Chapter 15 Knightley
Knightley
“Where’s your better half?” Stone Harper, the director and founder of the Juniper Grove Community Center, asks.
He approached my campaign booth at the Juniper Grove Sweet Tea Festival minutes ago to make sure I received his invite to the Halloween Bash the center is putting on for Halloween in a little over a week.
I scratch the back of my neck. “She’s working, but she’ll drop by here after.”
Stone nods, his blond hair catching in the slight wind, then glances back at his girlfriend, who is chatting with Emma Jane by some booth set up for a friendship bracelet exchange.
Why is that a trend?
Should I have “Knightley for Mayor” friendship bracelets made to appeal to younger voters?
I cringe. Nope. Not happening.
“Hey, have you thought of how we could go about a community-wide Fourth of July fireworks display?” Stone asks, his blue eyes widening with excitement.
“We have this event back in Dasher Valley, and it’d be cool to have one here, too.
” He continues to tell me all about the logistics of the event and how he thinks we could transfer something similar to Juniper Grove.
We continue to chat for a few minutes before his girlfriend and Emma Jane approaches.
“Mayor, have you met my girlfriend, Lucy Spence?” Stone asks, slipping his arm around her, though his smile as he looks down at her doesn’t quite meet his eyes. When she gazes up at him, there is… fear? Concern? Sadness?
Should I look deeper into this? Surely Stone wouldn’t be hurting a girl, right?
I exchange a quick look with Emma Jane, trying to have a silent conversation with her, but she turns her head and looks everywhere else.
I reach out my hand to shake Lucy’s. “Nice to meet you, Miss Spence. Emma Jane has told me a lot about you, and of course, I’d recognize a lady that looks like my former employee, Lorelei, anywhere.
I hear you’re our local romance author?”
She chuckles, but the sound is weak. She’s ghostly pale beneath her freckles. I cut my eyes toward Stone, who wears a worried expression. Maybe she’s just sick today or something. I need to stop reading political thrillers.
“That’s me.” She smiles once more, but it’s… haunted. She rises onto her toes and whispers in Stone’s ear, and then the two of them say their goodbyes, leaving me and Emma Jane alone at the tent.
“Emma Jane.” Once she looks at me instead of organizing the pamphlets on the fold-out table, I ask, “Is everything okay with Lucy? Is Stone… hurting her somehow?”
“What?” She throws her hands onto her hips. “Not a chance. Though I have noticed Lucy hasn’t been quite the same lately. She says it’s because of a book deadline or something.”
“All right, well. I trust you.”
“We need more water.” Gerald and Fred, the two guys helping with today’s campaign stuff, approach.
“I’ll go purchase some,” Emma Jane offers, and the guys take a seat in the shade.
I watch as Emma Jane leaves, wondering if she’s having a better day. The past month since everything went down at Mom’s house, she’s been different. More standoffish, but not mean or rude. Just reclusive, I guess. Some days her smile is genuine while other days it’s forced.
But no matter how much I press, she won’t tell me what’s wrong. And when I ask Marcus if he has heard anything from Henrietta, he tells me that Emma Jane is working through stuff but she’s okay.
I wish she would let me be there for her. Like she has in the past.
Except…
I’ve never cared this much. Have never had her on my mind as I fall asleep. Or typed and deleted text messages over and over. Or prayed to God that He would destroy whatever mental monsters she’s facing that she won’t share with me.
“People sound like they’re voting for you, you know? I know the poll numbers haven’t been great, but word of mouth says otherwise.” Gerald claps me on the back, pulling me out of my thoughts.
We get back to work, handing out informational pamphlets; talking to friends, strangers, and people visiting for the festival; and giving cotton candy and stickers to kids who come up to my booth.
When Emma Jane returns with the waters, the men set off, and she decides to tag along with them to, quote, “try to reach younger voters for me.”
As the festival comes to an end, Emma Jane sticks around to help me pack up. Mallory was supposed to be here by now, but she hasn’t shown up. We have a reservation for dinner at The Flats tonight, and we were supposed to leave from here together.
“Looking for your girlfriend?” Emma Jane questions, following my gaze to the parking lot.
Her tone is more gentle than in the past, and it eats me alive.
I want to tell her it’s all a farce. I’m not in love with Mallory, and she’s not in love with me.
I don’t know why I even went along with this, and now I feel stuck.
It’s not like I have anyone else available to me, though.
The election is a little under three weeks away, and then we can naturally come to an end. No one needs to know this arrangement was for anything short of us liking each other.
“We have a date tonight,” I say. Emma Jane nods her head, but I don’t miss the frown on her face.
In an instant, she shifts it to a smile, however, and begins to collect pamphlets that had fallen onto the ground.
I set down the Knightley for Mayor stickers I’m holding and grab her shoulders, spinning her around to face me.
“Emma Jane, what are you hiding from me? Ever since Mom hosted the dinner party for me and Mallory last month, you’ve been off. ”
She averts her gray eyes, her fingers tugging at the hem of her sparkly black shirt. A sure sign of nervousness for her. Why is she nervous?
“I’m fine.”
“That’s the biggest lie you’ve ever told,” I scoff but grow serious. “Tell me. What’s bothering you? Why have you been so down this past month?”
“You’re not mine to confide in anymore,” she says, and when she meets my gaze, I swear water pools in her eyes before she turns her back to me. The words pierce my heart like they did when she told me something similiar a month ago. How do I make her see that it’s not true? I am hers. I—
The thought captures my attention, but Emma Jane continues talking in a rushed yet unsure tone. “I’m fine, really. I’ve just been doing a lot of self-reflection. You know, about perfectionism and telling myself that I’m not the reason my mom died and stuff. Just reflecting on my life.”
I maneuver around to stand in front of her again, placing my hand on her forearm for comfort.
Her head is cast down, but I stare intently at her anyway, ducking down to try and get her attention.
“Janie, I am always here for you, okay? Don’t you know that by now?
” I am yours. I don’t know what to do about it, but I am yours.
After a beat of silence, she looks up at me through long eyelashes, a single tear running down her cheek. My heart breaks, and I reach to catch the liquid drop before it can fall. My finger trails up her cheek, and flames ignite in my stomach.
Seeing her cry is equivalent to getting punched in the gut.
This woman. I—
It hits me like a tidal wave, crashing over my being and giving my life new meaning.
I—I love her.
I love Emma Jane with every fiber of my being.
Stepping back, I drop my hand into a fist at my side.
How did I not realize this sooner? All those feelings I’ve battled for her on and off over the past couple of years, the ones I’ve fought daily as of late…
It is so much more than attraction. I know her.
She is a smart and calculated perfectionist who has an ego the size of Texas, but… no. That’s not entirely accurate.
Just like Cami, Emma Jane has been wearing a mask.
One that I should have seen through. She has so much love for the people of this town in her heart that she doesn’t want to ever disappoint them.
So instead of allowing herself to mess up and show negative emotion, she tucks it all down.
Deep down. So that no one has to worry about her.
And it makes her come off as a little manipulative.
And maybe she is, but I know her heart. Her actions are never out of malice.
Something is clawing its way up, and it’s tearing her apart. Is it those realizations? Is that what she’s reflecting on?
Why didn't I see her sooner?
I have to tell her I’m not taken. I need to free myself to be there for her.
“Emma Jane. Mallory and I, it’s—”
“I’ve got to go, Knightley.” She walks backward, her eyes boring into my soul as she leaves. Everything within me wants to stop her. Hug her. Kiss her. Tell her it’s going to be okay and that I’m not going anywhere.
“Emma!”
She turns her back to me, grabbing her long, flowy white skirt at the sides with both hands.
My heart shudders to a stop. She picks up her pace.
I kick the edge of the tent before running a hand through my hair, releasing a frustrated breath.
People have started looking, so I school my expression as best as I can, which means I probably look like I’ve been sucking on a lemon.
“It’s fake,” I whisper, wishing she would have stuck around to hear it.
Just get through this campaign, and then maybe…
“Hey, Knightley!” I whip around to see Mallory approaching me. She waves at Emma Jane as she passes her, but Emma Jane only nods once in greeting before continuing across the town square area full of dead grass and bare trees and people taking down their stands.
“Hey, Mallory.” My voice is rough, as if I’m on the verge of crying myself. I swallow then try again. “You made it.”
She tucks a strand of brown hair behind her ear before running her hands down her orange dress. “I want to call off our fake relationship.”
I’m stunned silent, my mouth opening to say something but closing because I don’t know what to say.
She takes advantage of the silence. “You see, I’ve met someone.
Well, it’s an old friend from high school.
We reconnected online, and I told him my relationship with you was for publicity purposes only.
He doesn’t feel new, you know? You felt new, and I wasn’t ready.
But with him… I think I could be ready for him. I really like him, and—”
“Let’s end it,” I interrupt, saying the only thing I could possibly say at the moment. Thank you, God, for this opportunity. I don’t deserve it, but thank you for Your grace. She grins, her eyes crinkling in the corners.
“You’re seriously okay with that?”
I nod, matching her smile. “Absolutely. I wish you and this guy all the happiness in the world.”
“Can I still work on your team?”
“I wouldn’t have it any other way, Mallory.” I reach out to shake her hand.
She pulls me into a hug instead, whispering in my ear. “Go get her, okay? Don’t let the age gap or fear of what people may say get in your way. I’ll work on press releases to put out when you decide to announce your relationship.”