DAVID FRENCH CALLED at eight thirty the next morning to tell her all too casually that he was driving up to see her and asked that she make a reservation for lunch at a nice restaurant.
When Emma stopped laughing, she said, “I’ll fix sandwiches for lunch. Reservations not required.”
“Why don’t you invite your neighbor to join us?”
“I doubt he’d be available.”
“I always enjoy meeting your friends. What’s his name?”
“I didn’t tell Catherine, did I? So you don’t know.”
“Why didn’t you tell me you were seeing someone local? And his name is?”
“First, because it’s none of your business who lives across the street from me. Second, his name is Seth Logan. He’s a game warden, as I’m sure you heard.”
“Ah, yes. Interesting job, I’m sure. I would enjoy meeting him.”
“I’ll see what I can do.”
Or not. She called Seth, told him her father was coming and said that if he wanted to drop by for a drink midafternoon, he was welcome. She didn’t offer lunch. It wasn’t that she was ashamed of what Seth did. She was proud of him and his job; he was the finest man she knew. He was also, unlike Trip, a gentleman.
She simply didn’t want him to endure a whole lunch of “What are your career plans?” “Do you always intend to live in Williamston?” Blah, blah, blah. And the life Emma lived in town and her town house and her job and her friends and blah, blah, blah. Not doing it.
Not getting the linen napkins out either. Paper was fine.
Daddy arrived at one. He always preferred a late lunch. Emma had been snacking since eleven thirty. She took up some time by showing him Peony, Rose and Sycamore, although he chose not to toss them any treats.
“My dear girl, what have you been up to?” He laughed. “You can’t seriously consider trying to live on the salary from this Joe job at a veterinary clinic and raising skunks. I’m sure it’s fascinating, but…”
Emma loved her father and knew he loved her. She knew he wanted what was best for her. The difficulty arose when what he thought was best wasn’t what Emma thought was best. If she’d been a different sort of person she’d have accepted his suggestions. She wanted to live up to his expectations, but she couldn’t. The time since she’d come to The Hovel was the happiest and freest of her life. And now there was Seth, the most wonderful, caring man she’d ever known.
As she poured the coffee, she heard Seth’s SUV pull into her driveway. The car door slammed and a moment later he was at the front door.
“God, he’s immense,” her father whispered.
Actually, the two men seemed to take to one another. Daddy was seriously interested in what Seth did. They shared golfing and fishing and boating and basketball. Emma was reduced to waitressing, keeping the coffee topped up and filling Seth with shortbread cookies. He handled Mr. French’s questions with aplomb.
When Seth left to go check out a problem at one of the marinas, the two men shook hands.
“He seems like a nice young man,” he said as they watched Seth drive away.
“Don’t patronize either of us, Daddy.”
He draped his arm around her shoulder. “Emma, are you pregnant? If that’s what all this is about, you have choices. You do not have to marry this man.”
She blinked. “Pregnant?” She burst out laughing. “No, Daddy, I am not pregnant. And who said anything about marriage?”
“He’s crazy about you. You are certainly a catch in every respect. If he doesn’t want to marry you, he’s a fool, and I don’t think he’s any kind of a fool.”
“So what would happen if we were to get married? You’d disown me?”
“Don’t be silly, Emma, of course not. I would do everything in my power to move him into a career that was worthy of him. He wanted to become a veterinarian, didn’t he? Or there’s always law school.”
“A job worthy of you, you mean. Watch it, Daddy, I’m getting close to tossing you out of my house.”
“Be sensible. What sort of life would you have with him? He seems like a decent, competent man. He obviously cares for you. I like him. But liking a man doesn’t make him right for my daughter. You can do better. I know Trip disappointed you…”
“You might say that.”
“But he offered you the life you’re used to with people you’ve known for years. If you marry Seth, you’re looking at maybe fifty years or more of living in the middle of nowhere with a man who may or may not come home on time or at all. A man who’s in danger a good deal of the time. What do you share when he’s at home? Great sex? You’ve heard the old story about the jar of beans.”
“One of your lawyer jokes?” Emma asked.
He patted her arm. “The day you get married, you start putting a bean in the jar for every time you make love throughout the year. The next year and forever after, you remove one bean from the jar for every time you make love. Most people die without ever emptying the jar.”
“Who do you think would be right for me, Daddy? The CEO of a Fortune 500 company? We marry, he cheats during our honeymoon, then six months later the company goes bankrupt and he has a stroke that leaves him paralyzed. And impotent.”
“Hardly likely. CEOs have good doctors.”
“That isn’t funny, Daddy. I want to marry a man I’d still love and want to be with if all those things happened. After Momma died, did you think, ‘I wish I’d never met her’?”
“Of course not! I’m grateful for every moment we had together, just as I’m grateful for every moment Andrea and I have. Nobody knows what’s coming down the pike. All I’m saying is that you have to play the odds. Start as you mean to go on. This—” he waved a hand at the little farmhouse “—is no way to start.”
“I don’t think I’ve been truly happy since Momma died. I kept feeling it was my fault that she left us, Daddy.”
“I have heard that’s a fairly standard reaction among children who lose a parent early either to death or divorce. You know now that isn’t true, don’t you?”
“That was then. I couldn’t figure out who I was without her. I wanted to be who you wanted me to be so you wouldn’t miss her so much. I was scared all the time that I wasn’t good enough, that I was letting you down. I kept going because I was afraid not to. When I’m with Seth, I do know who I am. I’m not scared I have to be somebody else. He sees me and loves me anyway, just as I love him.”
He put his hands on her shoulders, began to speak, but she shook her head to stop him.
“I can’t be that person I was, not anymore. I’m happy living where I’m living, doing what I’m doing, and doing it with Seth.”
“What about money?”
“If we need money, I’ll go make some. I still can, you know. That skill hasn’t gone away because I fell in love with Seth. I’m happy with my small life with my small animals and my large lover. Whose babies I really do want to have. I’ve lived my life scared. For the first time in what seems like forever, I’m not scared.”
“And if something happens to your pipe dream?”
“Then we’ll do something else. Together.”
He enfolded her in a hug. “Let me go say goodbye to your funny little babies and I’ll go home to Memphis. Whatever happens, I love you.”
“I’ll put the dirty dishes in the dishwasher and then I’ll join you. Here, toss them some grapes. They love grapes.”
She finished wiping the kitchen counter and hung the dish towel up to dry when her father yelled, “Emma! Help!”
Oh, Lord, he’s had a heart attack. I knew I shouldn’t have upset him.
She jumped off the porch and raced around the house. And into a miasma of skunk scent so powerful her eyes closed of their own volition. She wadded up her shirt and covered her mouth and nose. “Oh, God! You’ve been skunked!”
He had fallen back on the grass. Emma grabbed him under the arms and dragged him out of the odor zone. Their eyes were streaming. Emma got the garden hose, turned it on and held the spray so she could wash her eyes, then gave it to her father. He coughed, pulled his immaculate linen handkerchief from the pocket of his chinos, wet it and held it against his eyes and nose.
“Get farther back in the yard.” Emma flew into the house, picked her cell phone off the kitchen counter and called Seth. “I don’t know how it happened, but Daddy’s been skunked. We need help.”
“Ambulance?”
“He’s not hurt, he’s skunked. What on earth should I do?”
“I’ll be there in ten minutes.”