“Grand,” Caroline said. But she was smiling ear to ear.
“This is terrific news,” I said, meaning it. There had been some years when I couldn’t give my girls things I really wanted to, some things I thought they really needed. But knowing that I had made something for us, I had made a living for us, and now they could use that business to make a life for themselves made me inexplicably proud—and more confident than ever that I had made some good choices along the way.
“Man,” Sloane said. “I feel kind of left out. Where amIgoing to start a store?”
“Miami,” Emerson said without a pause. “Then we can be like the Kardashians.”
They all burst out laughing, and I rolled my eyes.
“You don’t have time to start a shop, painter monkey,” Caroline said.
“OK,” I said, standing up straighter. “I’m feeling lighter. Been carrying that one around for sixteen years.”
I saw tears starting to gather in Emerson’s eyes. “What’s the matter?” I whispered, drawing her in close to me.
“I just wish he could see us all now,” she said. “I wish he could see us all grown-up.”
I smiled and could feel tears in my eyes, too. “You can rest assured that your father would be beside himself. In fact, all he would do is brag to his friends about the three of you.” I paused. “I’m not sure a father has ever loved three girls more.”
“Well,” Jack said, chiming in, “I know we don’t all feel the same way about these things, but I think your father is watching over you. I think he knows how well you have all done.”
I smiled up at him. I had to admit that I loved the idea that Carter could look down and see the four of us happy after all these years. I wondered if he would be bothered that part of the reason for my happiness was Jack, this man who had played such an incredibly complicated role in the story of our lives together. But I reasoned that all Carter had ever wanted for me was happiness. It was why he’d made some of the decisions he’d made.
A few minutes later, we were all filing out of the store into the warm New York night, the bright lights so different from the shining stars of Peachtree Bluff. It occurred to me that in a lot of ways, these skyscrapers and this traffic were as much a part of my story as the calming waters of Peachtree. There was something happy in that thought, something calming, too.
“You really nailed that confession,” Jack whispered into my ear. I could hear the smile in his voice.
“I did, didn’t I?” I whispered back wryly.
I hugged Sloane. “I’m so proud of you.”
She smiled. “Thanks, Mom.” Then she turned to Caroline. “I sort of hate you for doing it without my permission, but you gave me something back tonight that I had lost. I found a piece of myself again, and as much as I don’t want to admit it, I found it because of you.”
Caroline ventured a curtsy.
James said, “If Caroline is the queen of anything, it’s pushing us all to be our best.”
“The queen ofanything?” Emerson said under her breath. “I thought she was the queen of everything.”
They smiled at each other.
I hugged my eldest daughter. “Thank you for this. I never would have imagined that my vision for this store could turn into something so extraordinary.”
“Oh, wait until you see Sloane Emerson LA,” Emerson said. “It will really blow you away.”
I kissed them all again and watched as Emerson took off with Mark, Caroline with James, and Sloane with Adam. It was right. It was perfect. I was so very much at peace.
Jack slipped his hand in mine and said, “Do you know that I think you are even more beautiful now than you were the night I inadvertently tried to stop your wedding?”
I blew air through my closed lips as if that was preposterous, which it was, and said, “That’s just because I was covered in layers of fur, and you’ve always preferred me a little more scantily clad.”
He winked at me and said, “Oh, I prefer youmuchmore scantily clad.”
We laughed, and as we made our way into the dark city, the honking horns and screeching brakes replacing the sounds of the wind and waves that I was used to, I felt down in the tips of my toes that while Peachtree was home, there was no city in the world quite as grand as New York.
SIXTEEN
emerson: compromise
