Page 79 of The Emma Special

Emma glanced at Allison whose eyes were squeezed tightly shut. Allison’s lips curved down, and her eyebrows creased. She gripped Emma’s hand as if keeping her from falling from a cliff.

Allison sucked a breath through her nose and whispered. “I don’t know what to ask for.”

Summer cleared her throat and took over the prayer, “God, we love Emma so, so much, yet not nearly as much as You do. We can’t stand to see her crippled like this. We know all things will be made new in time, but I don’t think you’re planning to let Emma wait for eternity to dance again. Show us what you’ve got in mind please, and we’re ready to help her any way we can.”

Katie, on Emma’s other side, squeezed her hand. “Amen.”

Emma’s friends opened their eyes one by one and waited for her to speak. As if they knew she was keeping something from them. Maybe that was her own guilt prodding her.

“James came to see me today.” Emma wet her lips and searched for the right words. She fiddled with the broken head of a flower, pulling off the pink petals one at a time. “He asked me to marry him.”

“Oh, my goodness,” Katie whispered.

“And you took a nap with that news stuffed in your mouth?” Summer asked.

Allison gripped Emma’s hand again. “What did you tell him?”

“I said I needed to think about it.”

“So let’s think!” Allison said.

“Hang on!” Summer sat up on her knees, lifting a hand for attention. “What is going on? Emma has some explaining to do. We know you like the man. You’ve been crushing on him since you hitched a ride⁠—”

“I haven’t⁠—”

“Don’t.” Summer grimaced. “Your eyes have been all sparkling sunshine for a month—which is a solid green flag for James when we all know you hated the job. So, as I was saying, you like James. We like James. But we don’t like when people—you—leave us out of the story. So what in the grandma’s girdle happened between last week, ‘I think he was flirting with me,’ to today ‘He asked me to marry him?’”

Summer flopped on the blanket and tucked stray hairs back into her headband. “Kate, hand me that bundle of mountain mint. No, not that one. That’s eucalyptus. Emma, start at the beginning.”

“I don’t know where to start.”

Katie nudged her with a gentle shoulder, “Once upon a time…”

Emma smiled and laid everything out from every angle. Nothing was left uncovered as the girls searched for every truth of the matter. It all spilled out. James’s offer of a forever marriage, the conflict and the joy with his family, the phone conversation with her own mother. By the time the oat bars had disappeared and every flower had been added to a bouquet, Emma’s chest was lighter, but she was no closer to an answer.

“What will you do tomorrow if you say no?” Allison bluntly asked.

“When I try to picture it, it’s all foggy. I don’t know.”

Allison opened her bag and pulled out a legal-sized white notepad and a cream pen pouch with a metal zipper. She unzipped the pouch and dumped a collection of shimmer gel pens on the blanket. With a teal pen she wrote on her page while speaking, “Does Emma need surgery?” She raised an eyebrow at Emma then wrote a ‘Yes’ and ‘No’ underneath the question. After the ‘No’ she drew a line and started writing again, “Emma is faking an injury and will have a good laugh about tricking everyone.”

Underneath the ‘Yes’ Allison wrote another question.

Emma squinted, trying to read the cursive upside down. “Are you making a flowchart?”

Allison snorted. “Roll with me for a minute. Okay. Answer this one. Is James nice to look at?”

Emma dipped her eyebrows. “We’re leading with that one?”

“Answer the question!” Allison snapped while laughing.

“Well, yes.”

“Have you witnessed James be mean to anybody, ever?”

Emma chewed her lip thinking then shook her head. “No.”

“Is he a safe driver?”