“Hokay, Poppy,” she said, not protesting a peep at the change in direction even though she’d just sat down. She was in a spectacularly good mood, high on the rebellion of skipping nap. She held out her arms for Emerson to help with the altitude change and then hopped away like a rabbit, snacks in hand. Emerson watched her go before turning back to Jay’s questioning face.
“So you met this guy at a bar, and now he’s going to work at the farm? Did you at least run a background check?”
Emerson knew how it sounded. But running a background check cost money. Money Emerson didn’t have.
He knew Jay would become even more irritated if he said that, though, so he lied instead, just like he’d lied to Luca when he’d said he’d run one. As he had lied to Jay throughout their marriage: always about little things, always to avoid conflict, always done too much.
“Yeah.”
“And can you…” Jay leaned a palm against the counter, stuck his other in his back pocket, clearly uncomfortable. “You can afford him?”
Now Emerson shifted on his seat. He never had been able to lie about anything of true consequence. And he knew, if Luca actually showed up and everything went according to plan, that a strange man living with them would certainly be of consequence.
“We actually made an arrangement. He offered to do the work if I offered him free room and board.”
“He’sstayingwith you? For free?Wait—” Jayden’s eyes went wide. “There’s going to be astrangerliving with Daisy?”
“He’s not a stranger,” Emerson tried to placate. “Well, he’ll be a stranger to Daisy, but his family’s lived in Greyfin Bay a long time. Mostly all fishermen. They’re good people.”
Emerson couldn’t afford an official background check, but hehaddone his due diligence. Meaning, he’d texted Mae, who’d asked their partner Dell. He’d done it this way because he’d figured Dell would ask Liv, whom Emerson had wanted to ask in the first place, since Liv knew everyone in Greyfin Bay. But as his current most important business partner, he also didn’t want Liv to think he was a dumbass.
And as Jayden’s face currently communicated: it was possible Emerson was being a dumbass.
But Mae was friendly and kind, another relatively recenttransplant to the coast from Portland, so he knew they’d get to Liv for him without judgment.
As it turned out, Dell himself knew Luca pretty well. Vouched for his trustworthiness, his family’s roots.
Even if hehadn’tchecked in with Mae first, though?—
Emerson would never try to explain this to Jay—maybe another tiny lie; Emerson had a hard time sometimes, figuring out the line of what exactly constituted a lie—but even if Dell or Liv hadn’t been able to vouch for Luca, Emerson justknew, walking his land with him last night. Luca asked questions but never talked over him. Seemed genuinely interested, but never tried to fit unnecessary words in the silences. There was a…solidness about him, a solidness that made the back of Emerson’s neck heat, but that made him feel safe, too.
Maybe it made him a dumbass, but Emerson trusted him. Inherently.
In any case, Emerson wasn’t putting their daughter in danger. If there was even the barest sign of anything odd with Luca, he’d call the whole thing off. He’d fucked up a lot of things with Jay, he knew that, but he would never, ever put Daisy in peril.
“And he’ll be—” Jayden was now switching, at regular intervals, between crossing his arms and leaning his palms against the counter. Jayden had always hated thenot knowingof life. Had never been able to handle the idea of not knowing if your seeds would bear fruit, not knowing what price you’d be able to get for your crops even when everything went right—all the uncertainty that came with farming. The tip of the deep iceberg of their divorce.
And while all that worrying often frustrated Emerson over the years—please just trust me, please just trust this—now, he found the battle within Jayden’s mind, so clear to him, an almost physical presence he could see through his skin, sofamiliar and endearing that he had to fight the urge to slide off his stool, walk around the island, and hug him.
An urge he had to fight almost every time. Every weekend. Every dropoff and pickup. Every time their orbits came into contact again, however briefly.
“He’ll be living with you. In our house.”
Emerson didn’t even have to say anything. Jayden winced at himself, looking away.Not our house, anymore.
“I was going to put him in the spare bedroom.”
He felt almost silly after he said it. Of course Luca would stay in the spare bedroom; what other room was there? But the spare bedroom was where Yulia and Graham, Jayden’s parents, always stayed when they visited the farm. The people who still felt the most like parents to Emerson, even if he knew they were now his ex-in-laws.
He wasn’t entirely sure where they would stay now, when they came to visit.
If they ever came to visit again.
It wasn’t fair, he knew, the desire he had for Jayden to understand, to not be mad, to pass the message to Yulia and Graham for him.He’s been in a bit of a bind, really needs the help. Hopes you still visit sometimes, though—you will, right?
“Right.” Jayden blew out a breath. “What’s this guy’s name?”
“Luca Yaeger.”
