Back at the Beaumont flat, we were all a little tipsy. The champagne was flowing, the sisters were laughing, the kids were sleeping—and theMark Loves Emersonmix CD he had made my junior year was playing quietly over James’s impressive sound system.
I was perhaps the tipsiest of all, but I was also the youngest and maybe the happiest. Even the news that the nest egg I had always imagined receiving one day no longer existed couldn’t spoil my night.
Now that I knew the money from Dad was gone, my entire mind-set was different. I’ll be honest, my first inkling had been to do what Mark wanted, move back to Peachtree Bluff and fall comfortably into the silk-pillow-cushy world he had created for me. But really, where would be the fun in that? Instead, I would throw myself headfirst into my acting and work on this new store project with Caroline. I knew that I would never be happy unless I was making my own way in the world.
“Caroline,” Sloane said, “that was the best store opening in history.”
“Until ours,” I interrupted. “Because Caroline will have made all her mistakes on the first one.”
James burst out laughing. “Mistakes?” He pulled Caroline close and said, “My girl doesn’t make mistakes.”
Yeah, that’s only you, I wanted to interject. I would forever be watching him very, very carefully.
“Wait,” Mark said. “You’re not seriously thinking about opening a store in LA?”
I couldn’t decide if his voice was accusatory or if it just sounded that way because I’d had too much to drink.
“Of course we are,” Caroline said. “It’s going to be amazing. Why wouldn’t we open another store?”
Mark’s cheeks were turning red, and I knew what was coming next. “Oh, gee. I don’t know. Maybe because we just had a talk about how Emerson was going to spend as little time in LA as possible and that we were going to try to make this thing work in Peachtree Bluff. Did we notjusthave that conversation, Emerson?”
I saw Adam shift in his seat, and I could feel his big-brother protective instincts kicking in. “Dude, I don’t like your tone.”
Mark looked him up and down like he was pond scum. “I didn’t ask your opinion, man.”
Adam was silent and stock-still. Mark might not have known it, but that was when he was at his scariest, his most primal, a predator about to attack prey that never saw it coming.
“It’s not that big a deal,” I said quickly, trying to ease the tension between the two men. “We’re going to own it and spend time there, yeah. But we will also have a whole team of people in place running it.”
Mark scoffed. “That shows how little you know about business. It’syourbusiness. No one is going to care about it like you do. And then it’s going to be the day before our kid’s second birthday, and the manager doesn’t show up, and you’re going to have to rush off to LA to check on your damn store.” He paused. “First I have to compete with acting, and now this? You’re such a selfish bitch, Emerson.”
I didn’t even have time to react. I almost didn’t see it happening, it was so fast. In one swift motion, Adam was out of his chair and had Mark by the back of his neck, like a mother cat with a kitten. I heard the front door open and Adam say, “If you ever talk to my little sister like that again, she won’t be crying over what you said to her. She’ll be crying over whether to take you off life support.”
Mark didn’t say anything back, which might have been the first smart decision he had made in a while. I heard the door slam shut.
Everyone was silent as Adam walked back in, his limp seeming more pronounced. Sloane shot him a look, and I couldn’t tell if it was one of approval or disapproval. I didn’t know what to say. On the one hand, I felt proud that Adam thought of me as his little sister, that he had protected me like that. On the other, I felt sick to my stomach, because I knew he had humiliated Mark and I would be the one to pay for it later.
“Sorry,” Adam said under his breath.
“There’s nothing to be sorry for,” Caroline said. “He shouldn’t speak to her that way.”
I felt glued to the floor. Part of me wanted to run after Mark. The bigger part of me wanted to sit here with my family.
“Emerson...” Sloane started.
I shook my head. “I can’t, Sloane. It’s fine. He just had too much to drink.” I shrugged. “It’s my fault. I knew this would make him mad, and I did it anyway.”
I let his words sink in, roll around. Because he wasn’t wrong. I was being selfish. Expecting him to agree with whatever I wanted wasn’t compromise, and it wasn’t a good way to start a marriage. I hated being wrong. But a part of me had to realize that I was.
It wasn’t the first time I had made the wrong choice. Ihadplayed Edie Fitzgerald in that movie, and while, no, I hadn’t known when I first took the part that James was having an affair with her, I’d found out in plenty of time to back out of the project, and I hadn’t. That was selfish. Was this a pattern? It was more than I could process, and I didn’t want to think about it anymore.
So to change the subject, I raised my glass. “To Caroline,” I said, “who has always been able to make Sloane and me miserable or ecstatic. Thank you for using your powers for good.”
We all clinked glasses, but my sisters eyed me warily.
“I just can’t talk about it tonight, OK?” I said pleadingly.
Sloane rolled her eyes and turned to Caroline, silently obeying my wishes. “I can’t believe you’re doing this at all,” Sloane said. “It’s a lot of work. And if I know you, that hasn’t always been your thing.”
