Chapter Thirty #3
We didn't get the long life we wanted to spend together, but you made mine beautiful. The years we had, the love we shared, the girls we made, they were more than most people get even if they live to be a hundred.
Remember that and be the man you are. Create a new life, a new love. Live it well.
Emily
PS, if it turns out there is a heaven and we all meet up there later, I might not be so understanding!
Tears were rolling freely down his face even as he laughed quietly to himself.
"Love you, Em. Forever," he murmured before reading the whole thing through again.
~ ~ ~
Harper turned the envelope over and over in her hands. Every time she read the words on the front, she turned them away from her.
For the woman who will love Emmett.
That was her all right. She loved him with all her heart, and she loved the girls the same way.
And yet some small part of her still waited for someone to tell her she'd mistaken her place.
That she'd never really belonged there at all.
And now, just when she'd thought that she'd finally found the family she'd always wanted, here was Emily.
Emmett's wife.
The girls' mom.
Part of her wanted to drown the envelope in the creek and pretend it had never existed.
But she wasn't that scared girl anymore.
She was a grown woman who loved a good man and his daughters.
She looked at Emily's curly handwriting again. She was, as it declared, the woman who loved Emmett.
And Emily wasn't the enemy.
Of course Emmett still loved her, but Harper loved that about him. She didn't feel as though there was any competition. If anything, she felt a bond with Emily.
They'd both fallen for the same man.
Loved the same girls.
She opened the envelope carefully and slid the sheet of paper out.
Hi.
I don't know your name, but if you're reading this, you know mine.
You'll have heard it from Emmett and from the girls probably a thousand times by now. I know Libby wouldn't give you this letter until she was damn sure of you.
So, congratulations, I guess!
Emmett’s a wonderful man. But you know that for yourself—he’s your man now.
It's hard to imagine what the future will be like when I know I'm not going to be there for it.
And that's why I'm writing you this letter.
It breaks my heart—I'd say it kills me, but that seems a little close to the bone—that I'm not going to be around for Emmett and the girls.
They need a woman in their lives.
Emmett's a lover. He's a big old sweetheart who needs to love and be loved.
Alana's such a happy kid. She'll need someone to make sure she doesn't lose that.
God, I hope she hasn't lost it. I hope I didn't rob her of that.
And Tanya's only a baby still, but she's sweet and imaginative. I think she's going to be a dreamer. She'll need someone to keep her on track.
And Emmett, God bless him, will do the best he can. But he's a dad, not a mom. He'll do everything he can for them, and he'll still never be a woman.
That's where you come in.
I hate this, and at the same time I'm so grateful to you for being in their lives and loving them.
Here goes...
They're going to need a mom, and I'm begging you, if you can, to be that for them.
Please, please, please, be a mom to my girls, not just a wife to Emmett.
You might be wondering how I can write to you like this.
Part of me doesn't want to.
I'll tell you the truth—part of me wants to scratch your eyes out!
But I can't be there with them, and you can.
If Emmett loves you enough to trust you with our girls and his heart, then I trust you enough to love them well.
You’re holding their lives in your hands.
The lives of my family.
But now... now, they're your family.
And I'm asking you, woman to woman, to love them well. For me, yes. But for yourself too.
I hope you get the long and happy future with our family that I didn't.
And I hope that by the time it's over, my girls know you as their mom.
Emily
PS, if there is an afterlife and we all meet up there later, maybe they can clone him for us.
Tears streamed down Harper's face as she read and reread the letter.
"Thank you," she whispered as she swiped her thumbs under her eyes.
She'd known Emily had to be special.
But this?
This was something else.
She'd given Harper the one gift that even Emmett hadn't been able to convince her could truly be hers.
Belonging.
Family.
A place at the heart of something she'd spent her whole life looking for.
Harper traced her finger lovingly over Emily's name.
Emily had been gone for years. And yet somehow she'd reached across all that time and told Harper exactly what she'd needed to hear.
"I promise you," she whispered to the letter.
She got to her feet when Emmett started making his way down the steps from the deck.
She didn't know if she could explain it, or how he'd feel, or...
When he reached her, she could see that his eyes were red too. He put his hands on her shoulders and rested his forehead against hers.
"Are you okay?"
He nodded. "More than okay." He smiled through tears. "There's nothing for you to..."
"I know." She swallowed. "Isn't she wonderful?"
He gave her a sad smile. "She was. But she's gone, and she just kicked my ass from beyond the grave that I have to remember that and love you."
Harper couldn't hold in the little sob that escaped her lips.
He raised his eyebrows but didn't ask the question.
She dabbed at her eyes. "Sorry. It's just..." She looked down at the letter in her hands. "She gave me the one thing no one else ever could."
His gaze softened. "What?"
"Belonging." Her voice cracked. "A family to love."
She looked toward the vegetable beds where Alana had joined Tanya, holding the tape measure while they marked out the spaces together.
"She gave me a reason to call you mine—all three of you."
He closed his eyes for a moment, and when he opened them again they shone with tears.
"We are yours, Harper. And you're ours."
She nodded. "And now I know in my heart that it's true." She looked back toward the girls. "You and the girls..." Her throat tightened. "I love you, Emmett. I love them, and I love the life we're going to build together."
He brushed his lips over hers. "I love you, Harper."
He looked over at the girls, smiling when they started hauling lumber out from under the deck, Alana calling out directions and Tanya completely ignoring them as she wondered how large the beds would need to be.
"I hope you're interested in the kind of building that involves lumber - and, knowing Tanya, chicken wire."
Harper laughed. "Of course I am."
"Hey, Mama Bear, do you think we can grow those little caper things that go with the piccata?"
"Maybe," said Harper. "But they'd have to go in containers so we can bring them inside for the winter. They wouldn't survive the cold."
Tanya sighed dramatically. "Okay. Maybe we can build a greenhouse instead."
Emmett chuckled and wrapped his arm around Harper's shoulders.
Neither of them pointed out that Tanya had abandoned the vegetable beds entirely.
Harper rested her head against his shoulder, and together they watched the girls start measuring for a greenhouse instead.
Maybe it wasn't the plan they'd started with.
But somehow it felt exactly right;
;
;
I hope you enjoyed Emmett and Harper’s story.