When they reached the bottom of the steps, he backed off several feet and said, “Good night, Emma. Feel free to roam around anywhere you want. You are safe here.”
“Thanks again.” She nodded and opened the unlocked door.
“Hey, are you all right?” Sophie rubbed her eyes as she poured a glass of milk.
“I couldn’t sleep, so Josh showed me around the trailer park, but I can hardly hold my eyes open now.” Emma yawned again. “Did you have trouble sleeping, too? And why is the door unlocked?”
“We never bother locking doors out here,” Sophie answered. “If you’ll remember, we drove five miles on a county road to get to the trailer park, and Hummingbird Lane is a dead-end road. Teddy called. It’s already breakfast time in France. He’s done over there and is flying to New York today. Hopefully I’ll get to see him in a couple of weeks.”
If Emma ever did have a relationship with a guy, she wanted it to be just like what Sophie had. She wanted to have the same gleam in her eyes as Sophie had.
“Will I be in the way when he comes to see you?” Emma asked.
“No, honey, by then you should feel right at home here in the trailer. Teddy will pick me up and we’ll go on a little mini vacation for a few days or maybe a week if he can be away that long. I’ll leave the SUV for you in case you get stir-crazy and want to take a drive,” Sophie said. “But that’s only if he can take the time off.”
“How do you manage a long-distance relationship like that?” Emma asked.
“It works for both of us. We love each other, but we’re kind of married to our careers,” Sophie answered. “Want a glass of milk before you try to get some sleep?”
“No, I’m good.” Emma went to her room, kicked off the boots and her jeans, and got back into her bed. She closed her eyes and went right to sleep.
Chapter Six
Emma couldn’t remember a time when Victoria had not preached—more like drilled into her—that the clothes make the woman.
“She is so right,” she said to her reflection in the floor-length mirror hanging beside the living room door. “And this is the woman that’s been hiding inside me for years.”
“What was that?” Sophie asked as she came out of the bathroom with a towel around her body.
“The clothes do make the woman.” Emma twirled around and checked her reflection from the back. “I love being able to order things and have them delivered right to the house.”
“That orange tank top matches the gauze skirt just perfect. That bright color puts a tint of pink in your cheeks,” Sophie told her. “Are you going to eat with us tonight—no pressure, but you look so pretty.”
Emma took a deep breath and let it out very slowly. She wanted to go eat with Josh, but to do that, she would have to get over her fear of strangers. “I’m not afraid of Josh. I was comfortable with him when we took a walk the other night. Part of me says I can do this without knowing why I fell apart, but the other part wants to know the truth so that I won’t be afraid to go eat with nice people.”
“You ever think that hiding from the truth is what put you where you are right now?” Sophie asked.
“No, but you could be right.” Emma nodded. “And I want to be stronger physically”—she took a step away from the mirror—“and mentally healthy.”
Sophie turned around and started for her bedroom. “The first step in getting well is facing the problem head-on.”
“You really sound like a therapist now, but I know you are right. To get through the present and into the future, I have to figure out the past. That’s what has put me where I am. I wish I’d faced it when it happened.” Be careful what you wish for—you just might get it. She remembered her father saying that when she was a teenager. She tried to think about why he had said it, but nothing came to mind.
She wondered if he was talking about the fact that he had married Victoria for money. Did he ever wish that he had never wanted to live in luxury, or feel that he’d paid too high a price for it? No answers fell out of the cloudless blue sky, but Emma thought that just maybe that’s what he was talking