Chapter 19
The trio was perfect.
Tessa was enchanted, listening intently to every note. “These guys are exactly what I want. Can you hear that on the beach at golden hour? The cello with the waves?”
“It’s beautiful,” Vivien agreed, swaying slightly to a rendition of a Fleetwood Mac song.
“It’s settled,” Kate said. “We’ll book them.”
They’d spent the early evening here, tucked into a corner table at the small waterfront café while the trio played their first set. Tessa had grilled them during the break about their repertoire, their equipment needs, and whether they could handle sand in their instruments.
At the end of the second set, with the decision to hire made, the three of them decided to call it an early night. They paid, waved goodbye to a friendly server, and headed out to the warm evening air.
“One week,” Tessa said, holding up a finger as they gathered to hug good night. “One week until I walk down that boardwalk.”
“In the most beautiful dress ever made,” Vivien added.
“To marry the best man I’ve ever known.” Tessa’s eyes glistened. “Except maybe Dad.”
Kate pulled her sister into a hug. “He’d be so happy for you, Tess.”
“I know.” Tessa squeezed her tight, then pulled back. “Okay, enough. I have to get home. Olive has a cold and Dusty’s been on his own with her all evening.” She laughed. “Who knew our old pal Dustin Mathers would end up being a great father and husband—my husband!”
“Go,” Kate said. “We’ve got everything handled.”
More hugs, more love, and Tessa drove off with a wave, her blond hair flying out the open window.
Vivien turned to Kate. “I can take you back to the Summer House, or, if you want to come with me to meet Peter for a late dinner, you’re welcome. Unless you want to chill alone at home. I’m pretty sure just about everyone in the house is out and about tonight.”
“I’d love the solitude,” she said. “Though I appreciate the offer. I’ll have a nightcap and take a shower and wait for Eli and Emma to get back. I still can’t believe he took her out for dinner tonight—just the two of them.”
“It’s so sweet.” Vivien smiled. “Those two have really bonded.”
“They have,” Kate agreed, and the warmth in her chest was genuine. Whatever complicated feelings she had about the source of that bond, the result was undeniable. Eli had been exactly what Emma needed.
After Vivien dropped her off, Kate walked toward an unusually dark and quiet house.
Everyone certainly was out, though she’d seen the faint blue glow of a television from her mom and Maggie’s apartment above the garage.
Inside, she took a moment to absorb the rare silence. Finding an open bottle of wine in the fridge, she poured a glass and walked out to the deck.
The Gulf was just about black now, visible only by the white lines of surf catching the moonlight. The boardwalk stretched from the deck over the sea oats toward the beach. Stars were beginning to flicker in a sky that shifted from a bruised violet to the dark of night.
On a sigh, Kate realized that somehow she’d not only fallen in love with the man who’d designed and built this home, she’d also fallen hard for the house itself.
The view, the air, the water. And, of course, the chaos and the noise and the family that had somehow emerged from two broken halves and made something whole.
Wylies and Lawsons, together again, after all these years.
And now she and Eli…well, it was downright poetic.
Could she really live here? The conversation at Wakulla had made it feel possible. Maybe not this year, if Emma wanted to finish her senior year at Eastmont, but next year? Matt wouldn’t hate staying with Jeffrey and college wasn’t far off for him, either. Maybe he’d go to a Florida university.
Then she could take an early retirement, Eli could shift his work from Atlanta to Destin, and they could live here.
The idea of waking up every morning in this house, near her sister and her mother and next to the man she loved gave her a thrill she couldn’t quite describe. It felt…possible. Not a fantasy, but the early stages of a plan.
With a light and hopeful heart, she carried her wine upstairs, took a long, hot shower, then climbed into sleep pants and a T-shirt.
She stretched out on the bed with still damp hair, a deep sense of contentment, and the highest of hopes for her future.
The hard questions were still there, but they felt manageable. She and Eli were in a good place. Emma was healing. Tessa’s wedding was right over the horizon. Life was, for the moment, beautifully uncomplicated.
She picked up her phone. No texts. She imagined Eli and Emma lingering over dessert at a local seafood place, getting to know each other.
The very idea made her—
“Mom!” The door popped open and Emma blew in, cheeks flushed, eyes shining, vibrating with an energy that Kate hadn’t seen since her little girl was much younger.
She dropped onto the bed and grabbed Kate’s arm.
“I had so much fun tonight!”
Kate sat up, blinking. “At dinner?”
“Well, yes, technically dinner, but not at a restaurant.” Emma was talking at twice her normal speed, which was already fast. “Eli asked me if I wanted to go out or if I wanted to check out pizza night at his church. And I said yes!”
Kate felt the word “church” land in her chest like a stone dropped into still water.
“You went to…church?”
“Not church church, but like a youth group. They meet in a building next to the church and it’s super chill—couches and string lights and pizza and soda. And the kids, Mom.” Emma let out a sigh that mixed appreciation and disbelief. “The kids were so nice.”
Kate reached for her glasses on the nightstand, as though putting them on would help her see this situation more clearly. “Tell me about it.”
“Okay, so there were maybe fifteen kids, all around my age.” She tucked her legs under her, settling in for a chat.
“Some a little younger. Seniors were the oldest of this group. And the youth pastor—his name is Derek and he’s, like, twenty-six and has this great energy—he did a Bible study on the book of Matthew.
Which…” She beamed and put a weirdly proud hand on her chest. “I have read, so I didn’t feel completely like a class dunce. ”
“A…Bible study.”
“Yep, but it wasn’t like school or anything. We read a passage and talked about it. People shared what it meant to them, and it got deep.”
“Did you share?” Kate hated that her voice was stretched thin.
“You know, I did,” she admitted on a wistful sigh. “They were so encouraging and the study was about judging. You know, that famous line…judge not…”
“‘Lest ye be judged,’” Kate finished.
Emma’s eyes flickered in surprise that Kate could quote the Bible. “But the version we read doesn’t have the ye and thou stuff. It’s just like a regular book.”
Kate stared at her, deeply aware of a slow burn in her chest and the need to not react.
“Anyway, we broke into small groups and mine was just girls, like four or five them. So nice. And we all shared a time we’d been judged or had judged someone else. And I told them.” Emma swallowed. “I told them what happened. With the pictures. The fallout. The team. All of it.”
“You told strangers—”
“They’re not strangers, Mom. They’re kids who get it because they’ve been through stuff, too.
One girl—her name is Ava—went through something almost identical last year.
Only hers was worse because she…well, never mind.
Personal. But she said the only thing that got her through it was knowing that God didn’t see her that way. That He saw her as forgiven.”
“Forgiven.”
“Because of, you know, Jesus.”
Kate managed a breath. “No, Emma, I don’t know Jesus.”
“Well, it wasn’t weird,” she continued, oblivious of Kate’s discomfort with the conversation. “Nobody looked at me like I was damaged or stupid or…the girl who sent the pictures. They just listened and then they prayed for me.”
“They prayed for you?”
“I know that sounds weird,” she acknowledged with a laugh. “But they didn’t say those memorized ‘Hail Mary’ prayers. They just talked to God. Does that make sense?”
Not one tiny bit, not even a shred of sense. All Kate could think was that the whole thing was…scary. She didn’t know why or how, but it absolutely terrified her that Emma could get swept up in something like this.
But, oh, she looked happy.
“I’m glad you had a good time,” Kate said carefully. “It sounds like the kids were kind to you.”
“They were amazing. And you know what I kept thinking? That if the kids at Eastmont were like this—if they went to youth group and actually believed this stuff about not judging—none of what happened to me would have happened.”
Kate couldn’t argue with that logic, which made it worse.
“Then I remembered FCA.”
“What’s that?”
“The Fellowship of Christian Athletes chapter at Eastmont. I never even thought about it, but some of the nicest kids in school are in it. I think when I go back—”
“When you go back?” Kate did a doubletake. “As of this morning, you told me you would never darken the door of Eastmont High again.”
She laughed. “Okay, a little dramatic.” Her expression grew serious, her eyes certain. “But you know what? I can go back and finish high school there. I can and I will. Those girls and their group chat and their petition—they don’t get to decide who I am. God does.”
The words hung in the bedroom, and Kate felt something crack inside her—not her heart, not exactly, but her careful understanding of how Emma was healing.
She’d attributed the progress to Destin, to time, to the love of family and the distance from Ithaca. She’d acknowledged the Bible’s role reluctantly, as a comfort object, something Emma would outgrow.
But the opposite was happening.
Emma wasn’t using religion as a crutch to get through a hard season. She was…joining their cult. That might be the reason she seemed unnaturally happy.
Kate had to tread so carefully, she was almost afraid to speak.