if I’d be welcome.”
She smiled—from the heart this time. “Come tomorrow.”
“Yeah?”
Emily nodded.
“Emily, I—”
Her upheld hand cut him off. “Listen, I don’t have anything figured out right now, Jack. Nothing makes sense to me, but I’ve thought a lot about it since I left your house that day, and I’d like to get to know you if you’ll let me.”
Jack’s entire face brightened. “Yeah?”
“Yeah.”
“That’d be . . . It’d be really great.”
“So maybe we can get coffee tomorrow?”
“That sounds good.” Jack crossed his arms over his chest. “I’ll pick you up at seven.”
Emily groaned. “Let’s make it seven thirty?”
Jack laughed. “All right. I’ll see you then.”
Emily saw him to the door, then went upstairs to change out of her dress and into a pair of jean shorts and a T-shirt.
She found her flip-flops, packed a bag in the kitchen, then trudged down to the beach, where Hollis sat on a blanket, stoking a fire in a small charcoal grill.
“Did you bring s’mores stuff?” he called out as soon as she stepped onto the sand.
She held up the bag. “Dinner of champions.”
He stood, took the bag from her, and waited until she sat, then covered her in a plaid blanket.
“Thanks,” she said.
In the distance, she saw a young family walking toward them. It was rare to see other people on this stretch of beach, but as they approached, realization set in and she smiled.
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