Christina pulled the cellophane off the dishes she’d prepared earlier.
“I hope you’re hungry.”
“Christina, this table has so much good food!”
Emma took her seat at the table. On it, Christina had spread out chicken salad, toasted pita bread, grapes, cloth napkins, and flowers.
“Maybe you are Martha Stewart.”
“Mind if we say grace?” Christina asked.
“No, of course,” said Emma. The two women closed their eyes.
“Dear Lord, we thank You for this day, for the rain and the sun, this wonderful lunch, and for my friend, Emma, who is here today because of Your loving-kindness. Amen.”
Christina passed Emma the plate stacked with pita bread.
“So, tell me about Bo. Is he the one you hope to spend your winter season with?”
“Bo? Yeah, he’s my best friend. I think I’ve always known he’s the one.”
“How long have the two of you been going out?”
“We’ve been dating for over two years and it’s been wonderful. He’s just so exactly the opposite of me in all the right ways, and yet we’re compatible at the same time. I think we really complement one another.”
“Have you guys had the talk yet, about marriage I mean?”
Christina frowned. “Well, yes and no. I’d like nothing more because I’m ready, but Bo isn’t, and I wonder sometimes if he’ll ever be.”
“Uh-oh, is he one of those commitment-phobic men?”
“No, his case is a little different. Bo was married once before. Together, they had a little boy named Jason, and Bo was a very committed husband and father for those six years.”
“What happened?” Emma asked.
“She thought the grass would be greener somewhere else.”
“That’s too bad.”
“Yes, it is, but there’s more to it than that. When she divorced Bo, she took Jason back with her to Columbia. Bo drove back and forth for visitation, ninety minutes each way, and did everything he could to remain Jason’s father. Fast-forward two years later, she remarried and moved away to Los Angeles with her new husband, and took Jason with them.”
“Oh my.”
“It’s unbelievable,” Christina said, her emotions pierced. “He was the one who got Jason up in the morning, made his breakfast, and tucked him into bed with a story each night. When she decided to leave the marriage, she just severed Bo’s relationship with his son.”
“She can’t do that. He has visitation rights.”
“Yeah, but she has custody rights, and she chose to move Jason twenty-four hundred miles away. Bo was willing to do anything to stay Jason’s father, he even tried moving out there. But he couldn’t make life work in California, and she made it as difficult as possible for him to see Jason.”
“And now he’s gun-shy.”
“Can you blame him? I mean to lose your only son …” Christina’s voice faded into a sad sigh. “When we first started dating, he’d told me up front that he couldn’t go very fast, which was fine with me. He said it was like his heart had been frozen, then dropped to the bottom of the lake through a hole in the ice. That’s pretty cold.”
“Does he ever see Jason?”
“He flies out to California twice a year, stays in a hotel. And Jason comes back to South Carolina for a month each summer. He was just here in July. It’s so sad. There’s no way short visits and phone calls can replace how great they were together for six years. Bo told me Jason doesn’t remember much of when Bo lived in the house with him.”
“Sounds like he needed a good lawyer.”
Christina shrugged her shoulders.
“That’s the reason he doesn’t want to marry again. He wonders if he could survive me doing the same thing to him. Can you imagine losing a child that way?”
“Do you think he’ll come around?”
“I hope so. He said the whole experience ‘fried his wires.’ I’d like to think he’ll learn to trust me over time ’cause I would never do that to him. So I just pray.”
“That he’ll come around?”
“No,” Christina said. “That God will heal him. I only want what’s best for Bo.”
Christina’s love for Bo puzzled Emma. In Boston, Lara talked about men as if they were items for purchase in a mail-order love catalog. Emma didn’t know it until that moment when she heard Christina’s words and saw the caring expression on her face exactly why Lara’s perspective had always seemed shallow.
“Christina, I’ve never heard someone say that before. You want Bo to be yours more than anything, but you don’t pray for God to give him to you. You pray that he’ll heal?”
Christina set down her silverware and leaned in to speak.
“I’d love nothing more than to wake up in the middle of the night and see Bo sleeping in bed next to me. I think about watching him across the dinner table each night, and knowing he’s there because we’re married, and I dream about us going somewhere as husband and wife. I’d just love those things, but most of all, I love him. I can’t think of love as being anything else but my desire to place his well-being above my own wants, and see him become the whole man God wants him to be.”
“What if he never marries you?”
Christina let out a nervous laugh.
“Don’t scare me like that. It’s best not to think about it, but I have confidence in God. I know whatever He has for me will work out for the best.”
Christina took a sip of ice water. Emma watched her in silence. How could she love someone so much and just be willing to let him go?
Christina set the glass again on the table and smiled to Emma. “Okay, my turn. Tell me what’s going on with you and Michael?”
Emma raised her shoulders and shook her head.
“I don’t know that anything is going on. He’s helping renovate a home office space for my dad. We talked some the other day.”
Her voice trailed off.
“That’s all?”
Emma hesitated.
“Well … we had a good talk this morning, too, while we were moving furniture. I don’t know what else to say. He’s an incredible man, but there’s nothing going on between us. That was a long time ago.”
Christina dotted the corners of her mouth with a napkin, folding it again on her lap.
“I agree with you, Michael’s a really good man,” she laughed. “It’s funny how the two of you just ran into one another.”
“Yes, it was kind of strange. I saw his truck when I was crossing the street and it struck me just how new and clean it looked parked next to Old Red. I was just reading his name on the side when he appeared from out of the hardware store. I think the strange part is that it was a complete surprise, but on the other hand … I don’t know, I sort of expected it?”
Emma laughed a nervous laugh.
“I’m sorry, I realize that must sound completely irrational and stupid.”
“Oh, I don’t know about that. Perhaps Michael’s been on your mind?”
“I don’t know,” Emma said, shrugging. “It was just one of those weird moments. I don’t know anymore beyond that.”
“Were you happy to see him?” Christina asked, taking a bite of her salad. Emma thought about it for a moment.
“Yeah, I was. I felt like there was unfinished business between us, and it seemed like a good time to settle things up.”
“My gosh, Emma. You make it sound like a business transaction,” Christina laughed, picking up her napkin and holding it against her mouth.
“Well, I don’t mean it that way. I just … felt like there were things that needed to be said, mostly by me. It’s not easy, Christina. Life isn’t easy. We make choices sometimes without any earthly idea how things will work out. Sometimes we make the righ
t ones, and sometimes we just blow it.”
“What choices are you referring to?”
“Going to college in Boston when everyone else I knew and loved was staying here,” Emma answered. “Starting a new life in a new world.”
“Anything else?” Christina asked.
“You’re intuitive, Christina,” Emma said. Emma set her napkin on the table, and slid back her chair. “Maybe you want me to add, ‘never coming back to the old life’ too?”
“There’s nothing I want you to add, Emma. We were a group of friends who loved each very much once. You left … and then you didn’t come back. We still love you, but we don’t understand why you disappeared. Why you didn’t want to keep in touch when we tried reaching out to you. I would like to understand someday … if you’d be willing to tell, I mean.”
~ Nine ~
And it’s sure good to know that love still remains.
—SARA EVANS
“Some Things Never Change”
It was nearly three thirty when Emma climbed into Old Red to head home. The sky’s dark clouds were finally giving way to the sunlight. Crimson streaks appeared along the horizon like mellowing shrouds cruising westward, handing day over to night.
The midafternoon air felt cool. Emma wasn’t surprised to see an elderly woman walking her small dog along the country road; she was enjoying the sunshine, but had enough good sense to wear a sweater.
Emma switched on the headlights and accelerated to a brisk 45 miles per hour. The yellow lines on the country road popped vibrantly in contrast to the muted colors of the woods on either side. Everything in nature was blacks, browns, silvers, and reds. South Carolina looked as if unseen hands were shutting off the world of summer, sealing it up for next year’s spring blossom. The fading colors were nature’s fond kiss good-bye.
Emma’s cell phone rang, a discreet three-tone melody that she hadn’t taken the time to replace with something more pleasant. She picked it up, looking at the caller ID. It was Michael.
“Hello.”
“Hi, Emma. This is your dad.”
The sound of her father’s voice surprised her. He was in a jovial mood, and his humor made her smile.
“Michael suggested it would be a good idea for me to call and prepare you for what you’re gonna see when you come home.”
She took her cue to play along.
“All right, what are the two of you up to?”
“Honey, I came downstairs to find Michael tearing up carpet. I liked what I saw so much I asked him to show me the big picture.”
“And?”
“Well, we kind of got carried away, and ended up knocking out the wall in the bedroom. You know that window against the outside wall?”
“Yes.”
“It’s gone too. We’ve completely demolished the entire room.”
Emma saw a family of deer in a grassy field adjacent to the highway. A buck, doe, and fawn grazed in a clearing, moving only to raise their heads and watch the truck go by.
“You’re right, I don’t believe it, but I think it’s great. I didn’t know you were ready to move full steam ahead.”
“Once things got under way, and I understood the floor plan you two had laid out, I told Michael to go for it.”
“I don’t want to sound like a mother hen, but you aren’t overexerting yourself, are you?”
“Ah, I’m going as easy as I can, you’re not to worry. Hold on a minute, Michael wants to talk to you.”
Emma listened as the two men shuffled the phone between them. She couldn’t help but laugh when she thought of how much fun they must have had demolishing the room together.
“Emma? Hey, it’s Michael. Listen, your dad really seemed gung ho about moving forward with the demo, so we just tore into it. I think you’ll be happy with all that’s gone on. We’ve really got a lot done today.”
“I can’t wait to see it. How’s he doing anyway?”
“He just stepped out to the kitchen to get us a couple glasses of water. Don’t worry; he’s serving in a more supervisory capacity. I didn’t ask him to do any heavy lifting.”
“He did just have a heart attack on Monday.”
“I’m set to pack up in a few minutes, so if you don’t see me when you get back, don’t think I’m abandoning you. In the morning I’ll be here as early as you can stand it.”
Don’t think I’m abandoning you.
“How early is that?” she asked, momentarily lost in thought.
“Can you handle six thirty?”
“Umm, better make it seven, and Michael …”
“Yeah?”
“Thanks. I could hear the excitement in my dad’s voice. I think he’s really happy.”
“Lots of people are happy this week, Emma.”
Emma said good-bye and punched the red button, shutting off her phone. The last few minutes of daylight were still present in the sky to enjoy.
“Lots of people are happy this week,” he’d told her.
“Yes, and I’m one of them,” she said out loud, feeling good about the life that was hers to live, feeling blessed to have her father still in it.
Emma drove in the dark, thinking back over her day, recalling the elegant lunch at Christina’s house. She was surprised at how easily they’d fallen back into their friendship. That was true with Samantha, too. Maybe things weren’t as broken as they’d seemed. Perhaps everything would be sorted out in a matter of days and Emma could fly back to Boston knowing all issues past and present had been solved.
Over a distant hill, two white pinpoints of light pierced the dimming twilight. They approached Emma on the opposite side of the two-lane road.
Emma’s cell phone rang again. This time she answered it without checking the caller ID.
“Yes?”
“Emma? Robert Adler.”
“Hi,” she said, still not used to bouncing back and forth between two disparate worlds.
“How is everything down there? How’s your dad?”
“He’s doing better. He’s out of the hospital and home now,” Emma said, switching gears from Juneberry cordiality to the hare-footed pace of an East Coast law firm.
“That’s exactly what I wanted to hear. When do you expect to depart for Boston?”
Emma hesitated. The dark car in the opposite lane drew closer. Its headlights were set on high beams and gave off a bluish tint, so bright they were blinding.
“Robert, I’m not sure yet. Things are progressing as fast as can be expected, but there’s still more I need to do.”
On the narrow strip of SC59, the mysterious car swerved dangerously close to Emma. She pulled the steering wheel to the right until her tires left spun in the loose gravel of the shoulder. The other car passed close enough that Emma could have seen the driver were it not for the tinted windows.
“Hmm,” Adler said. “I thought we’d agreed you’d be here by Friday. Maybe the details have been lost in translation this week, but the meeting with John Tenet of Northeast Federal is a go. John’s on the verge of changing their company’s representation. It’s about a two-million-dollar contract.”
“He’s coming into the office?”
“Yes, and I very much need you to be at this meeting. The backstory is Tenet called within twenty-four hours of your Interscope victory; that wasn’t coincidental. He and I have been discussing business over dinners and cigars for a year, but his call on Tuesday was unexpected. He’d like to meet you. They have a lot on their plate right now and they think we’re just what they need.”
Emma felt a sudden, sharp anxiety. Her pulse had already quickened because of the close call with the speeding car.
“Isn’t there any way we can meet next week?” Emma asked. It seemed a reasonable enough request given the distance she’d traveled
, the importance of her father’s health, and the loyalty she’d exhibited to the firm over the past nine years.
“Not with John Tenet. He sets when a meeting is going to take place. That time he’s set is this Friday at twelve thirty Eastern time. That’s why I’m going to ask Helen to charter a corporate jet to fly you out of Columbia tomorrow. That will help avoid any delays.”
“Robert, I came home to help my dad get back on his feet. He’s not totally there yet.”
“I really don’t want to rush you, Emma, but Northeast Federal is more than just a new client. As we’ve discussed, they’re a gateway to a whole new world of corporate litigation for us. You said your dad’s doing better. It’s time for you to get back to work.”
Emma thought about her response for less than a second.
“Robert, I can’t come back to work just yet. I’m needed down here. My dad’s home from the hospital, but …”
“Emma,” Adler interrupted. “We don’t gamble with clients like NF. We play every ace we’ve got, and right now you’re the high card. Just come back to Boston. We’ll nail down this account and before you know it, it’ll be Thanksgiving, and you’ll be back home for a visit.”
Emma thought of how she’d taken on every legal assignment handed to her during her years with the firm. She’d lived and breathed its culture, its fourteen-hour workdays, its workload that helped to bury an uneasy past in the dark, cool depths of her mind. She thought of the unscrupulous clients and protracted courtroom battles that tested her intellect, her emotions, and her morals, and how she’d done everything ever asked of her. Foremost on her mind was what she’d been given, employment with the firm fresh out of law school and a full partnership all by the age of thirty. Robert had opened those doors for her, and in return asked only for her loyalty.
“Robert, I can’t leave tomorrow. I’m sorry, I just can’t,” Emma said. There was no easy answer. “I know how important this meeting is with Northeast Federal, but I’m right in the middle of things here, and I can’t leave.”
Emma knew Robert Adler was unaccustomed to hearing the word no from anyone, especially from his protégée. There was a long pause before he finally spoke.
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