47. Emerson A Star
emerson: a star
THE TOWN OF PEACHTREE BLUFF Sunshine List was one of the only accounts whose emails I always opened. I mean, come on, The Sunshine List? Who wouldn’t want to open that?
We were all gathered in Sloane’s new open living room, which Mom had decorated so perfectly for a huge family with two big sofas and four cushy chairs. It was more casual than typical Ansley Murphy, but Sloane was too, so that made sense.
Vivi and Tyler were cooing over baby Lee on one end of the sofa, while Mom and Jack looked on—slightly disapprovingly—from the other end. I knew what they were thinking, and I didn’t one hundred percent blame them: They didn’t want Vivi and Tyler thinking having a baby would be fun.
Sloane was stretched out on the other sofa, with Adam at the end, Kyle and I were on the floor, Caroline and Chase were nauseatingly in love and smashed into the same large chair, and Preston, AJ, Carter, and Taylor were banging around noisily upstairs.
The rest of us were quiet and exhausted from the total lack of sleep.
I was shocked they had already discharged Sloane.
But she and Lee were both in perfect health, and she was thrilled to get in her own shower.
No one was on their phone except for me, and Mom would scold me momentarily. Or maybe not. I gasped, and everyone looked over at me. “Guys!”
“What?” Mom asked.
“Listen to this!” I looked down at my phone again and read, “ ‘The town has spoken, and we have heard you. Our beloved town docks will stay public for now, as we work with consultants to come up with a new plan for how to proceed with the current repair needs. Thank you for making your voices heard. We look forward to meeting you on the boardwalk.’ ”
“No way!” Sloane said sleepily.
“Did you know about this?” Mom asked Jack.
He shook his head. “I’m surprised they didn’t let us know first, but at least this has been rectified.” He rolled his eyes.
“Jack…” Mom said.
He looked at Mom. “Maybe this should be a private conversation first?”
Mom sat up. “Wait. Does this have something to do with why we aren’t moving to Chicago?”
“You aren’t moving to Chicago!” Caroline cried, which I thought was particularly funny since she lived in New York and Mom’s whereabouts didn’t affect her that much.
“Oh, thank God,” Sloane said. “How was I going to handle three children alone?”
“Um, excuse me?” Adam said. “I’m here, if you’ll recall.”
“Oh, right,” Sloane said. “And you are my rock, sweetheart.”
“But a girl needs her mother when she has a new baby,” I filled in.
Caroline and I looked at each other and both burst out laughing.
Mom put her hand to her forehead and leaned back on the couch. “Thanks for having due dates just days apart. That’s going to be really easy to navigate.”
It was going to be tough, for sure. But Caroline and I both had husbands—husbands—who could take time off when they needed to, and I had a feeling that the distraction of this new baby was going to be welcome for Caroline as she began to consider life without Vivi at home.
They were best friends. This would be really hard for her.
“Okay, okay,” Caroline said. “Back to Jack.”
Jack flipped his eyes to Mom, and she said, “Whatever it is, I’ll tell them anyway, so let’s just go for it.”
He sighed. “Okay. Well, I figured out how Port-of-Call Properties got involved in Peachtree in the first place.”
Before he could continue, Mom said, “Oh my God. John. John was on the same football team as the mayor growing up. He hooked him up with Port-of-Call and kept himself in the middle. My brother was brokering the deal behind your back.”
Jack nodded, and Mom threw her head back and laughed and laughed. “I’m sorry,” she said, putting her hand up. “I hate the situation, but I just love being right about this.”
“Mom!” Caroline scolded. “That is awful. This is your brother. We want him to be good.”
She was still laughing. “No, we do. Of course we do. But he just isn’t. So, you give him the Port-of-Call Properties contact to help the brewery you two are trying to expand and he sells them on Peachtree Bluff too, and, I assume, would have profited millions.”
Jack laughed a little too, getting into the spirit of things. “And the best part is, everyone blames me for it and never suspects him.”
I had to laugh too, and then we were all laughing, mostly because we had slept three hours and were on the border of hysteria.
Mom started this, so I guess it made sense that she calmed down first. “Oh, honey,” she said to Jack. “I’m so sorry. I know how much you miss work.”
She cleared her throat. “Speaking of work…” And then she took a deep breath, and I knew she was going to do that thing she did where she had held something in for like fifteen years, so it all spurted out at once.
“Girls, I haven’t wanted to say this, but I can’t hold it in any longer.
I love you all so much, and I love working with you.
I love how you have taken this little hometown store of mine and made it into this thriving enterprise.
But, if I’m honest, I miss design. I want to take a few projects a year and play with babies and go to soccer games and sit on my porch with my pumpkin spice latte. ”
We were all silent. Vivi’s eyes met mine. She looked panicked. I felt… relieved. I didn’t want to do this anymore either. Could I get out of it? And blame it on Mom? It was almost as perfect a crime as the one John had tried to carry out.
Sloane was biting her lip, and I was upset she was upset.
We didn’t want to upset her. She was fragile right now.
But then she sat up a little, which made us all snap to attention because she had been practically comatose.
Sloane exhaled. “Mom, if I could get up and hug you, I would. But I feel the same way. I’m, like, a mom with a little bit of a creative streak.
I can’t do all this anymore. I want to be home with my babies.
I want to paint something, just because I feel like it.
I want to hold my baby without returning emails on my phone. ”
I nodded and touched my stomach. Oh my gosh. This was happening. We were all going to agree. “I’m going to have a brand-new baby and a small child and a very hectic career. I couldn’t agree with you two any more.”
We all swiveled to look at Caroline. Her face was totally unreadable.
She sighed. “Well, I mean, I’m not going to hold y’all against your will.
But if you’re expecting me to tell you I feel overwhelmed and want to give up the empire I’ve spent the last few years growing, I’m not going to say that.
But, I mean, the Wes situation is over, obviously.
” She leaned her head on Chase, who kissed it.
She shrugged. “So, let’s stick with what we have. I can manage it on my own.”
She didn’t look sure. In fact, she looked kind of nervous, which was not a look in her repertoire. She wasn’t trying to coerce us into anything, which was very out of character. She sang, quietly, parroting Celine Dion, “All by my-self…”
And I immediately felt guilty.
“Unless…” Jack chimed in.
All eyes were on him now.
“What?” Caroline asked. “Unless what?”
“Never mind.”
“Come on, Jack,” I said. “What were you going to say?”
He crossed his arms and leaned back on the sofa. “Look, I love and respect you all so much and this whole woman-owned, mom-and-sister brand you’ve created here. The last thing I’d ever want to do is insert myself…”
Caroline gasped and covered her mouth, and I swear her eyes filled with tears. “Jack! Would you be my new partner?”
He grinned almost cautiously. “Well, only if you’d want me to.”
Caroline jumped up now. Jack stood too, and she hugged him tightly. “Yes! Please! Yes! I don’t want to quit growing, and I need help. I need expertise. I need you!”
Now he grinned for real. “Yeah?”
She nodded vigorously, and Jack sighed, hugging her again. “Oh, thank God. I am dying out here with nothing to do. I mean, it’s like my brain and my body are atrophying all at once.”
Looking at the two of them, it hit me: He was her father. I didn’t think of it much because even still, even now, I thought of my dad as being their dad. But Jack was Caroline’s real, bona fide father. They had the same eyes and, it suddenly occurred to me, the same drive.
Caroline pulled away and looked at Jack. “Still a family business. Just a father-daughter-run one now.”
Mom interjected. “Well, great. Everyone’s happy.”
“I sure am,” Sloane said.
“Me too,” I said, looking at Jack and Caroline.
I was happy they were happy. I was happy they were bonding.
And, yeah, I’d say it: If I never had to talk about franchise paperwork again, it would be too soon.
Some women were made—like Caroline—to be moguls.
I was born to be a star. Even if it was only in my own life story.