“Then you’re not the man I thought you were,” Ethan told him. “Rumor has it you have excellent negotiating skills. Seems to me it’s never been more critical that you put them to good use.”
Boone didn’t seem to buy the pep talk, but he did head out.
Ethan pulled his cell phone from his pocket and called Samantha. “How are things where you are?”
“Ugly,” she said in an undertone. “Hold on.”
He waited while she apparently sought some privacy.
“Ethan?”
“I’m here. Boone just left. He’s on his way over to make peace.”
“Seriously? Is he delusional? He can’t turn up here with flowers and champagne and make this right. He led Emily to believe that he understood her need to live in Los Angeles. She thought they had an agreement.” She sighed, then added, “Okay, to be honest, she hoped he’d adapted.”
“And he thought it was a temporary compromise,” Ethan responded. “Till this job was wrapped up.”
“He talked to you about this?” Samantha asked incredulously. “You knew he wanted to move back to Sand Castle Bay?”
“We discussed it this morning,” he confessed, “but I’ve had a pretty strong hunch all along that’s what he was thinking. Boone’s roots are here. This is home to him, the same as it is for me.”
“And that’s it? You’re the men, so you win?”
“Why are you getting annoyed with me?” he asked, bemused by her attitude. “It’s not a matter of winning or losing. Mature couples compromise all the time. They can split their time between coasts. Or Emily might find that she can have an equally fulfilling career here. Boone’s given Los Angeles a try. Maybe she could give Sand Castle Bay a try. I don’t know what the answer is for them. I do know they’re the only ones who can figure it out.”
“Emily thought they had.”
“Then she wasn’t really listening, was she?”
“I can’t talk to you right now,” Samantha snapped. “My sister needs me.”
And that, Ethan thought as he heard the sound of the call being disconnected, was precisely why he didn’t believe in happily-ever-after. If Boone and Emily, who’d loved each other practically forever, couldn’t even make it through the vows, what chance did the rest of them stand?
* * *
“Who was that?” Emily asked suspiciously when Samantha returned to the bedroom where Emily had been crying her eyes out for the past hour.
“Ethan,” her sister admitted. “He says Boone is on his way over.”
“I don’t want to see him,” Emily said, even though her expression was filled with longing.
“Do you really think avoiding him is the answer?” Gabi asked gently.
“She knows it’s not,” Cora Jane chided. “Honey bun, the two of you need to talk this through. Don’t let it turn into some mountain that can’t be climbed.”
“You mean rather than the molehill you consider it to be?” Emily asked wearily. “I know you’d love it if I’d just cave in and agree to move here.”
Cora Jane regarded her patiently. “Where you live isn’t up to me, now, is it? Boone saw how important this job in Los Angeles was to you, and he uprooted himself and B.J. to accommodate that. He even opened a restaurant out there. That shows the lengths he was willing to go to just to make you happy.”
“And now it’s my turn?” Emily asked miserably. “There’s nothing for me here.”
“Except family, history and potential,” Cora Jane reminded her. “And there was nothing in Los Angeles for Boone except you. He made it work.”
“You wouldn’t be the first couple to take turns following each other’s career choices,” Gabi suggested. “I saw it all the time. One partner would get a fantastic offer someplace and the couple would move. Next time, they’d go where the other one landed a dream job.”
“I’ve seen that, too,” Samantha chimed in. “One actor has a movie role on location and his wife and kids go along. Next time the wife lands a part in a sitcom and they settle in Los Angeles while that’s taping. You work things out.”
“If you say anything about it being the mature way to handle things, I may have to smother you with a pillow,” Emily warned.
“Then I won’t use that word,” Samantha said. “Even if it does apply.”
Emily sighed. “You all make it sound so blasted reasonable. It didn’t feel reasonable when Boone dropped this bombshell on me earlier.”
“Did he demand that you come home to North Carolina immediately after the honeymoon?” Samantha asked.
“No. He just said that he hoped it was something I’d consider once this safe house project was completed.”
“That sounds pretty reasonable to me,” Cora Jane said.
Emily frowned at her. “It probably is. It just felt like a betrayal. And it was even worse, because I’d been half expecting it all along. I’d just hoped I was wrong about how miserable he was out there. I don’t understand why he had to bring this up now, a few days before our wedding.”
“Maybe he understood that you’d gotten the wrong idea and thought it was important to get these particular cards on the table before the wedding,” Samantha suggested. “Perhaps you should give him points for trying to be honest and up front with you. How would you have felt if he’d waited and hit you with this in a few months?”
“I don’t want to give him points for anything,” Emily grumbled, then sighed when there was a knock on the door downstairs.
“You going down?” Samantha asked. “Or do we send him away?”
Emily glanced around at the expectant expressions everyone was wearing and sighed. “Of course I’m going down there,” she grumbled. “But he’s not off the hook yet.”
“Wouldn’t expect him to be,” Gabi acknowledged with a grin.
As Emily started from the room, Cora Jane called out to her.
“What?” Emily asked.
“Just keep in mind how much you love this man and how much he loves you. Do that and everything will turn out all right,” Cora Jane told her.
Samantha wrapped her arms around her grandmother. “And
