Just for the Summer(102)

This is what finally broke her. And then it broke me. Because I knew there was nothing I could do to change it and I also knew she was right.

The kids did need stability. And she wasn’t it. I knew in my heart she was making the right choice not only for herself but also for them. Maybe even for me too. Maybe she was doing now what she would have done anyway in a month, or two, or three and she was sparing all of us the pain of being that much more attached to someone and something we could never have.

But it didn’t make it any less devastating.

I felt like my soul was being split down the middle and someone was about to leave with one half of it forever. And they were.

She would never come back. I think I was lucky she was even here now.

I thought about the rom-coms Mom used to watch when I was growing up. The dramatic grand gestures that keep them together at the end.

But that’s not what real grown-up relationships are like. They’re like this. Being mature enough to know your limits, and adult enough to accept when someone tells you what they are.

Even if it breaks your heart.

I hugged her like this was going to be the last time I ever saw her.

“What do you think she’ll be like?” she whispered, after a moment.

“Who?” I said gently, holding her to my chest.

“The girl you’ll meet after me. Your soulmate.”

My heart shattered into a million pieces.

If you had asked me yesterday, I would have said it was her. Instead she’d end up being the one who got away. Not a soulmate, just the love of my life.

And unfortunately they’re not the same thing.

CHAPTER 45

EMMA

SIX MONTHS LATER

Your blood pressure looks great,” Maddy said to Pops, taking the cuff off his arm. “I think you’re gonna outlive all of us.”

The old man harrumphed and I smiled, helping him off the table. He was ninety-eight and sharp as a tack and one of our favorite townies.

I was living at the Grant House. I’d been here since the day I left Justin.

When Maddy called Daniel and Alexis, they said yes immediately. We got out of our contract at Royaume, citing an emergency situation, and we left for Wakan.

Alexis had hired us to work at Royaume’s satellite clinic here. She was a general practitioner and the town doctor—and, as we came to discover, Briana’s best friend and Neil’s ex-girlfriend. That was an interesting revelation. And so was the update we got via Briana a couple of days after we arrived. Apparently the last thing Mom did before disappearing was to burn Neil’s house down.

Briana said it was karma. She also said Neil didn’t seem to be too upset about it, so at least there was that.

Alexis came in holding a coffee. “Are you two going to be home for dinner?” she asked. “Daniel wants to know how many veggie burgers to grill later.”

“I’m going to the VFW with Doug,” Maddy said.

“So you won’t be home tonight.” I gave her a wry smile.

“No, I won’t be home,” she said. “I’m going to let that tall drink of water slam me like a door.”

Alexis sat in front of her charting computer. “I could have gone my entire life without that visual.”

I was laughing when Doug popped his head in the room. “Hey, babe, ready for lunch?”

Maddy skipped over to him and stood on her toes to kiss him. She was a full foot and a half shorter than him. He wrapped his arms around her waist and kissed her back a little too enthusiastically, and Alexis and I shared an amused look.

Maddy broke away and grinned up at her boyfriend. “Let me run to the bathroom real quick.”

Doug watched her go as I collected my purse. “So, when are you two moving in together?”

“I keep asking her,” Doug said. “She tells me to shut up.”

Alexis snorted.

“That woman scares the absolute shit out of me,” he said, shaking his head. “I can’t get enough of her.”

“I think the feeling is mutual,” I said. “She’s only scary when she cares.”

Alexis was laughing.

A minute later Maddy came back down the hall and Doug took off his jacket and put it around her shoulders before they walked out.

I’d never seen Maddy like this for a guy. And I realized now that was partially my fault.

It wasn’t easy to have a relationship when you moved every few months. And I knew now that she’d done that for me more than for the adventure.

We’d had a lot of long talks since we’d come here.

She told me how much she’d worried about me over the years. How she had to stay with me because she knew if she let me go out on my own, I’d never come back.

She was right. I would have become Amber.

Only unlike Amber, self-preservation built me to be independent. So I never would have called for help or money. I just wouldn’t have called at all.

I would have distanced myself from her until I was so small there was nothing left of me and her. She knew this. And she loved me enough to keep it from happening.

I used to never be able to say I love you. It was something I was working on in therapy. To say it meant to give someone power over me and the ability to hurt me.

But I could say, with my whole heart, that I loved Maddy. She was one of the great loves of my life. And the thought that I would have given that up because of what Amber made me was a cautionary tale that I would never let myself forget.