“Actually,” he said, “I’m sticking around here.”
His eyes told me “here” meant more than only Portland.
“Don’t look so surprised. Trey’s been asking me for a while to come on board full-time.” He swiped off his baseball cap and ran his fingers through his hair. “It took me longer than it probably should’ve to figure it out, but my place is here with the kids.”
“What about sports medicine?”
“Psh. The kids are way more entertaining than pro athletes.”
We both laughed.
He shrugged. “Honestly, I think I’ve always known I wasn’t going to do anything with sports med. I was just afraid to come to college undeclared.”
“I know the feeling.” I craned my head against the bricks. “What about your dad?”
He tucked his hat back on. “He’ll get over it eventually.”
The trees on the other side of the fence shook in the wind and streaked a shadow across his face, along with a hint of pain.
Walking away from his dad’s expectations couldn’t have been easy. Maybe we were all a little braver than we thought.
He stared at the net on the opposite end of the court. “After coming here, it was like—I don’t know—like reaching a crossroads or something.” He held one hand out to the side. “I could choose what the world considers success.” He held out the other hand. “Or I could choose what I find most fulfilling.”
He might as well have been reading straight out of my journal from last year.
“I’m glad you made the right choice.” For him. For Trey. The kids. There wasn’t a question in my mind that he belonged here.
He lowered his chin. “I’m not sure I would’ve if it weren’t for you.”
Me?
“You’ve taught me a lot, Em. I know you don’t see it, but it’s true.”
His sincerity added to the pang that’d been snowballing inside me all day.
He broke the hold he had on my eyes. “You’ve really outdone yourself on this one. The court looks amazing.”
I couldn’t argue with the second part. A freshly painted pole. New net. Clear lines on the pavement. There were even potted trees in each corner and baby ivy vines climbing the side of the fence facing the street.
“Well, you’ll have to thank the kids for that.” I crossed the court, taking it all in. “This is their court now. They worked hard to earn it.”
“It’s yours too.”
“I know.” I bent and traced my initials carved into the base of the post. “It’ll always be a part of me.”
I stayed there for another minute before strolling back to the bench.
“So, what about you?” he asked as I approached. “Where’s life taking you after graduation?”
“Nashville. At some point, anyway.” I took my seat again. “Actually, I’ve been thinking. If there isn’t already an organization there similar to the center, I might start one.”
A. J. smiled. “Wouldn’t have expected any less.” He reached inside his jacket, withdrew a wrapped gift, and placed it on my lap. “An early graduation present.”
“A. J., you didn’t have to—”
“Just open it. You’ll like it. Trust me.”
Relenting, I peeled back the wrapping paper. “Labyrinth?”
“Don’t worry. I didn’t warn Riley about your thing for David Bowie.” He looked from side to side and leaned forward. “It’ll be our little secret.”
I shook my head at him. My heart turned into a pinball machine with way too many emotions colliding into each other. I drew the DVD close. “Thank you,” I whispered.
He dipped his chin and rose from the bench. “If you don’t mind, I’d like to keep the Journey CD. For posterity.”
“How can I deny a convert to eighties’ music?”
Laughing, he extended a hand to help me up. “You were right about Jaycee.” He grabbed his phone from his pocket and ran his thumb over the screen. “She definitely didn’t go for my changing up her plans.” He set his cell on the bench and faced me again. “But maybe we can have that dance now. Friend to friend. One last time.”
His eyes didn’t hold the same smoldering look they had in the past. Just friendship. One I treasured.
I took his hand. The entire court filled with the sound of “Open Arms” as we shared the final dance in this chapter of our lives.
So much for making it through the whole day without crying. The weight of it all soaked into the front of A. J.’s jacket.
Not that he’d ever let me drown. He held my hand and twirled me across the ground. Instead of tripping over my feet, I spun with grace and stopped on perfect cue.
He raised a brow. “Those dance lessons paid off.”
I twirled in and landed my back to his chest like a seasoned ballroom dancer. “Someone once taught me how to dance with swag.”
He cracked up. “You got it, Dancing Queen. Dee’d be quite proud.” He circled me around toward him.
I returned my chin to his shoulder and swayed with the music.
“I mean that, Em,” he said. “Dee’d be proud of all you’ve done for the center and the way you’ve grown as a person.”
I wasn’t the only one who’d grown. I clutched the back of his jacket and fought another round of tears. “How am I supposed to say goodbye to all of this?”
“You’re not really letting go,” he said. “The friendships you’ve made here, the experiences you’ve gone through. They’re part of who you are now. They’ll go wherever you go.”
His words squeezed around the piece of my heart that his life had forever impacted. “I’m not sure that’s how it works.”
“Of course it is.” He leaned back slightly. “You see me now, right? Just take that image with you.” His gaze trailed over my face. “Memories are like photos. You pull them out any time you want. All you have to do is close your eyes. It’s almost real.”
Almost real. “But not enough.” I faced the stars, overwhelmed with the memories of all we’d gone through together, of how much we’d grown, how much had changed. “I love you, A. J.” I always would.
He rested his cheek against my temple. “But not enough,” he whispered.
Our journey over the last two years had caused that truth to stretch deep enough in both our hearts to a place where it could finally heal.
He kissed my cheek as he let go. “C’mon. I’ll walk you to your car.”
I stopped at the fence and turned one last time. A. J. was right. It was time to move on. But I didn’t leave the center, saying goodbye. I left that night, taking it with me.
Back at my apartment, I removed my keys from the knob and swung the door shut with my foot. The floor-length curtains in the living room waved in a breeze from the window.
“Hey, Em,” Jaycee said from a seat at the kitchen table.
I jumped a foot in the air.
“Hope you don’t mind. I let myself in.”
“I see that. Thanks for the heads up.” I dropped my purse on the stand beside the door and traipsed toward the smell of mint hot chocolate.
“Trev and I wanted to stay on campus tonight. Didn’t seem right not being here the night before graduation.”
“Trev’s staying with A. J.?”
“Yep.” She scooped a hefty spoonful of whipped cream off the top of her mug. “You sure you want to move to Nashville? I don’t think I can handle the two of them together without some kind of female reinforcement.”
I laughed at her contorted expression. “Wish I could, but Riley’s dreams are too important to me.”
She raised her spoon in the air. “And that, girlfriend, is what’s going to make you the amazing wife I know you’re going to be.”
“Spoken from an expert.” I joined her at the table.
She tilted her chair on its back two legs and spread out her arms like she was about to burst into song. “I’m telling you, marriage is amazing. Never having to say goodnight, getting rid of all those stupid insecurit
ies, knowing you’re committed to each other for life . . . There’s nothing like it.”
Her chair dropped forward. “I’m so excited for you to experience this, I can hardly stand it.”
And I could hardly stop laughing at the lingering effects of her honeymoon stage. “Well, I can’t think about that yet. I gotta get through tomorrow first.” With trying to get through everything else this semester, I’d set wedding planning aside for after graduation. I was leaving most of it up to Jae, anyway.
“Tomorrow? Why are you worried about tomorrow?”
“You mean, other than walking across the stage in front of hundreds of people—which, by the way, I’m already planning on wearing flats, so don’t even think about trying to coerce me into wearing heels.”
She started to roll her eyes but stopped herself when they landed on my hair.
“Jae . . .”
“What?” She feigned a look of innocence.
I waved a finger at her. “Whatever’s going through your mind right now, you can forget it.”
“Em, if you refuse to wear heels, you at least have to let me do your hair.” She poked me in the side. “It’ll be fun,” she said in a perfect rendition of Trevor’s obnoxious voice.
Maybe it would be. As long as whatever Mr. Preston had planned didn’t ruin it all.
chapter twenty-nine
Changed
At the foot of the platform, I tried to ban “Pomp and Circumstance” from my head while watching the student in front of me climb the stairs.
“Emma Marie Matthews.”
Breathe.
I couldn’t have walked more than twenty feet across the stage. Yet in that short span, my entire college experience scrolled through my mind in a slideshow of memories. The provost shook my hand right as a camera snapped in front of us.
One flash. One blink. And it was over. This chapter of my life, closed. My identity as a college student, terminated. But as I carried the cylindrical placeholder across the rest of the stage, I smiled knowing I walked away with something I’d finally learned to cherish.
Time.
A. J. was right. My past and my future would go with me. Today was mine to live.
Another series of flashes greeted me at the bottom of the short staircase. Riley bent over the barrier. “Told you you’re braver than you think you are.”
A staff worker with sweat drizzling down his temple redirected me back on course before the next graduate in line bumped into my heels.
Mom and Austin weaved through the crowd up to where Riley stood behind the rail. “I’m so proud of you,” Mom called.
I waved over my shoulder on my way back to my seat. The guy beside me fanned his face with a program. Not that it helped. These black gowns might as well have been sun magnets.
Name after name blared from the podium, each tied to a student’s culminating chapter of a much larger story. Some I knew well. Others were mere acquaintances. And some were unfamiliar names I’d likely never hear again. But right then, we were one.
The final charge ended in a pandemonium of celebration from students, professors, and family members.
Lost in the crowd sprawling over the field, I tried to scratch my head without tilting the cap that Jaycee’d secured this morning with an entire can of hairspray and a dozen bobby pins.
“You did it.” A. J. prodded me in the shoulder as he came up from behind.
“Without tripping, no less.”
He motioned to the certificate in my hand. “They know talent when they see it.”
I swatted him with it. “Must be why they gave you an award for crossing without that big head of yours throwing you off balance.” I tugged on the tip of his cap. “Or was that just luck?”
He pinched his gown in two places below his shoulders and raised the fabric away from his chest. “Luck’s my middle name.”
I rolled my eyes, but it felt good to be at ease. Not only in that moment, but with A. J., period. Something had changed between us.
Riley maneuvered through the crowd and almost ran into me. Without slowing, he spun me off the ground and kissed me with such passion, it took a minute to regain my balance when my feet finally touched the grass.
“Wow, I’ll walk across a stage any time if that’s the greeting I get afterward.”
“Sorry. I might be slightly on the proud side right now.”
“I see that.”
He steadied my tassel. “I have a graduation present for you, but it isn’t exactly something I can wrap.”
My stomach dropped without warning.
His excitement soared right past any question written on my face. “I talked with Nick this morning. Tour’s booked for the fall. I have to move back to Nashville in July, do some local venues until October, but everything’s settled.”
One blink. Two. “What about Jess? When she came, she made it sound like—”
“She came on her own. Nick didn’t send her.”
What?
A trace of his frustration toward Jess wrinkled his brow, but his smile obliterated it. “Brett came through. He’s been working on a new tour lineup since December. You’re not gonna believe this, but the delay actually ended up opening a chance to tour with Tim McGraw.” He squeezed his neck and laughed. “Nick’s totally playing it up like he had it planned all along.”
My jaw still refused to work. Was this real? All of it, worked out? In even better ways than we could’ve planned for? The memory of Dad’s voice rushed over me. “God has good things planned for your life, Emma. Even when we might not know how or why, he’s working things out in our lives. Sometimes, we just need to give it a little time.”
I hedged back the tears.
Mom came up behind Riley. “There’s my baby girl.” Streaks of mascara trailed her cheeks as she cupped both sides of my face. “My little girl, all grown up.”
“Mom.”
She curved her arms around my back and sniffled against my shoulder. “I’m sorry. I promised myself I wouldn’t do this.”
Austin strolled up beside her. “So, how much did you have to pay the registrar’s office to let you walk.”
“Cute, Aust.” I raised my honor stole from my gown. “I hear they don’t give you these sashes for no reason.”
“Trying to compete with your big brother?”
“I think you can leave that to me,” Anna said from behind him.
I stared from her to Austin and back. “Wait a sec. Are you . . . ?”
He shrugged. “Sometimes you don’t realize what you want till it’s right under your nose.”
I jabbed his side. “Ha! I knew you’d be good for each other. Didn’t I tell you?”
“You’re bound to be right occasionally. Law of probability.”
“Wow. I think this day might be one to mark in the history books.”
He dished my grin right back at me. “As the day you won the award for being the most dramatic girl on campus?”
“Except that’d be the same as any other day,” Trevor said out of nowhere.
I swore that boy had some kind of honing device that drew him to every opportunity to tease me.
“But we wouldn’t trade you or your melodramatic flare for anything in the world.” Jaycee squeezed my shoulder and turned to give Mom a hug. “Hi, Mrs. Matthews.”
“Hi, sweetie.” She looked at Jaycee and Trevor. “Now, aren’t you two charming? How’s marriage treating you?”
As the three of them fell into conversation, A. J. and Riley stood side by side on the outskirts in another reminder of how much we’d all grown.
“Pictures, Em.” Mom flagged me over. “You and Jaycee first.”
Trevor cradled his arms to his chest as if holding an imaginary teddy bear. “Aw . . . BFFs.”
“Oh, stop that and get over there.” Mom pushed him forward.
He barreled toward us, dragging A. J. along with him. The two of them dove straight in between us. No telling what kind of faces they were making each time the camera fla
shed.
“Now, one of you and Riley, sweetheart.”
I sank into Riley’s side, not needing any prompting whatsoever to smile.
Swept up in Trevor’s arms, Jaycee laughed. “You better get used to smiling, Em, or your cheeks are going to be hurting on your wedding day.”
It didn’t seem fair for the Prestons to crest the top of the hill at the exact moment the words “your wedding day” left Jaycee’s lips. I reached for Riley’s hand, torn between still wanting to put this off and being way past ready to have it over with.
Jasmine had herself glued to Riley before the rest of the family reached us. He managed to pry her off his legs, but she simply transferred her hold to his neck instead. He laughed. “Good to see you too, Jazz.”
“I missed you guys so much.” She surveyed the distance between Riley and me as though calculating how far she could stretch her arms to hug both of us at the same time.
Riley made the choice easy for her. He rose to his feet but only made it a few steps forward before another embrace almost knocked him over. Melody veered to his side so Mrs. Preston could have a turn as well.
Taking advantage of the distraction, Jasmine lifted on her toes to whisper in my ear. “I couldn’t find a way to sneak my dress with us.”
I feigned a look of shock that she, of all people, couldn’t get something past her dad.
She grinned. “I know, it’s hard to believe, but I snuck some pictures with me instead. They’re on the camera Mom brought. I’ll show you later.”
I returned her wink of secrecy.
While Austin and Mom were getting acquainted with Mr. and Mrs. Preston, another face joined our crowd.
Trey held his arms open. “Congratulations. Always knew you’d go places, Miss E,” he said in a tone he’d copied from the kids. “Just don’t be forgetting us when you get there.”
I squeezed him back. “Like that’s possible.”
His laugh wrapped around me in a hug of its own. I held on a little longer until I was positive the sound sank far enough in my memory that I wouldn’t forget it. Ever.
“You take care of yourself, kid.” He patted my shoulder and offered a final flash of that ornery smile I’d miss seeing every week. “Come back and visit us.”
Hope Unbroken (Unveiled Series Book 3) Page 19