Leaning her elbow on the windowsill, Emily tried to stem tears. It didn’t work. “What?”
“Oh! I forgot why I called. Thank you for the birthday gift. You didn’t have to do that. I mean, that was übergenerous!” Her laugh tinkled like wind chimes. “So I have to tell you what I’m doing with the money. Are you ready? You won’t believe this.”
Through tears and regret, a sad smile tugged Emily’s mouth. “Tell me.”
“I’m buying a dress. For prom!”
“You’re going…to prom?” Emily wiped the dampness from her chin. What did prom look like at her school? There couldn’t be dancing.
“Yes! I met this guy, Dillon. He goes to my old school, so I guess that tells you something.” Again, the silvery laugh. “He calls himself a music geek. That’s how we met. He started taking lessons from my old piano teacher and she asked us to do a duet for Christmas Eve. It was so amazing. He said it was like we could read each other, like we had a soul connection. Isn’t that awesome?”
God, don’t let her get hurt. Don’t let him use her. Prayers for Sierra were the only ones she knew these days. “That’s wonderful. What does your mom say?” The image of Dawn Anne, leaning against a hospital doorway, sobbing uncontrollably, was the only one she could call up. Years of memories. Girlfriend getaways overflowing with chocolate, wine, and laughter disappeared forever with a neurologist’s prognosis.
“She loves him. She should—he’s taking over half her job. Dillon picks me up on weekends and brings me home and over Christmas break he took me back and forth to rehab. He’s amazing. I guess I said that already. Oh, and Beacon loves him.”
“Beacon?”
“Sorry. I figured you would have heard about him from Mom. He’s my dog. I just got him in February. We’re still training together, but he’s so smart. He gets me almost as much as Dillon does.”
Emily ran a finger down a wavy streak on the window. A red dot bobbed and swam on a limb of her pine tree. “That’s…wonderful.” She turned away and sat on the floor.
“Have you talked to Mom lately?”
I haven’t talked to your mom since I left Colorado. Not because of Sierra’s mom. Dawn Anne hadn’t created the distance. Dawn Anne didn’t blame her. Because she didn’t know the truth. “No, I haven’t.”
“Cool. Then I get to tell you. But maybe you already heard about it from Aunt Susan.”
Emily’s sister hadn’t told her anything. Susan was an eggshell-walker, and sometimes that was just fine. “I haven’t heard anything.”
“Mom and I and Beacon are driving back to Michigan in June for her high school reunion. We want to stop and see you on the way.”
Her stomach contracted, her tongue roughened like the canvas on her sandals. Excuses flooded her mind. She didn’t have a place for them, or the emotions they’d leave behind like suitcases stuffed with dirty laundry. “I don’t have any furniture and the house will be torn up by then and I—”
Laughter cut her off. “We’ll only be there one night. We’ll find a hotel and you can stay with us and we’ll take you out to eat and you can show us your new town.”
Show you? A solitary tear dropped to her knee, darkening the faded denim. “There isn’t much to see.” Her teeth ground together. Stupid choice of words.
“Well, you just mark your calendar and we’ll have fun no matter what. I’m making enough chocolate-covered pretzels to last the whole trip, so plan on getting fat.”
Emily nodded, wiping her face with her sleeve. “Sounds…fun.”
Her diaphragm tightened over her twisting stomach.
“Cool. Well, I have to get to class. See you soon.”
“Okay.” She rested her cheek on her knees. “Bye.”
Arms hugging bent legs, she groped for a mantra to banish despair, but the words that spit out of her roiling thoughts were ones her counselor had forbidden. My fault…if only…I never should have… why her?
“Excuse me.”
Emily lifted her gaze from the distressed floorboards. For the second time in two weeks he’d found her in a fetal position.
Jake cleared his throat. “Colt Palin is here with your stuff. Do you want the desk upstairs, too?” He acted as if women in tears on the floor were an everyday occurrence.
Too spent to brush the tracks from her cheeks, she nodded. As his footsteps echoed through the parlor, she closed her eyes.