Page 126 of Key West Homecoming

“I have a lawyer face?”

“You definitely have a lawyer face.”

“I’m not a lawyer.”

“You know what I mean.”

She did.

Emma looked down at her hands. Yesterday, kissing Jake had felt surprisingly simple. She had wanted him, and no longer worried about what the future held. If a complication was to come, it would come later, when she was alone and had time to think about Chicago, her job and how important Key West had become.

“I’ve been thinking about what happens after the hearing,” she said.

Jake waited.

“For days, I’ve been telling myself I would make decisions when the case was over. I’d figure out Chicago then. I’d figure out the cottage then. I’d figure out everything else then.”

“And now?”

“Now I think I was using the case to avoid answering questions I wasn’t ready to answer.”

Jake didn’t rush her. Emma had come to appreciate that about him. He could sit beside her without making silence feel like something that needed to be fixed.

“I don’t know if I’m going back to Chicago,” she said. “I don’t know if I’m staying here either. I only know something has changed since I got to Key West, and I don’t think I can go back and pretend it hasn’t.”

She thought about Gloria’s letter and the line that had stayed with her about making her life smaller so it would fit inside a job. At first, Emma had resisted it because admitting Gloria was right meant admitting how much of her life she had allowed work to consume.

She turned toward Jake.

“And I need to know something from you.”

“All right.”

“I know what happened with Nora changed you. I know you’ve spent three years trying to put your life back together, and I don’t want to assume I know what you’re ready for.” Emma paused. “Yesterday happened, and I’m glad it did. But if I’m going to think seriously about what I want, I need you to be honest about what you want too.”

Jake looked out toward the pergola.

Emma let him take his time. Asking the question made her more vulnerable than she liked, but she didn’t regret it. She had spent too many years arranging her life around certainty. There was no certainty here, only a man she cared about and a future she could no longer picture as clearly as she once had.

When Jake finally spoke, his voice was quiet.

“I’ve spent three years trying not to ask anyone to change their life for me. I don’t want to start with you.”

“I’m not asking you to make the decision for me.”

“I know.” He looked at her. “But you asked what I want.”

Emma nodded.

“I want you to stay.”

His words moved her more deeply than she expected. Jake didn’t dress them up or try to make them easier for her to hear.

“I want you here,” he continued. “Not because of the cottage and not because you might inherit enough money to make staying easier. I want to see you next week and the week after that. I want to know what your days look like when you’re not fighting with Arthur or sitting in a lawyer’s office. I want to find out what this is when everything around us isn’t complicated.”

Emma felt her throat tighten.

Jake looked toward the garden before continuing. “But I’m not going to ask you to stay for me. If you stay, I need it to be because this is where you want your life to be.”