Chapter 11
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Emmy spent the entire breakfast making small talk with her family, while Charlie sat beside her. His presence changed the dynamic. And he’d kept her mind off the fact that she didn’t know where they’d have family Christmas next year if the house sold.
Emmy was hyper-focused on the length of time between conversations before she began a new one, her table manners, and how many bites she ate in a minute.
She wanted to make a good impression. Was something wrong with her?
Everyone her age had moved on from their high school years, yet there she was, still getting warm fuzzies for the guy she’d grown up with.
There was only one reason her feelings for him lingered: At twenty-six years old, she hadn’t done anything of note to move forward.
“Right, Emmy?”
Madison’s voice floated into her consciousness.
“Hm?”
“I was telling Charlie that Adrienne McLoughlin’s getting married next year, and she’s already in plan-mode.”
Madison stole the conversation starter Emmy had saved for Charlie.
“And then I said that not everyone can stay single forever,” Aunt Charlotte chimed in.
Madison leaned forward, putting her forearms on the table. “But I said that staying single can be done. It just takes the right personality to do it.” She picked up her glass. “Many of us crumble under the weight of going through life solo. But not you, right? Emmy is a confident bachelorette.”
Emmy smiled, but Madison had confirmed exactly what Emmy had been thinking. Although, she was wrong about one thing: While Emmy didn’t crumble under the weight of being on her own, she wasn’t as confident as she might look.
They finished breakfast with small talk unrelated to Emmy, thankfully.
Aunt Charlotte had gone on for a while about how she’d really like to live in a camper and travel the U.S.
Uncle Stephen had insisted she’d be claustrophobic after a week, and they’d all fallen into a debate about what would be the most difficult aspect of living on the road.
After helping to clean up breakfast, Charlie pulled Emmy aside. “Want to go for a drive to pick up a few things for my parents?”
She’d never been more relieved to escape the house.
“Why don’t you bring your notebook and the envelope with your mom’s drawings so we can really look at them?” he asked.
“You sure you want to spend your free time viewing fashion designs?”
“Maybe we could sit somewhere, and you could draw that sketch you wanted to try?”
They could find an out-of-the-way spot and settle in for a few hours. That would be wonderful. “All right.”
She gathered up the items and climbed into his rental, and they drove out of town until rolling hills and fields opened up around them.
Despite the cold temperatures, the sky was an electric blue.
The grass through her window blurred along the winding road.
A lone red barn with white trim sat at the top of a hill dotted with grazing horses.
“Remember how my dad used to gun it to the top of this hill and then let off the gas?” Charlie asked as they approached a large rise in the straightaway.
“I do remember. We laughed so hard one time that I thought I was going to pee my pants.” It both scared her to death and gave her a rush of excitement.
He eyed her with a devious grin.
The car began to speed up, the engine rising to a crescendo.
“What are you doing?” she asked.
Charlie pressed down on the gas, and they climbed the hill at a rapid rate.
“Stop. Slow down.” She could hardly get the words out through her laughing as she gripped the door handle for support. “Stooop!” The fields on either side whipped past them.
“There’s no one out here but us!”
Then whoosh! They felt airborne. Her tummy flipped and she squealed, making Charlie burst with laughter. He let go of the gas and they slowly dropped back to a normal speed.
“You could’ve gotten a ticket,” she said, her heart pounding.
He glanced over at her, a glimmer in his eye. “It would’ve been worth it. I haven’t seen you laugh like that in a long time. I’m glad to know you still have it in you.”
She blew air through her lips to shake it off, but he was right. Even she couldn’t remember when she’d laughed like that. And when she tried to pinpoint the last time, she realized it was only Charlie who’d ever been able to make her do it.
“Speaking of our younger days, do you know the guy Adrienne’s marrying?” he asked.
Emmy shook her head. “I don’t.”
“I was surprised when she messaged me on social media for my address,” he said. “I haven’t spoken to her in ages.”
“Yeah, I haven’t seen her in a long time either.”
He maneuvered the vehicle around a curve. “That’s surprising. You two were really close in high school.”
“I know. It wasn’t either of our faults, really. We went separate ways after high school. And now, life is just so busy…”
It had been over eight years since she’d seen the person she’d spent nearly every day in high school with.
They’d cried together at graduation, knowing that Adrienne was heading across the country for college to the University of Texas.
Then, the days turned to weeks, weeks to months, and eventually to years.
Now, Adrienne had to ask for her address, because she didn’t even know where Emmy lived.
“So how is life?” he asked.
Loaded question.
She’d managed to avoid the topic during breakfast, but now there was no one to divert his attention. She didn’t want to lie to him, but she wished she had more to say. By this point, she should have at least some accomplishments to be proud of.
“That good?” He laughed.
“I’m stuck, really.” There. She’d said it out loud.
He glanced over at her and back at the road.
“I threw myself into a job out of college that I thought had promise, and it isn’t living up to my expectations.”
“I get that.”
“Really?”
From her sister’s accounts, he led his department.
“When I was a kid, I can’t ever remember saying I wanted to head up the cybersecurity unit at Bachman Global Services.”
“What kid would, though?”
He made a turn past a dairy farm, the road ahead of them leading through the hills.
“Do you remember what I wanted to be?” he asked.
“Something outside in nature?”
“Yes. Everything changed after I took that family trip to Yellowstone National Park when I was ten. I fell in love with white water rafting, camping, hiking.”
“It was before that. You and I made paths through the slip of woods between our houses and pretended to be in the wilderness. How old were we? Eight?”
“Oh yeah.” He rested his hand on the gearshift between them, his fingers more masculine than she remembered from their youth.
“Pretty much all my life, I wanted to be outdoors. And what career did I choose? One that offers me a cubicle in a windowless office, under fluorescent lights that hum in my ears all day. In winter, I get up before the sun and come home in the dark. I haven’t seen daylight in weeks. ”
“I had no idea you felt that way.”
“I had my head in the clouds when I went to college. I decided to major in something I was good at that would make me money. What I hadn’t considered was that all the money in the world isn’t worth giving up your days for. It is what it is now, I guess.” He glanced back over at her.
He didn’t love his job, but he also didn’t seem to let it spill over into his personal life. She’d had no idea how he felt about his choice of career until just now. He’d always seemed so happy. How did he do it?
“So tell me your nightmare job situation.”
She took in a deep breath and let it out. “Well, my boss is a friend of my mother’s.”
“Oh, really?”
“Mm-hm. I didn’t know my mom knew her until the funeral.”
“Who is she?” he asked.
“Vivienne Moreau. You might remember her.” She’d walked into that dark day like a ray of sunshine, and with her oversized black hat and razor-sharp heels, Emmy instantly knew she was someone important.
“I think I do remember her. She stood out.”
“It was hard to miss her.”
Vivienne was beautiful. With her dark shiny hair wrapped tightly into a bun at the back of her neck and bright red lipstick, she was a picture of glamour.
“My dad had sent out invitations to Mom’s celebration of life service from her list of contacts.
At the funeral, Vivienne introduced herself to Madison and me.
She told us that she’d studied in Paris with my mom, but she was only there for a semester and then she went into marketing while my mom stayed in design.
Then, she told us that if she could do anything for us, to let her know.
She wrote her personal number on the back of three business cards and slipped them into our hands. ”
“That seems like a nice gesture.”
“I thought so too. I saved her card all those years.”
Charlie’s kind eyes and relaxed demeanor made it easy to be honest, and Emmy enjoyed the chance to unload her thoughts.
“At the time, I didn’t have a need to contact her, but after college, with a degree in marketing and PR and zero experience, I struggled to get my foot in the door, so since she owned a PR company, I gave her a call.
I think she offered me the job because she felt sorry for me.
She was kind in giving me a meager paycheck and the title of Communications Assistant, but she won’t give me an opportunity to really show her what I can do. ” Emmy shook her head.
“Have you asked her about it?”
“I scheduled a meeting with her for after the holiday.”
“That’s a good start. What are you going to say?” he asked.
Emmy hadn’t thought that far through the upcoming conversation. What was she going to say? “I suppose I’ll ask her outright to give me a shot, let me show her what I’m capable of. It’s so weird. She trusts me with her sushi order—she doesn’t trust anyone with that. Why won’t she give me a shot?”
He grinned. “You’re better than sushi pickup. In high school, you were a top student, and you always worked really hard. You studied way more than I did.”