Internal Fixation - Tawdra Kandle Page 0,83

close by her.

“Thank you for coming, Emma.” I opened my arms and gave her a brief, very proper hug, the kind that I’d been doling out to everyone today. And because this was Miss Sissie’s day, when I knew she would’ve expected me to act right and prove I’d been brought up well, I released Emma and extended my hand to Noah. “Noah. Thanks, man. I really appreciate you being here today, too.”

“Sorry for your loss, Deacon. I didn’t know Miss Sissie as well as the rest of you, but she was always kind to me.” His mouth stretched into a grin. “Last time I saw her, she asked me what I was planning to do to make sure Tampa made it to post-season this year. She had some suggestions for the offense.”

I laughed. “I’ll just bet. She was quite a woman.”

The three of us stood there together in an awkward sort of clump, a strange trio: the football star who had the world by the tail but who had lost the woman he’d loved; the driven doctor who’d realized his big dream but wasn’t sure what came next . . . and the woman who we both loved.

Because, I realized as I gazed at her, it was true. I might have tried to ignore it, deny it or make it go away, but the fact was that I loved Emma, and I had for a long time. She was the woman I wanted to be part of my life for as long as I lived, the one with whom I could imagine forever.

At the same time, there was no doubt that Noah was in love with Emma, too. His hand rested lightly on her back, and there was an uncanny sense of belonging between them—as though they completed each other in some way. Even though he was wearing dark sunglasses, I was aware of his eyes on me, and I wondered how much he knew of the history Emma and I shared.

“Well.” Emma stepped backward, resting against Noah. “Is there anything we can do for you, Deacon? Anything you all need at the house that we can pick up on the way?”

I didn’t miss that we. She was establishing the two of them as a unit, whether that was intentional or accidental. It hurt more than I expected.

“No, thanks,” I replied. “Gram and the church ladies have everything under control. But I need to get them back to the car—I’m driving my grandparents. I’ll see you there?” I could have been addressing them both, but I kept my eyes on Emma.

She nodded. “Sure.”

Noah reached down to take Emma’s hand as they walked away, and she smiled up at him. He leaned over and brushed a kiss on the top of her head.

I watched them go. There, in that cemetery filled with nearly all of the town’s residents, teeming with people both dead and alive, I had never felt quite so alone.

16

Emma

“I am the luckiest man in this whole place.”

I glanced at Noah over the top of my menu. He was looking mighty fine, this man who sometimes I still struggled to believe was my boyfriend. Dressed in khakis and a light green dress shirt open at the neck, the cuffs turned up to display his broad forearms, his hair newly cut and his shave fresh, he was so damn sexy, he hurt my heart.

“Oh, you think so? Why?” I closed the menu and set it down in front of me.

“Well, duh, babe. Clearly, it’s because I’m with the most beautiful woman in the world. The one who also happens to be the most intelligent, the kindest and the . . .” He grinned. “The spunkiest.”

I laughed. “Wow, someone’s a charmer tonight. I’d ask you what you want, but I think I already know.”

In the ten days since Miss Sissie had died, I’d been crazy busy, trying to fill in at the hospital so that Deacon had time to work on funeral details, spending time with Anna and Jimmy, who were understandably still very sad, and juggling the small harvest on my land, too. Although I’d talked to Noah every day, and he’d accompanied me to the funeral, we hadn’t spent any private time together at all. That was why he’d come up with the idea of a real date at one of his favorite restaurants in Tampa. I’d worked a half day today, gone home to get myself ready for the date, and driven over to meet him at