be great. Thank you.” Emma again glanced back at Angel alone in the crowd and frowned. “Ladies, thanks for being here. I’ll join you later. I need to go say hello to someone. My stepmom is over there all alone,” she pointed out. “I should walk with her.”
The women followed her gaze.
“Bring her over here with all of us,” Kaitlyn suggested. “This event is about women banding together and supporting one another, right? You could join her, and she wouldn’t be alone, but if you bring her over here, she’ll have all of us.”
Emma smiled. “I have the best friends in the world. Be right back.” She cut through the crowd and stopped in front of Angel. “Hi, Angel.”
Angel looked up with surprise. “Oh. Hi, Emma. What are you doing back here?”
“Grabbing you. You should be up there with me and my friends.”
“Oh no. I’m okay. You don’t want me intruding,” Angel objected.
Emma grabbed her hand anyway. “You are my friend too. And my family. Let’s go before the event kicks off.” She tugged, and Angel started following. A few steps in, she saw Diana, who had been their waitress the other night at Tammy’s Log Cabin. Jack had mentioned that Diana had been camping out at the park illegally for a little bit this summer. Emma grabbed her hand as well. “Diana, it’s so good to see you.”
Diana furrowed her brow. “Jack’s girlfriend, right? Emma?”
Emma nodded. “Right. Come follow me up to the front. I’ll introduce you to my friends, and we can walk together.”
When they reached her small group of close friends, they waited for the flare gun that she’d handed to Alice Hampton, an older woman who was working the event. Alice raised the gun with a shaky arm, looked at Emma, and pulled the trigger.
The crowd of women, men, children, and even some dogs took off down the trail. A surge of pride shot through Emma as she looked around at them all. She’d done it. This was happening. “This one’s for you, Mom,” she whispered.
Her gaze caught on Jack, who jogged ahead with her father. She was tempted to be nervous for him, but he could handle himself. And she knew her father. He’d always given a hard time to the guys she’d dated, but he was a reasonable man. He’d come around once he realized what she already knew—that Jack was good for Emma.
“How do you feel about jogging?” Angel asked.
“Great. I probably can’t do all three miles,” Emma said, so if you need to go ahead of me, I won’t be offended.”
Angel laughed. “Let’s go, then.”
Emma picked up her pace, realizing she was a lot like her father too. She’d given Angel a hard time but she finally was coming around. Hopefully it wouldn’t take her dad nearly as long as it’d taken Emma.
“Hey, Emma.” Ashley Rivers jogged up beside her and kept pace with her.
“Hi.” Emma was already slightly out of breath from the jog, but her breath became even shallower. “I didn’t think you were running.”
“Well, I already set up my table so I registered at the last minute. Then I’ll freshen up and finish out the day at the health fair. Will I see you over there?”
“Of course.”
“Great,” Ashley said. “You got my message?”
Emma nodded, sliding her gaze over at Angel, who wasn’t listening. “I did. I called the office back, but it was already closed.”
“Sorry about that. We definitely need to make time to talk early next week. Find me after the race, and we’ll arrange a time to meet.”
“Okay.”
“Great. See you later.” Ashley picked up her pace and jogged ahead, leaving Emma behind.
* * *
Jack liked to think he was in shape. He was an outdoorsy guy who walked, fished, boated. You name it, he did it.
But running was a sport you had to keep doing to stay conditioned. He was one mile in, the heat of the sun was beating down on him, and his legs felt like they were made of lead. Edward hadn’t said a word to him since they’d started moving down the path, and Jack didn’t think he could talk if he wanted to.
Emma was right. This was silly. Running alongside Edward wasn’t going to fix anything. Why was he torturing himself? He was about to start walking when Edward surprised him by talking.
“I always liked you before that night, you know. I was impressed at how you’d turned out despite your old man.”
Jack glanced over, reenergized by the adrenaline flowing through him.