Page 127 of The Emma Special

James was calling! He usually didn’t call her until lunch.

It was lunch time! She’d let the whole hour slip by, and she was going to be late meeting Lottie and the girls.

She closed the Bible, folded the page, and answered the phone as she scrambled to find her shoes. “Hello.”

“Hey, you sound frazzled. How’s your day going?”

She grabbed the keys to the BMW as she darted out the door. “No time to talk. I’m late for a meeting. But we do need to talk. Later. Soon. It’s important.”

“Oh, that sounds… ominous. Care to give me a hint about this big talk?”

“It’s not you, it’s me.” She adjusted the seat to fit her shorter legs behind the wheel and started the car. “Talk soon!”

Five minutes later, she was parking behind Brews and Books. Thank goodness there were a few spaces left in the small lot because she absolutely could not parallel park on the street. Not owning a vehicle meant she had a good seventy hours of driving time under her belt, and who had time to learn the higher levels of parking?

Lottie was waiting by the side door as Emma walked in. A small smile lifted her cheeks. “Hey.”

Emma embraced her new sister-in-law. It was still a shock to have a sister. She’d wanted a sibling her whole life, and now she had three all because of James.

Emma frowned at a stepladder near the wall. They’d replaced the mismatched artwork that had graced the wall for a decade. The new prints were bold, coordinating primary colors. Emma hated them on principle. She scrunched her nose at the atrocity and turned her focus to Lottie. “You okay?”

“Yeah. I just don’t think I’m ready to talk about me today. Is it okay if we just hang out? Girl time will do me a lot of good.”

“You bet.” Emma hooked her arm through Lottie’s and turned them toward their meeting spot. “We can talk about me instead because my life is a hot mess.”

Lottie rolled her eyes. “It is not. You’re married to James. I’d bet my silk pajamas that he’s always good to you.”

Emma nudged Lottie with her elbow. “You’re not wrong, but he’s married to me… so... You need to get caught up on the story.”

Emma introduced Lottie to the Kiss and Tell Book Club, who immediately met her with smiling faces and warm hugs. “Girls! Fill Lottie in on my marriage of convenience.”

Lottie gasped. “You don’t mean that.”

Summer shook her head. “I tried to stop her. A marriage of convenience is never convenient. Luckily, for these two, they were already kidnapped by the love train.”

Allison tipped her head back with a loud laugh. “You did not just say love train like a rotten food you found wrapped in foil in the back of your fridge. Summer McAlistar, would it be so hard to admit that sometimes a man and a woman can choose to love each other?”

Summer stuck out her tongue. “You’d have to knock me out and tie me up before I board that train willingly.”

“Why are we talking about trains?” Katie pulled her legs up under her on the cold, unfriendly black leather couch. “Lottie, here’s what you need to know…”

They dove right into Emma’s dilemma, starting with the old knee injury, the confetti explosion in his car, working for the firm, the almost-Spiderman kiss, to getting fired and the rushed marriage for the immediate insurance.

“Wow. I would have never guessed. You two just seem so perfect for each other,” Lottie said.

“That’s what we’ve been saying all along,” Katie added. “Two peas in a pod.”

Emma held up her hands in surrender. “You were right all along. I’m the problem.” She lowered her hands to her lap and took a deep breath. “I haven’t been fair to y’all or James. I talked to my mom this morning.”

Allison flopped against the stiff new chair that matched the terrible couch. “Here we go. More brain damage from Janey.”

“Wait. It’s good. I promise,” Emma said. “Mom places value on people based on what they can give her. She learned it from who knows how many generations. I’ve been trying to earn her love for years, but I could never do enough.”

“Sweetie, that’s not love. It’s emotional manipulation,” Katie said.

“I see that now—because I’ve had the three of you stick with me. James has never treated me as though my worth changes day to day on what he’s able to get from me. It isn’t fair to put those stipulations on our friendship.”

“Hallelujah. I think she’s got it,” Summer said.