“I love you,” I told her. “Your dad loves you. My mom is going to love you. You’re building your own family, Em. Bev. Sheila. Me. My mom and Bruce—you have to meet them.”
“Yeah, I know. I do. But ... but are you sure?” Emerson hesitated, stammering over her words. “You’re okay with us being together? And your dad understands? This feels so complicated.”
Pulling back, making a little space between us, I pushed her hair aside. “It’s not complicated. We had nothing to do with them. It’s only us right now. I don’t want that to be what you’re worried about. My dad is fine, but honestly? I wouldn’t care if he wasn’t. He’s the last thing I’m thinking about. You’re first, if you couldn’t tell.”
“Don’t say that about your dad, ’kay? I’m sorry, I don’t mean to boss you. I’m so out of it. I just don’t want to feel like I’m a problem in your relationship ... and I love you too,” she whispered.
“You’re it for me,” I told her. “Enough for me. For always. My future was set. I was going to be a farmer, and now I don’t know what I’m going to do. As long as you’re with me, that’s all that matters.”
“Farmer Price.” She gave me a small smile, the first I’d seen from her in what seemed like forever. “With his boots,” she teased me.
“You need some boots, and you’ll see what I mean.”
“Uh-huh.” She leaned in and rubbed her nose along mine.
We didn’t talk anymore. Instead, we kissed, our lips meeting on their own accord. We stayed like that for a long while, until Bend cleared his throat and faked a cough.
“Oh, Dad!” Emerson jumped up.
“It’s fine, baby. I was just going to say that I’m going to meet up with that Sheila woman. I guess she had some things she always wanted to tell me from when I knew your mom.”
“Oh. Okay. You know her daughter, Bev, is my good friend now.”
He stood tall in his jeans and ragged polo shirt, ancient New Balance joggers on his feet, looking completely out of place in the Big Apple. Like I did.
Oh well, fuck it. We belonged here as much as anyone else. Even if we thought it was the craziest place.
“Don’t worry,” Bend said. “I know. I’m not going to do anything to mess it up for you with Bev.”
“Love you, Dad.” Emerson stood up to hug her dad.
“I know. But I love you more,” he said, and then slipped out of the hotel room.
“Sheila? That’s crazy,” Emerson said to me, sitting back on my lap.
“She asked me for your dad’s number. I didn’t think she’d connect with him so soon, but maybe because it’s fresh, she wants to rip the Band-Aid off quickly.”
“I don’t know. It’s a little crazy, but no crazier than any of this.”
Emerson leaned her head on my shoulder, and her stomach growled. “Sorry,” she said with a laugh.
I squeezed her hand. “Come on. Let’s shower and go eat.”
We took a little longer in the shower and ended up ordering room service, which was fine with me.
Emerson
“We can’t stay in this hotel forever. It’s crazy. Plus, I miss your pancakes,” I told Price over another room service breakfast. I’d lost count of how many we’d had. Thirteen? Fourteen?
“I’m working on it. I swear. Today, after I go to class, Johnny’s gonna shuttle me around ... Christ. Do you know how insane this all is?” He laughed while saying it, but still.
“I can tell the ridiculousness is getting to you. I know your dad’s footing the bill. I also know the apartment sold in minutes, so we can buy anything. Sorry, not we.You. You can buy anything.”
He tugged on a strand of my hair, leaning in and placing his lips on my forehead. “We, ours, all of it. Shhh. Don’t forget Paula was your mom, and it was her place.”
“Listen here, buddy. You can’t use Paula to your convenience.”
In the last week, I’d decided I needed some emotional distance from the whole situation and had started to refer to my mom as Paula. She was a person I’d never know. Before my dad left, I reconciled myself to that fact. My dad had always been there and would continue to be. It was more than I could ask of—
