She nodded and walked away from the counter and over toward the white-and-silver-flecked table where Catherine had taken position, her back to the window, offering Emma the best view.
“This is a great sacrifice,” Catherine said.
“I know,” Emma replied. “I appreciate it.”
“Well, are you ever going to talk to him?”
“No. I’m absolutely never going to talk to him. You made a very good point when you said it’s probably for the best he doesn’t know who I am.”
“You’re just going to stare at him?”
“Yes. I am just going to stare at him. I don’t need to date anyone right now. I need to get good grades so I can get into the school I want to go to, and then I’ll be in college and I’ll be busy.”
“Boston still?”
Her stomach fell. She’d been avoiding having this talk. “No.”
“Em, didn’t you get in? I didn’t want to ask because of your dad, but when you didn’t say anything—”
“I—I got in.” She hadn’t said those words out loud. “I lied to my mom about it.”
“Emma!”
“I got the letter the day he died,” she said, her eyes feeling scratchy. “And I was so excited and I wanted to tell him and he was gone. And then I looked at my mom and realized I would be telling her I was leaving and I can’t—I can’t leave her. And I don’t want her to feel responsible for it.”
“Emma, that’s not like you. I mean, it is like you. Protecting your mom. But not lying. And you want to go to Boston...”
“OSU has a great marine-biology program and it’s like three hours away.”
Catherine’s face fell. “But it’s not the same as Boston. By any means. You could go live in one of the most historic cities in the country, and isn’t there a specific aquarium there you want to work with?”
“It’s not important,” she said.
“It’s not important that we go to the same school?” Her friend looked wounded and it made Emma want to growl. She didn’t have the energy for someone else’s wound.
“That’s not what I mean.” She looked down. “I wanted it, but things changed. Anyway, it’s not like I’m abandoning my plans to go to college. I’m just altering course a little bit.” Her friend just stared at her. “Don’t look at me like that. It makes sense.”
“I mean, I guess. I mean, it makes more sense than never talking to the guy you had a thing for for years.”
“I didn’t ask.” She was grateful, though, for the conversation shift.
Catherine shrugged. “That’s fine. I don’t need to be asked.”
The coffee and doughnut materialized, as did a mug of coffee for Catherine, even though she hadn’t ordered it.
“I don’t want coffee,” Catherine said.
“Why not?” Adam raised an eyebrow.
“Because diner coffee,” Catherine said.
“I can see how somewhere in your teenage head that made sense, but you know I run a diner, so maybe diner coffee being used to explain why you think my coffee is terrible isn’t the best route to take. Especially when it’s being given for free.”
“Our judgment is free, too, Adam,” Emma pointed out.
She nearly earned a smile from him. But only nearly.
“Sorry,” Catherine said, and she immediately began emptying sugar packets into the cup.
Satisfied, Adam turned and left them.
And that was when he appeared. His truck was loud driving down the quiet main street of town, and when he pulled into the driveway of the mechanic and turned it off, he got out and shut the driver-side door hard enough for her to hear it inside the diner.
Torn jeans and a tight black T-shirt, broad shoulders and the first lips that had ever made her curious about kissing.
All things that were much more fun to think about than her real life.
Fantasy, of any kind, was better than real life right now.
But if that fantasy came with broad shoulders and a compelling mouth, all the better.
“You’re embarrassing yourself,” Catherine said. “It is so obvious that you’re staring at him.”
“Who’s going to tell? Do you think that Buzz is going to tell?” She indicated the gray-haired man sitting at the bar on one of the red stools.
“No,” Catherine said. “But if he looks this way...”
They both stared at Luke as if they were willing him to do just that. But he didn’t. He never did.
Instead, he went into the garage, and even then it took Emma’s heart rate a full twenty-five seconds to go back to normal.
“Okay,” Catherine said. “We have stared long enough. Finish your stuff and let’s go.”
She chugged down the coffee and picked up the doughnut, leaving five dollars on the table. Adam gave her a nod as she walked out the door, and she waved.
She waffled between going back inside and asking him if he would please not tell her mother that she had come in that morning, but that might just guarantee he’d call her mom.
Of course, Adam didn’t seem like the type to get involved too deeply in people’s lives.
She walked out into the damp, cold morning. The fog hung low over the buildings on Main Street, rolling in off the sea. The air smelled sharp like salt and pine, with an earthy hint of asphalt and dirt thrown in for good measure. The street was mostly empty, with nearly everyone gone off to work or settled in to wherever they might be spending their mornings.
It wasn’t high season yet, and the town was populated mostly by locals. Once things picked up, Emma would be busy with the inn. She always helped her family work the inn during the busy season, and they would need her help more this year than usual.
She sighed heavily. She had no idea what it was going to be like at school today. In some ways she could see why her mother had been tempted to call in sick to life.
“Better to just face it,” Emma said.
“People probably won’t ask,” Catherine said.
“Why not?”
“Because it makes them uncomfortable.” Catherine smiled and reached for Emma, wrapping her arm around Emma’s shoulder. “I’m not uncomfortable, though. I’m here for you. Even if I have to be...here for you while I’m in Boston and you’re in Oregon.”
ANNA