5. Ansley One Little Sentence #2
I thought back to that terrifying day that I wrote the first month’s rent check—the check that comprised almost every cent I had left—and opened the doors to Sloane Emerson’s original Peachtree Bluff location.
I had no blueprint for success, no one to help me.
But I did have the sheer burning desire to support and protect my children now that my husband was gone—and had left us with absolutely nothing.
Less than nothing. Sometimes I think that I made it because there was no other choice.
I had to succeed. This had to work. If it didn’t, we were all going to starve—or move back in with my mother, who had made it clear that that wasn’t an option.
“Okay, Wes. I’m sorry. But if that one little sentence scared her away, she wasn’t the right fit anyway.”
“I guess you’re right.” He paused. “Hey, I was thinking. Maybe when we get back to the hotel we could call Caroline together?”
I stopped on the sidewalk and, a second later, noticing, he stopped too. “Wes. No.” I was firm but kind. “I don’t interfere in my daughters’ relationships.”
Even as I said it, I knew that was laughable.
Half my life was now spent with Sloane and Adam, trying to get their house finished and keep them from bickering over decisions.
Kyle had actually come to me to talk it out before he had even told Emerson he loved her.
And I still had way more contact with James, Caroline’s ex, than I’d like.
So, okay, I was deeply involved in all my daughters’ relationships.
But I wasn’t going to be involved in whatever this was.
When we reached the Ritz, I gave Wes a small hug. “It’s all going to be okay.”
“Caroline or the store?”
“Both,” I said confidently. I just as easily could have said neither because, really, I had no idea. But I liked to be comforting.
Jack was waiting for me in the lobby. I allowed the warm, fuzzy feeling that I always got when I saw him to wash over me. Sometimes, the crinkling at the corners of his eyes, the salt-and-pepper of his hair, still startled me. Were we not those same kids that had fallen in love so many years ago?
It shocked me, often, to remember that we were not.
But I was more shocked to see that Jack was sitting with my brother John.
Jack had a day full of meetings today… But surely not with John?
An uneasy feeling crept over me. Even still, I pinned on a happy face.
John got up to hug me, towering over me.
I hugged him back, noticing he had slimmed down a little since the last time I had seen him.
It still took me aback sometimes that he was totally gray-haired now, and I wondered if we always imagine our siblings, in some ways, as children, as we once knew them.
The color suited him well, gave him a distinguished air.
We were back in each other’s lives in a small way, which made me happy, but we definitely weren’t as close as my brother Scott and I were.
I knew every relationship was different, and sometimes I felt small for not being able to forgive John more fully.
But he had broken a trust between us that, even after these good past few years, I hadn’t been able to fully repair.
“What are you doing here? I thought we were meeting at the restaurant,” I asked my brother.
“Oh, we are,” John said. “But Jack and I had a meeting this morning, and we couldn’t wait that long to talk to you about it.”
My blood ran cold. Jack and John? A meeting?
About what? Jack hadn’t had a job outside of Peachtree Provisions in years, and John was finally back on his feet after a long, sad divorce.
He had started a new brewery in Chicago that had really taken off.
I was proud of him. He’d pursued his passion and it had worked out for him.
He had a busy, thriving brewery, but I couldn’t imagine what that had to do with Jack.
Maybe he wanted Jack to carry the beer in Peachtree Provisions?
But that seemed like a pretty easy, low-stakes yes. I couldn’t imagine that involved me.
“Sit down, Ans,” Jack said. “We have so much we want to tell you.”
That was when the warning bells pealed in my head.
I found a chair.
“So, you know my brewery has been going really well, right?” John’s eyes sparkled, and, despite my anxiety, I loved seeing him this enthusiastic about something. His whole person seemed reinvigorated.
I nodded. “Right. Yup. And you know I’m really proud of you.”
Jack picked up: “John here was hoping I could potentially help him expand his brewery, introduce him to some of my private equity contacts. We are going to be partners in this thing!”
I was stunned. And I couldn’t believe that my own husband, who knew firsthand how distrusting I was of this particular brother, would have the gall to make this decision without even consulting me. And present it as if it was a done deal.
“Isn’t this great news, Ansley?” John asked. “You look kind of pale.”
“Oh, it’s just great news, John.”
I was annoyed by this, sure. But nothing at all in the world could have prepared me for what was coming next: “And, Ans, the best part is, we’re going to get to have a big adventure!”
“The going-into-business-together isn’t the big adventure?”
“Y’all are moving to Chicago!” John practically sang.
My jaw dropped. To his credit, Jack did at least shoot John a look at that one.
“Oh, we are, huh? How kind of you to make decisions about my life without so much as factoring me in. Who even are you right now?”
I couldn’t sit there anymore. My behavior was only going to get worse, and I needed to put a lid on things.
So I stomped off toward the elevator, trying to calm myself down.
Just because Jack was moving didn’t mean I had to.
But, for heaven’s sake, he was my husband.
You didn’t do long-distance with your husband unless there were some pretty dire circumstances. But how could he do this to me?
I thought back to that feeling I’d had on the dock just last weekend, surrounded by my family.
All I wanted now was to be back in Peachtree Bluff, in my comfort zone, in my happy place, right this minute.
I hadn’t wanted to leave. And I realized that the premonition I’d had before this trip was real.
And now, tears sprang to my eyes at the thought of how I would ever even begin to start over in a new city.
And, what’s more, leave behind the comfort of the place that had saved me time after time.
My daughter was there, my grandsons, another new child on the way.
Peachtree Bluff, and that house, had been the gathering place for our family for generations.
I was the matriarch now, and all I wanted in all the world was to be there, surrounded by my family, making memories for the next generation.
That town had saved me when I needed it most, guided me, protected.
And I couldn’t even imagine, at this point in my life, trying to make a new place home.