Chapter 29
The first week of July came in hot and stayed that way. By eight o’clock Thursday night, the fans at Margarita Max’s were moving warm air around the room without doing much to cool it.
The place was two-thirds full. Joey played near the front, and every few songs someone got up to dance. Connie stood at the register where she could see the whole room and let everybody else do the work.
Emma had been at the bar for about twenty minutes when Tess dropped a rack of glasses.
Nothing had been in her way. She had carried the rack with both hands when it slipped and hit the floor.
Leah didn’t even turn around.
“That’s the third one this week,” she said.
Emma looked toward the kitchen. “Is she all right?”
“She’s fine. She’s been fine since Sunday, and she’ll go on being fine until she isn’t.”
Tess came back with another rack and set it down. Then she started telling Leah about the ice machine but was clearly distracted. Halfway through the story, she looked toward the screen door.
“Is somebody going to tell me what’s going on?”
“Nobody’s going to tell you anything because there’s nothing to tell.” Leah put Emma’s soup in front of her without breaking stride. “And if there were, I’d have told you. I’d like that on the record before this evening goes any further.”
“All right. My goodness, you don’t have to be so snippy.”
From the end of the bar, Lloyd spoke without turning his head.
“In forty-six years, I’ve never seen a woman drop a tray on flat ground who wasn’t keeping some kind of secret.”
Leah pointed at his beer. “Drink that.”
At a quarter past eight, Joey stopped in the middle of a song.
He put one hand across the strings and leaned toward the microphone he rarely used.
“Somebody’s coming up the street,” he said. “I’ve been told to say so when they do.”
Tess froze.
The screen door opened.
Kaitlyn came through with her left hand already raised. Will was right behind her with his camera bag still across his chest.
For one second, nobody said anything.
Then Tess squealed.
She came around the end of the bar and reached her niece in the middle of the room. She took Kaitlyn by both shoulders and held her at arm’s length before pulling her into a hug.
“Let me see it. Let me see it properly. I can’t see a thing with you crying on me.”
“I’m not crying.”
“You’re crying on my good shirt, and I want you to know I don’t mind.”
Leah came around the bar without hurrying. She took Kaitlyn’s left hand and turned it toward the string lights.
Then she looked at Will.
“Smathers Beach,” he said. “About six o’clock. She said yes before I finished asking, which I want noted because I had a whole speech prepared.”
“You had a speech?” Emma asked.
“Four hundred words. I got through about nine.”
Kaitlyn laughed through her tears. “It was a very good nine words.”
Connie came out from behind the register with a dish towel over one shoulder. She looked at the ring for several seconds before turning to Will.
“You did it right.”
Then she went to the top shelf and took down a bottle Emma had seen her touch exactly once before.
After that, the room became chaos.
Someone started clapping at the end of the bar. The applause moved across the room until people who had no idea what they were celebrating joined in anyway. Joey started another song, this one louder, and a man Emma had never met shook Will’s hand twice.
Leah poured drinks. Tess held Kaitlyn’s left hand in both of hers and refused to let go. Will bought a round for the room, then stood there holding his own drink without taking a sip.
Emma found a glass in her hand and had no idea who had given it to her.
Kaitlyn finally reached the bar.
“Hello, cottage.”
She hugged Emma hard.
Emma laughed and hugged her back. “Congratulations.”
“Thank you. I’m still trying to believe it.”
Will came up behind her.
“She’s been calling you that since she heard about you,” he said. “I’ve had nothing else to go on.”
“It’s a good name for me.”
Kaitlyn held up her hand again. “Look.”
Emma did.
The ring was simple and beautiful. More than that, Kaitlyn looked happy in a way Emma recognized immediately.
A few weeks ago, Emma might have thought happiness was supposed to look more complicated than this.
Now she knew better.
Somewhere in the middle of the celebration, Emma looked toward the register and found Tess standing there alone. She held a dish towel in both hands and watched her niece across a room full of people.
Emma finally understood.
Tess had known since Sunday.
She had carried the secret for four days without telling anyone, and the effort had apparently cost Margarita Max’s three racks of glasses.
Emma smiled.
Leah appeared beside her with the bottle.
“You knew too.”
“I knew enough.”
“And you let me sit here asking questions.”
“I told you there was nothing to tell.”
“That wasn’t exactly true.”
“It was true until she walked through the door.”
Emma shook her head. “You people are exhausting.”
“And yet you keep coming back.”
Emma smiled. “I do.”
The celebration went on for nearly two hours.
Kaitlyn and Will left around ten-fifteen. Will kept one hand at the small of her back as they made their way through the room. Half the bar shouted after them, and Kaitlyn turned in the doorway to yell something back that disappeared beneath Joey’s music.
Tess picked up the tray she had left on the counter.
“Twenty-five,” she said. “I was twenty-five once.”
“You were terrible at it,” Leah said.
“I was magnificent at it.”
“You were terrible at it, and I have photographs.”
Emma laughed and turned toward the end of the bar.
Jake was there with a beer he hadn’t touched.
She hadn’t seen him come in.
“How long have you been standing there?”
“Since Connie went for the bottle.”
“You didn’t say anything.”
“You were busy being part of it.” Jake looked around the room. “I thought it was time I came in here for something besides takeout. Looks like I picked a good night.”
Emma looked around too.
Connie was back at the register. Leah and Tess were arguing about something near the sink. Lloyd sat exactly where he always did. Joey had moved on to a quieter song.
A month ago, Emma had walked into Margarita Max’s as a stranger.
Tonight, Jake was right.
She had been part of it.
“It was lovely,” she said. “But I’m tired. Marisol’s probably wondering what happened to me. My lights are usually off by ten.”
“I’ll drive you back.”
They left a little after eleven.
Outside, the air had softened but not cooled much. Jasmine scented the sidewalk from somewhere nearby.
They had walked half a block when Emma noticed Jake was quieter than usual.
“What are you thinking about?”
He looked at her.
“An email.”
“That sounds serious.”
“It is.”
They kept walking.
“I’ve been writing it in my head for days. I finally put it on my phone this afternoon.” Jake rubbed a hand over the back of his neck. “I’m going to send it tonight before I lose my nerve. I wanted to tell you that so I can’t put it off until morning and pretend I forgot.”
Emma stopped.
“Who is it to?”
“Nancy.”
Emma knew immediately.
Nora’s mother.
Jake had told her enough about Nancy for Emma to understand what the woman meant to him. She had remained part of his life after Nora died, even when nearly everything else from that life became too painful for him to hold on to.
“I’d like you to read it first,” Jake said.
“Are you sure?”
“I am.”
Emma nodded. “Of course.”
They found a bench not far from Max’s beneath a streetlight.
Jake sat beside her, took out his phone and looked at the screen.
Then he handed it to Emma.
The email was four paragraphs long.
Hello Nancy,
It’s been a while since I’ve sent you an update about what’s going on here in Key West.
There’s a house here. It’s small and pale blue, on a street with a lot of trees.
It’s been empty for two years, and the garden needs someone to take care of it.
There’s a lignum vitae in the side yard that’s older than the house.
You know how much I love those trees. I’ve walked past this place for three years and never paid much attention to it until recently.
I want to buy it with the money you gave me.
I want to be honest about that because you’ve always been honest with me.
The money has been sitting in an account in Marathon for three years, and I haven’t touched a dollar of it.
I never thought I would. For a long time, using it felt too much like letting go of something I wasn’t ready to let go of.
There’s something else I want you to know.
I’ve fallen in love again. Her name is Emma.
She came to Key West because of her grandmother’s house, and somehow she became part of my life before I understood what was happening.
I haven’t told her I love her yet. I’m going to do that after I send this to you.
None of this changes what Nora meant to me. It never could. I’ll carry her with me for the rest of my life, and I know you understand that better than anyone. I hope you also understand why I need to keep living. I think Nora would want that for me.
Jake
Emma read the email twice.
The second time, she slowed down when she reached the part about Nora.
Jake had once told her that Nancy gave him money after Nora died. He had never used it because spending it felt wrong. Emma understood now that the money had become one more thing he had kept untouched because moving forward felt too much like leaving Nora behind.
The pale blue house changed that.
So did Emma.
Her eyes filled before she reached the end again.
When she looked up, Jake was watching her.
“Are you sure?”
“I’ve never been more sure.”
Emma handed the phone back to him.
Jake didn’t send the email.
Not yet.
He held the phone loosely in one hand and turned toward her.
“I realized something the morning I found that house. I’d spent three years telling myself I’d already had the love of my life. I thought whatever came after Nora would always be less than what I had with her.”
Emma’s throat tightened.
“I was wrong.”
Jake reached for her hand.
“I love you, Emma.”
She closed her fingers around his.
For all the time Emma had spent wondering what she would feel if Jake ever said those words, the answer was surprisingly simple.
Relief.
Hearing him say it finally allowed her to stop holding back the part of herself that already knew the truth.
“I love you too.”
Jake’s eyes closed for a second.
Emma smiled through her tears.
“I think I’ve been falling in love with you for a while.”
Jake lifted her hand and kissed her knuckles.
Emma looked at the phone still in his other hand.
“If you’re ready, send it.”
He looked down at the email.
Then he looked back at Emma.
“I’m ready.”
Jake pressed send.
Emma understood what that small motion had cost him. The email wasn’t permission to love her. Jake didn’t need permission from Nancy, Nora or anyone else.
It was something more personal than that.
He was allowing the life he had lost and the life he was building to exist together.
Emma leaned toward him and wrapped her arms around his neck.
Jake kissed her.
They stayed on the bench long after the street around them quieted. Emma rested against him and listened to his breathing while the last of the noise from Margarita Max’s drifted down the block.
At some point, she realized it was after midnight.
Neither of them seemed in any hurry to leave.