Wrapping my arm around the woman who changed my life just like Tanner says our Emma changed his, I kiss her. “Wanna bring me my phone, babe?”
As soon as he and I are alone I narrow my eyes. “Why didn’t you hit on my wife?”
He laughs and I grin at him. We clink our glasses one last time, understanding each other.
“To a future that’s going to be a little weird, but what are you gonna do?”
“Roll with the punches,” I smirk. “Glad I got a few in, by the way.”
He chuckles before taking a sip, “You can imagine how much it hurt not to be able to hit you back.”
“Didn’t hurt me one bit,” I mutter as I give him a once over. “Why couldn’t you have been shorter?”
He laughs a nice deep relaxed laugh, tension ebbing away from both of us. “So this is where Emma gets her sense of humor.”
I eyeball my future son-in-law from under my brow, “Wait until you meet my boys. And dye your hair for chrissakes. Can’t take the grey.”
“You’re whiter than I am.”
“I’m older than you!”
Tanner smirks, “Thank God.”
CHAPTER 40
EMMA
With Hannah’s voice through the car speakers, convertible top down to help ease my hyperventilating, I am speeding toward the house where I was raised for most of my life, the bigger one we moved to when our family grew, the only one I remember.
“Dad was stiff on the phone. He said nothing about Tanner, but Mom gave away the secret before she handed me over to him.” Hannah yelps in dismay, and I cry out, “How am I going to face Dad after all this time, Hann? And what are they doing there without me?”
“I remember facing my dad, Emm. You were there! But you weren’t in my body so let me just tell you that it is harder than you can imagine, and that was with a guy he half-liked!”
“Oh great, I feel so much better.”
“Well he had seen Tobias’s fights, so he respected him, but I’m sure he hated that his daughter was with this beast of a guy. Visually that can’t be easy on any father, you know?”
I mutter, “Right,” stomach in flutters as I turn the steering wheel onto my old street.
“But he still liked him.”
I shout, “You’re not helping!”
“I can’t think of anything that will help!”
“Oh God, this is it. I’m going to die. I’m about to take my last breath, Hannah! What have they been talking about? Why didn’t he tell me he was going to confront my dad? How come he never fucking calls when he returns to Atlanta? Is he trying to keep me guessing, because it’s working!”
“You would have stopped him.”
“Tried to, you mean,” I mutter as I pull in front of the lovely two-story home that today looks like doom. “Tanner isn’t a man you can easily sway.”
I hear the smile in her voice. “That’s what we love about them, right?”
“No, I hate it! Sorry, but I’m not feeling mooshy gooshy right now. I might vomit. There might be vomiting.”
“Do it now and eat some gum.”
This makes me laugh as I disengage the phone, whispering as I bring it to my ear, “If I never see you again I want to tell you this one sweet little thing.”
“Fuck off?”
“That too, but no, I was going to tell you that Tanner agreed to get a house near you and Ethan even though he knows my brother will be a hard nut to crack at first.”
Hannah shouts with happiness and calls to Tobias. “Babe, if Emma lives through the day we might almost be roommates again. She’s going to move into the neighborhood! Maybe even on this street if I have my way!” I hear him in the distance offering to scout For Sale signs. Hannah calls back, “I think she’s kinda got that covered. You want her to fight a match for you while we’re at it?” I hear his deep throaty laugh in the distance.
“Wish me luck,” I sigh. “I’m shaking.”
“Emma, you can do this!”
“You sound like you mean it but I think you must be out of your mind.”
Stuffing the phone in my purse, I release my hair from its battle, smoothing it into submission before I walk over and touch the hood on Dad’s work truck. Warm but from the sun. How long has this little party been going on without me?
Heart thudding, I knock on the door for the very first time in my life.
Family…why do they have to hold our heartstrings so tightly in their unpredictable fists?
It swings open and I sink. “Hi Dad.”
He eyes me. “Thought your mother was going to answer, didn’t you?”
“Yeah.”
“Step back.” He closes the door, standing on the porch with me, looking very handsome in all black. Any other Sunday and Dad would be in jeans and a t-shirt, tank top or Henley. He must have known Tanner was coming over, and he dressed to impress.
Coughing he attempts idle chit-chat. “You go to church this morning?”
Stiffly I inhale, “Yes. Have you had a nice day?”
“Why did you talk to your mother, but not me, when you were in the Bahamas?”
I scowl back, “Why was Mom the only one who called me?”
“You wouldn’t have picked up!”
“How do you know?”
He crosses his arms and we begin our staring match, neither of us speaking for what feels like forever.
“Emma,” he grates.
“Dad!”
He finally melts, pulling me to him. I start to cry and collapse in his arms as he chokes, “Ah Baby Love, this fuckin’ killed me. I don’t want to fight with you ever again. Stop crying, you know I hate to see a woman cry.”
That he called me a woman completely undoes me. “I’m so sorry, Daddy! I hate this,” I whisper, squeezing him more.
“The damn phone was so heavy. You know I drove by your apartment?”
“You did?”
We separate with him running a hand through his cropped hair, struggling to contain his emotions. “Yeah, but I didn’t stop. And
