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Chapter Sixteen
Emma set her spoon down, her stomach beyond full. Fran was an excellent cook, and Emma had made her honey-wheat bread to go with the sweet corn chowder Missy’s second mom had made.
“Thanks for always feeding me,” she said as Matt got up and moved into the kitchen. He had similar dark hair as Missy, where Fran was lighter. She had dirty blonde hair that she kept cut in a cute, stylish short style. Emma had never seen her without a large pair of earrings dangling from her lobes, and while she didn’t always wear makeup, she loved things that sparkled.
“Anyway,” Fran said, smiling at Emma. “Missy was so excited when she learned you were coming again this weekend.”
Emma liked having her schedule, and it was either come again or wait three weeks. Since Ginger had said she didn’t care, Emma had packed up her things and made the two-hour drive again.
She’d relaxed her precautions a little bit by skipping the overnight stay in the bus station. She’d simply rented a car instead of bringing her own, and she’d only spent a half an hour driving around the city before coming to the suburbs.
“Coffee, Em?” Matt asked, and she nodded.
“Lots of cream, if you have it.” They would, Emma knew. Fran loved eating it on fruit and cereal, as Matt had told her several times.
He brought over a sugar bowl and a pitcher of cream, meeting his wife’s eyes. Emma tensed, because she’d seen that look between them before. She waited until Matt went back into the kitchen to get down the mugs before she looked at Fran.
“What’s going on?”
“Missy, why don’t you go get your violin, so you can play your new song for your mom?” Fran smiled at the girl who sat at the table with them. She’d finished long ago, really only eating bread and a couple of bites of soup before she’d gotten out her latest coloring book. This one was all geometric shapes, and Emma had brought her a new package of metallic colored pencils. Missy had been anxious to try them, and no one cared if she colored while they finished dinner and chatted.
“All right,” Missy said, still coloring with the bright blue pencil. “Look, Momma. It’s so shiny.”
“It sure is,” Emma said, admiring it. “It’s like that blue ribbon your dad won at the fair last year.”
Missy’s face lit up, and she got down to go show Matt the blue of the pencil. Emma felt sure her heart would beat right out of her chest while she waited for Missy and Matt to finish their talk. Missy put her book back on the table and headed down the hall to her bedroom.
She met Fran’s eyes, and Matt seemed to know exactly when to come over. He sat beside Fran and took her hand in his. “I can’t say it,” Fran said, her voice choked.
Emma looked between the two of them, her nerves firing like rifles.
“We think it might be time for Missy to come live with you,” Matt said, looking only at Fran. He finally switched his gaze to Emma, whose breath had frozen in her lungs.
“Missy’s asked if she can go live with you every day this week,” Fran asked. She brushed at her eyes, her smile quick to follow. “I’m fine. I’ll miss her, because I love her, but I know I’m not her mother.”
Emma didn’t know what to say. She’d been blessed beyond measure to have these two in her life—and taking care of Missy for so long. “Yes, you are,” she finally said, her voice only half of what it normally was. “You’re her mother, Fran. And Matt, you’re her father.”
“She wants to be with you.”
“I live in a single bedroom on a ranch,” Emma said. Her mind went into overdrive, because she could get a place for her and her daughter. She could. She could work on payroll and send invoices from any computer with Internet access. She didn’t have to use the office at the ranch. She made enough at the ranch to pay for an apartment or a small house, and the whole world opened up, with so many new possibilities.
“I don’t know,” she said, swallowing. “You guys went to Florida two weeks ago.” She ducked her head, all of her familiar protections flying back into place and slamming the doors that had just opened. “Robert isn’t gone completely. He’ll find out if I suddenly have a ten-year-old living with me.”
“He’s not in Sweet Water Falls,” Matt said. “We had someone check.”
“Robert is highly mobile,” Emma argued back, studying her fingernails. “And well-connected.” She couldn’t forget that. None of them could forget that.
“I think you should think about it,” Fran said.
Emma nodded, because she knew she wouldn’t be able tostopthinking about it.
Missy returned, her violin already out of its case. Emma pasted a smile on her face and slipped into her pretending persona. “What song have you been working on?” she asked.
“It’s calledGovotte,” Missy said, adjusting the instrument under her chin. She took a breath and glanced at Fran, who nodded at her. Missy took another breath, her slight shoulders lifting up and falling back down. She put the bow on the strings, and they made a squeak. She swallowed and breathed again, and Emma wished she could take her nerves from her. At the same time, she found them utterly fantastic and endearing.
She grinned at her daughter too, tears already gathering in her eyes. Missy moved the bow then, and the movement became sure and strong, and the instrument began to sing.
Emma couldn’t believe her daughter could make such beautiful music, and she wondered how she’d ever keep Missy in violin lessons in Sweet Water Falls. Fran didn’t work outside the home, so she had time and energy to dedicate to Missy. The truth was, Emma wouldn’t be a good mother—certainly not as good as Fran—and her emotion rose and rose until it choked her.
