“Cora Jane’s an upstanding woman,” Jodie agreed grudgingly. “That has nothing to do with you. Because of you, my daughter was locked into a loveless marriage.”
Though the accusation didn’t come as a complete shock, Emily was surprised to hear it spoken aloud. “Loveless? I don’t think so. Boone would never have married Jenny if he hadn’t loved her. As you know perfectly well, they didn’t have to get married. There was no unplanned pregnancy pushing them into making the decision to walk down the aisle. Clearly, getting married was something they both wanted.”
“Maybe so,” Jodie conceded, though she didn’t look happy about it. “But his heart always belonged to you. Everyone around here knew that, including Jenny.”
“And yet she loved him, anyway,” Emily said.
Jodie waved off the reminder as if her daughter’s feelings were of no consequence. “She was a foolish girl. She thought she could eventually make him love her. That’s a terrible basis for marriage.”
“I don’t entirely disagree,” Emily admitted, drawing a shocked look. “But it wasn’t your decision to make, and I wasn’t even in the picture. Until recently, Boone and I hadn’t been in touch for ten years. Jenny and Boone were adults who made a decision that worked for them. And just so you know, I’ve never heard Boone express a single regret about having made it. If he has any regrets at all, it’s because he lost Jenny too soon.”
Jodie looked taken aback by her candor. “You actually believe he loved her?”
“I do,” Emily said simply. She looked Jodie in the eyes, determined to find some way to give her a different perspective on the past, if not to reconcile her to Emily’s inevitable future with Boone and her grandson. “May I ask you a question?”
Jodie shrugged.
“Did Jenny strike you as miserable after she and Boone married? Did she ever express any regrets?”
“She’d hardly say anything to me,” Jodie said defensively. “She knew I was against the marriage.”
“How about her father? Did she ever suggest such a thing to him?”
“Not that I know of,” Jodie admitted with obvious reluctance.
“So, she never said anything to suggest she wasn’t happy?” Emily pressed. “Not to you, not to Mr. Farmer, not to anyone you know?”
“No.”
“Interesting,” Emily said, hoping that if she gave her a minute Jodie would grasp her point. When she eventually did speak, she said, “My grandmother told me that Jenny positively glowed, especially after B.J. was born.”
“That child was a blessing, no question about it,” Jodie admitted. “I figured she got pregnant to keep Boone from leaving her.”
Emily was startled that Jodie could think so little of her own daughter’s intelligence or of her appeal to the man she’d married. “Do you honestly believe that the woman you’d raised would need to resort to that kind of trickery to keep her husband? The Jenny I knew was smart, kind and generous. She was worthy of Boone’s love, and I doubt she’d have stayed with him if he hadn’t made her happy.”
Again, Jodie looked shaken by the straight talk that suggested she was blind to her own daughter’s attributes. “No, she’d never have tried to trap Boone into staying, but...” Her voice trailed off.
“But what?”
“I guess I never looked at it quite like that.”
“Because you were so locked into your own perceptions of what their marriage was like,” Emily suggested. “Maybe you couldn’t be objective about how real their feelings were. Outsiders seldom truly know what’s going on inside a marriage.”
“I can’t believe you’d sit here and try to convince me that Boone loved my daughter so much,” Jodie said, looking bemused.
“Why? It doesn’t lessen his feelings for me now. When I left, I was totally unfair to him. I’m glad he found a woman like Jenny. He deserved to be happy. As for B.J., he’s an incredible gift from your daughter. Maybe you should think of him that way, too, rather than looking at him as a pawn in your battle with Boone or with me.”
Jodie gave her a long, hard look, then stood up and walked away without another word. After a moment with Frank, the two of them spoke to Boone and B.J., then left.
Boone immediately headed in Emily’s direction, his expression filled with worry. He pulled a chair close and circled an arm around her shoulders. “I started to come over sooner, but it looked as if you had things under control. Everything okay?”
Emily leaned against him for a minute. “I hope so, but I don’t know. She wasn’t yelling when she left or making any more threats.”
Boone frowned. “She started out with threats?”
“Nothing you haven’t heard before, just the custody issue. I think she was hoping to scare me off. For all I know she’ll consider my refusal to be scared as a surefire sign that I don’t care about B.J.’s well-being.”
“That’s twisted,” Boone said, then sighed. “And just like Jodie.”
“I tried to put in a lot of good words for you,” Emily told him. “I just about went hoarse from singing your praises and trying to get her to see your marriage to Jenny through her daughter’s eyes, rather than her own.”
Boone shook his head. “I’m sorry you got caught up in this. It’s not up to you to heal my relationship with Jenny’s parents.”
“But it is up to me not to make it any worse.” She looked into his eyes. “I hope I did okay. I don’t want this to turn into all-out warfare or something. If it does, I’ll step away, Boone. You won’t lose your son because of me.”
“I won’t lose my son, period,” he said firmly, then cupped her face in his hands and held her gaze. “And you’re not going anywhere. Not ever again.”
* * *
For several days after the Halloween play, Boone waited for any fallout from Emily’s conversation with Jodie. Instead, he thought he detected the faintest thaw
