He had even had it namedT/T Starlite Sisters(Tender To Starlite Sisters). It was so sweet. My heart surged with love for him, and even though I was enjoying this moment, I was ready for them to get out of here so I could get back to him.
“I don’t want to tell Emerson until after her wedding,” I said, looking around to make sure she was out of earshot. “She is so upset with me that I don’t want to add fuel to the fire. But Jack and I have set our wedding date.”
Caroline said, “Well, Mom, it’s now or never,” as Emerson walked up to the front gate, her hair disheveled, shoes in her hands.
I nodded and decided then and there that I knew she was mad, and I knew things were tough, but Jack was right. I had to choose him every now and then. I was going to marry him. No tantrum from my youngest daughter was going to change that.
So I said, as she reached the top step of the porch, “I want you all to know that Jack and I are getting married September 22. It’s the harvest moon, and it’s going to be simple and small and nothing to speak of. I want you there, but I understand if it’s too hard.”
“Did you even love Daddy?” Emerson asked me, her voice already high and worked up.
“Emerson!” Sloane scolded.
God, it cut me when she said that. Carter and I had had an imperfect marriage. We had both made some pretty big mistakes, and I had gotten some tough surprises in the wake of his death. But I had loved him through it all, and I hadn’t so much as looked at or thought about another man for sixteen years after he passed away.
I stood up and crossed my arms. I had been nice, and I had acquiesced to the four hundred fits she’d had up till now. I had soothed, and I had coddled. But she had crossed the line. I was done.
“How aboutThank you, Mom, for planning my dream wedding? Or maybeThanks, Mom, for paying for every ridiculous thing I wanted to try to make this day perfect for me? Or maybe evenThanks for always putting us first, Mom?” I threw my hands up in the air. “I loved your father. Don’t you ever, ever doubt that. But you have no idea what it was like for me. To lose my husband, to lose my money and my life and everything I had worked for and have to drag all of you back here because it was all we had left. To never tell you. To go back to work and keep this family together and raise you all alone. It wasn’t easy, Emerson. It wasn’t. I’m sorry if you don’t approve of my decisions. I’m sorry if you don’t want me to marry Jack. But I sacrificed everything for all of you for my entire life. It’s my turn now.”
She crossed her arms, too. “You can’t even remember if you told him you loved him on September 11. I always hear you say that. Maybe you wanted this to happen the whole time so that you could be with Jack.”
I nodded. I was so over this. I had to consider that maybe she would always carry this grudge. “Fine,” I said. “That’s fine.”
And I walked off the porch, down the steps, and down the sidewalk to Jack’s house. I didn’t want to unload all of this onto him. I honestly didn’t. But I couldn’t help myself. I was fuming and pacing, and the whole story came tumbling out.
“All I know is that you will work it out, Ans. The Murphy girls are a package deal. You can’t have one without the other three. That’s how it has always been. It’s how it will always be.”
I nodded. Thatwastrue. Or at least, it had been, I realized sadly.
Jack got up and pulled me to him and whispered in my ear, “You looked so beautiful tonight. All I could think about was getting you back home.” As he led me up the stairs, I honestly forgot all about my fight with Emerson, the guilt I felt over Carter, the pain that had risen so sharply to the surface I could have reached out and held it in my hand.
It was just Jack and me in our bedroom, in our house, the one he had bought for us, in this life that we had made together.
As we lay there, bathing in the moonlight, I whispered something to him that I’d never thought I would ever utter. “Maybe we should move.”
It was a stupid thing to say. I knew even then that I didn’t mean it, but I felt so ripped open that night. I thought back to the conversation I’d had with Sloane earlier about fresh starts. Maybe that was what Jack and I needed.
He shot up in bed. “I’m sorry. What?”
I shrugged. “We don’t have to. It’s just a thought. A clean slate. All that. But if you don’t want to—”
He kissed me, cutting me off. “Ansley, I came to Peachtree Bluff for you. I’d follow you anywhere.”
I smiled. I felt exactly the same way.
There was a light rap at the back door. Jack and I shared a glance. I got up and put my robe on, knowing it was probably Emerson and that, really, I was too tired and too old to fight it out tonight.
“I should go down and make sure it isn’t a serial killer,” Jack said. “I need to protect you.” He flexed his muscles as he said it, making me laugh.
I nodded seriously as I tied my robe and followed him down the stairs. As I had suspected, it was Emerson. When Jack opened the door, she practically fell into me, sobbing.
“He called it off. Mark and I aren’t getting married.”
Just like that, I forgave her. Because that’s what mothers do.
THIRTY-TWO
emerson: too much for the man
