Outside, Paige has her arms wrapped around Emily’s waist, hugging her like she’s been gone for years instead of a few hours. My heart warms. They belong together.
Paige’s bright smile captures my attention at first.
It takes me a moment to understand that something’s wrong.
Emily’s been crying. Her eyes are red. Something must have happened. Joe’s trial has been tough for her the entire time. Then today she had to get sworn in, facing him across a courtroom. How bad could it have gone? Did he say something rude? Surely the judge wouldn’t allow that. Did the defense attorney badger the witness?
I step into the summer breeze. “Everything okay?”
She gives me a grim smile. “I’m still standing. That has to count for something.”
“It counts for a lot,” I say, my voice softening so Paige doesn’t hear. She’s drawing designs into the pebbles on the drive. She’s resilient, but she doesn’t need to hear the details of how her uncle murdered her father. Or the resulting court trial. She gets that resiliency from her mother, who’s overcome an abusive relationship and a state of hiding before being free. “Do you want me to keep her for a little longer? We can always play another round.”
“No,” she says, a little too loud. It’s still hard for her to leave Paige. I can’t even imagine what it was like for her to be away from her child for so long. Unbearable. “No, thank you. I really appreciate you watching her, but I’m fine now.”
Which of course confirms that she was not fine earlier today. “What happened?”
Emily’s blue eyes are fixed on Paige. “The usual, I expect.”
For a murder trial, she means. And she’s pretending to be fine. I know she’s lying. She’s clearly fragile, and I want to wrap her in a hug—but we aren’t close enough for that. “Let me know if I can do anything.”
“I will,” Emily says, though that’s also a lie. I suppose living that long in the shadow of violent men has made her protective of the truth. She looks past me, out toward where the ocean is a glittering blue. Summer in Eben Cape is basically the real-life version of a tourism brochure for Maine. It’s all green grass and ocean waves and the breeze rustling in the trees. Summer is what makes the winters here worth it. I almost wish this trial wasn’t happening at the most beautiful time of year. “I was holding it together. At least I thought I was. Until the reporter.”
“A reporter?” I hadn’t even thought about that. We live in Eben Cape, not a busy city. We have a local paper. And a radio station that’s in the next town over.
“I can’t even remember what outlet he was with.” She rubs her eyes, looking remarkably like Paige when she’s exhausted. Overwhelmed. “He got in my face.”
“Oh my God. I’m so sorry. We should have gone with you. Beau should have gone.”
“It’s okay.” She hesitates. “Mateo was there.”
“Which Mateo?”
Surely not Mateo Garza, A-list movie star and Beau’s best friend. Surely not the man who has always been suspicious of Emily. He and Emily don’t get along. They bristle in one another’s presence. There’s an energy between them that seems like it might turn to angry sparks at any moment. Or maybe it’s some kind of sexual chemistry.
“Mateo Garza,” Emily says.
“He was there? Did you two… did you two have a discussion?” I mean an argument. If Mateo showed up at the wrong time, if he gave her a hard time on her hardest day, I’m going to give him hell. Was he just standing there outside the courthouse?
“He helped me block the reporter. He kept him away from me so I could get to my car.” She blushes, the pink strong beneath her pale skin. “Actually, I’m in his debt.”
It sounds like there’s more she’s not saying. Mateo, the hero of the moment.
I guess I’ll have to thank him for helping Emily.
Then again, he might not have done her any favors. After all, he’s a former hometown boy who became a famous movie star. It will be a bigger story that he was at the courthouse. There’s bound to be an article somewhere in the Eben Cape Herald, beneath a feature piece on the blueberry pie competition. Well, let’s hope no one actually reads it.
“But you’re okay now,” I say to reassure her, but it comes out more like a question.
“I’m great.” Emily puts her hand on Paige’s blonde locks, so much like her own. Love shines in her eyes when she looks at her daughter. “It’s time we headed home.”
Paige gives me a cheerful wave from her mother’s side. “Don’t move the pieces.”
“I won’t.” That’s our tradition, now that we live apart. Even though my house is on the same cliff, it’s not the same as living together. So we leave our Monopoly games open until the next time we see each other. Unfortunately, I’ll be starting tomorrow in jail.
Watching them go hand-in-hand squeezes my heart.
Paige is a miniature version of Emily. Both of them are like those expensive dolls that I could never afford as a little girl—with porcelain skin and blue eyes and blonde curls. In a way they seem delicate. Breakable. But I know better. They’re both strong.
And brave.
I’m sad to see them go, but I know that I’m luckier than I ever could have imagined. It’s a breezy summer in Eben Cape. I have a brand-new house. The only man I could ever want.
Paige laughs as she climbs into the back seat. “She went to jail four times!” I hear her telling Emily. “Can you believe it? The last one she rolled snake eyes.”
“I can believe it,” answers Emily. She reaches across Paige’s body and buckles her seat belt for her. At seven, Paige can do it herself, but she lets Emily do it anyway.
There’s comfort in small gestures. Emily missed doing all those things for Paige while they were apart. She won’t waste a single chance to do them now.
When Emily pulls away from the house, she rolls down the car windows.
Paige’s arm sticks out one window, waving and waving. Emily waves too. I wave back, standing there until they’re on the road to their house. There’s a little stand of trees along the way. They’ll disappear behind it for a few seconds, then pop into view on the other side.
I tip my head back and bask in the day. It’s sunny but cool. The ocean is the most soothing noise in the world. It feels like a sign that things will be okay. The trial is going to be tough. There will be hard days, but more importantly, there will be justice.
And everyone is where they’re supposed to be.
Including me. For now, at least, I’m in the best place I could be. The new house is a dream come true. I’ve never lived in a brand-new house before. You wouldn’t believe how clean everything is. It all smells new and fresh. There’s tons of possibility in it.
Even the possibility to leave.
I open my eyes again and look at the house. What would we do with it if I went away for college? Board it up and leave it sitting here? I don’t like the thought of it standing empty. Obviously, houses can’t get lonely. But… maybe a person could be lonely on its behalf.
I might feel that way, if we were gone for weeks at a time.