Emerson: Peachtree Bluff Magic Eight Days Post-Hurricane

I HAD ALWAYS BELIEVED THAT I would love Peachtree Bluff no matter what, but I was starting to doubt that. I knew I shouldn’t complain. We were on a beautiful boat with power and water, but there were so many of us under one roof in such a tiny space that things were starting to feel claustrophobic. At least our cell service had come back. The bridge had opened the morning before, and we had all sat on what was left of the boardwalk in utter awe, with fifty or so other Peachtree Bluffians, clapping and cheering as dozens of power and cleanup trucks from places as far away as Ohio roared through downtown. Now, everywhere you looked, men and women on power poles, excavators, and trash trucks were ridding the streets of debris. And, in the most adorable and Peachtree Bluff–ish move, the town trucks were full of men and women rehanging the dozens of Christmas wreaths on the vintage-looking light posts and resetting the giant Christmas tree in its place of glory once all the debris had been scraped away.

As we were sitting on the sidewalk earlier in the day watching the transformation take place, Hippie Hal clapped Mayor Bob—who was standing in front of me—on the shoulder. “Really, bud? The wreaths and the tree take priority?”

He smiled. “People need to come home to Christmas.” I couldn’t have said it better myself.

Carter, as could be expected, hadn’t been sleeping well. Which meant, in turn, I hadn’t been sleeping well. And, tonight, with the noise of the power trucks and water crews and street sweepers—all of whom were working on a twenty-four-hour schedule to get the town back into shape—I couldn’t imagine how anyone could sleep. Not that I was complaining. I was so grateful. In fact, as I stared up at the ceiling in the boat, Kyle breathing rhythmically beside me, I was focusing on all those blessings, hoping it would help me sleep. Just as I felt myself drifting off, Carter cried out, “Mama!”

I groaned.

Truthfully, in our regular lives, Kyle did more than his fair share of getting up with Carter at night. So, while I wasn’t working and had nowhere to be, I thought this would be a good time to return the favor. Plus, I’d never been able to sleep well on a boat. Kyle, on the other hand, slept like a… well, I thought, looking at Carter as I scooped her up onto on my hip, not a baby. A sloth, maybe. No, that wasn’t flattering. I glanced back down at him. That gorgeous man could never be compared to a sloth.

“What’s the matter, baby girl?” I whispered as I walked up the few steps to the salon. But I knew what was wrong. We were all so keyed up, so anxious. And Kyle and I had been debating: What was the right thing to do? Did we try to go home to LA? Could Peachtree Perk LA run successfully without him for that long? Did we stay until Christmas? Carter rested her head on my shoulder and yawned as I paced the beautiful salon.

I spied Caroline’s dark head coming out of her room. “I’m so sorry,” I said. “Did I wake you?”

She shook her head. “No. I just couldn’t sleep.” She pointed. “All those poor people working around the clock.”

I nodded. “It’s amazing. I know there’s no power, but by the time people get back here, it’s going to look like nothing ever happened.”

I sat down on the sofa, and Caroline followed suit. She sighed.

“What?”

“I still haven’t punished Vivi. I don’t know if we should go home to New York. I don’t know if I’m going to blow the sale on this boat by keeping it here for longer…” She paused. “And why the hell did my idiot husband think that I would know I was supposed to replace the insurance on the house? I had no idea!”

I could feel my eyes widen. Caroline did have a lot of balls in the air right now. She—in her silk gown and matching robe—curled up with a throw on the sofa and reached her hands out to my daughter. Carter went to her instantly, with no complaints. She was the easiest child. She was calm and relaxed. And, while she wouldn’t go to just anyone (which I was glad of, really), it was like she knew who her family was.

Caroline sighed. “It still brings me joy,” she whispered.

“Your marriage?”

She rolled her eyes. “No. The boat. You keep it if it still brings you joy, right?”

We were both laughing when I turned to see Sloane, bleary-eyed in an oversized T-shirt and boxers, walking into the salon. “I sensed y’all were talking without me, and I got FOMO.”

“Oh, good!” Caroline said. “I’m glad you’re up because, since I couldn’t sleep, I’ve been doing some thinking. I have the best, best idea.”

Sloane and I groaned simultaneously. Caroline’s “good ideas” were always huge, terrifying, and impractical at best. Although, truth be told, they mostly ended up being genius and life-changing. Kyle always said I should be more open-minded about them, so I figured I’d try to practice now.

“My house was valuable, but the lot, not so much,” Caroline continued, nonplussed by our protests as usual. “You and Adam should buy it. Then you can build whatever you want there.”

“Caroline…” Sloane started. Then she stopped and raised her eyebrow. We were so practiced at shooting Caroline down before we eventually acquiesced. But this, I had to admit, was a really good idea.

“Right?” Caroline said, smiling. “It’s a good idea. It’s not even a crazy idea. Y’all can’t even argue with me.”

“But what about you?” Sloane asked. “Where does that leave you?”

She shrugged. “It leaves me in the same damn place. I’m screwed either way. Seriously, totally screwed. If you at least got something you wanted out of it, it would make me feel better.”

I smiled at my sister. This was a really, really nice idea. She had them sometimes. “I mean, I don’t know what Adam will think,” Sloane said thoughtfully. “But I will definitely run it by him.” I felt butterflies welling up in my stomach—that would be the perfect solution to both of their problems. I would do more than run it by him. I would do my best to talk him into it.

I saw a figure then pacing outside on the boardwalk, illuminated by the moonlight. The town was still mostly boarded up, besides Sloane Emerson and Peachtree Provisions. It was eerie out there, so dark and desolate. It looked like a movie set of a postapocalyptic town. I peered out at the boardwalk and then pointed.

“Mom’s out there,” I said. “Should we go check on her?”

“Should we, Carty?” Caroline looked down at my daughter, who nodded and popped her thumb in her mouth.

I walked out first, my eyes adjusting to the dark night. Although it could only be so dark in Peachtree Bluff. The way the stars and moon reflected off the water created the most peaceful glow, even when the world around us was, as it felt, totally falling apart. Mom smiled when she saw me. Her hair was in a ponytail, and she was wearing the cutest pink patterned pajamas.

“Whatcha doing?” I asked, putting my arm around her as Sloane and Caroline came up behind me.

“Just worrying.”

“The town is going to be fine, Mom. The cleanup crews are nearly finished, and it almost looks normal—”

“I’m worried about y’all,” she interrupted.

“Us?” Caroline asked. “Why are you worried about us?”

“You have lives to attend to, places to be, towns and homes and businesses. I don’t want you to feel stuck here.”

“I don’t think we feel stuck, Mom,” I said. Although I had just been contemplating the right thing to do.

“Definitely not, Mom,” Caroline said. “Don’t worry about us. We’ll go when we need to go.”

“Promise?”

I nodded.

Mom reached out to take Carter from Caroline. There really was nothing that could soothe a worried soul quite like a small, contemplative child. I sat down on one of the few boardwalk benches that were still intact. They were all bolted to the dock, but even still, most hadn’t been a match for the gale-force winds.

“Don’t you think Sloane and Adam should build a house on my ruined lot?” Caroline asked.

Mom’s eyes went wide with excitement. I wasn’t sure if it was over the idea of getting to build and decorate a new house or because Caroline had found a solution to a big problem.

She nodded. “I think that’s a great idea. But, Caroline… what about you?”

Caroline smiled and looked slowly from one of us to the other. “The house is going to be torn down, and I don’t want to rebuild.” She shrugged. “Without insurance, I don’t think I have the money to rebuild even if I wanted to. So I just want to stay at our house when I come visit Peachtree. Our old house.”

I took my sister’s hand.

“You know, I depended on James for everything for a long time,” she continued. “I worked and worried to have a husband who would take care of me. But now Sloane Emerson is going well, and I truly believe we can make the stores even better.” She paused and locked eyes with me. “I think it’s time that I start depending on myself for a change.”

I put my hand up, and she gave me a high five. “Right on, sister,” I said. I was proud of her. Even after the affair, I assumed that Caroline would always stay with James. She might not be as happy as she deserved to be, but she would stay because her lifestyle was so glamorous. I had felt so badly for her because, once I found Kyle, I knew for certain that I would give up anything—anything—to feel that kind of all-consuming, can’t-live-without-you love. It was better than any private plane, any once-in-a-lifetime vacation.

It made me proud that my sister was giving herself a second chance. It made me happy that she was opening herself up to find the kind of happiness that I had.

Mom smiled. If anyone knew about suddenly, fiercely having to learn what it meant to rely on yourself, it was Mom. She had rebuilt her life step by step. “So how am I going to tell Jack that I want to move back into our house?” Mom asked. Sloane gasped. I laughed.

Of course she wanted to move back to her house. It was our house, the house, the place where everything in our lives had happened. None of us answered, just letting her question float out into the night. Caroline finally broke the silence. “Mom, Jack knows you better than anyone. Maybe even us. I have to think that he already knows.”

I nodded in agreement, feeling my heart swell. I knew what it was to feel like that, to love someone in a way that felt like you had known them forever, maybe even longer than time, to be able to read their thoughts even if sometimes they couldn’t read yours. Looking out across the dark water at the island that had practically raised my sisters and me, I realized something all at once. Yes, I had been considering marriage. But I knew now that, just like Jack had done for Mom, Kyle had definitively broken down every wall that I had ever built around my heart. I was ready.

“I think I’m going to ask Kyle to marry me,” I said out into the night, to no one in particular.

Mom and Caroline shared a glance before Caroline said, “Ew, Emerson. That is so tacky. Please don’t do that.”

“Yeah,” Mom chimed in. “Plus, he’s been wanting to marry you for years. Why would you steal his moment from him?”

I crossed my arms. “Geez. I didn’t expect you two to be so provincial.” I looked at Sloane, hoping someone would be on my side. “Don’t come over here,” she said. “I think that would be the most selfish thing you’ve ever done. You don’t get to swoop in and be the hero because you suddenly decide something that Kyle has known for years.”

I was a little incensed—and surprised they didn’t think this was a great idea—but stomping away wasn’t really an option. Where would I go? It was boat one or boat two, and they were very close together. “Let’s just put a pin in this,” I said. “I think you’re all in a mood.”

Caroline laughed. “Nope. Not in a mood. Literally not ever going to change my mind about this.”

I rolled my eyes. Well, we’d see about that. Was it right for Kyle and me to get married? So much of the future was unknown—I didn’t even know when we’d go back to LA. It was less than two weeks until Christmas, and I wasn’t filming. I didn’t have any auditions. I couldn’t think of a great reason why I should go back to California. But still. Was it ridiculous to stay here for that long when we had nothing to do and nowhere to go?

Mom took a deep breath. “This has been awful,” she said. “It has been terrifying and scary and, in some ways, a lot of my worst nightmares come true. But with all of you here, I know I will look back on this time as one of the very best parts of my life. Everything has gone wrong on the surface. But in some ways, the simplicity of it all has made it feel right. You know what I mean?”

“There’s no stopping Peachtree Bluff magic, Mom,” I said.

Right then, as the words came out of my mouth, it was as if the town erupted into light. All at once, the twinkle lights on the town square’s Christmas tree and all the strands winding the buildings downtown burst into a blazing, glorious, gleaming celebration.

“Talk about Peachtree Bluff magic!” Sloane said.

Caroline and Mom laughed as Carter gasped in all her toddler innocence.

I looked at the smiling faces around me, felt that intoxicating dose of Peachtree Bluff spirit enveloping me. And, in that moment, all was right with the world. Without even thinking about it, I knew for sure that I wasn’t going to go back to LA. Christmas season had returned to Peachtree Bluff at last. And I didn’t want to miss a minute of it.