Page 140 of Key West Homecoming

He smiled and took another one.

Emma felt herself relax.

“Rachel thinks he’s in trouble,” she said. “She won’t promise me what will happen Wednesday, but she says nothing she heard this morning hurt our case.”

“That sounds good.”

“It does.”

“But?”

Emma thought about it. “I don’t think I care about winning the way I did when I first got here.”

Jake was quiet.

“I want the cottage,” she continued. “I want Gloria’s will recognized, and I want Arthur to understand he can’t take something just because he decides it belongs to him. Beyond that, I don’t want to spend the next year hating him.”

“Then don’t.”

Emma turned toward him. “That simple?”

“Probably not. But you don’t owe him your anger for the rest of your life either.”

She thought about that.

“You’re getting annoyingly good at this.”

“At what?”

“Saying the thing I need to hear.”

Jake smiled. “I’ve had a lot of practice lately.”

Emma looked across the yard at the unfinished pergola. She could hear traffic a block away and the rustle of palm fronds overhead. Nothing about the last several hours had been easy, yet sitting beside Jake made the morning seem farther away.

That was why she had come here. She hadn’t wanted silence. She had wanted someone she could tell the truth to without having to make it smaller or easier than it was.

Jake reached over and brushed a crumb from the corner of her mouth.

“Better?”

“A little.”

“Good.”

Emma looked at him. “I have to go back at one-thirty.”

“I know.”

She leaned over and kissed him.

This time there was no surprise in it. Jake put a hand against her cheek and kissed her back.

Emma didn’t move for a few seconds before finally pulling away.

“I really do have to go.”

“I know that too.”