Sophie laughed out loud. “Josh says that he’s the Hulk with a red beard.”
“The Hulk isn’t even that big,” Emma whispered. “My chest tightened up, and it took every bit of my courage just to shake hands with him.”
Sophie nodded and took another sip of her milk. “I felt the same way the first time I met him.”
“On a different note,” Emma said, “do you believe all that stuff Filly said when she read our palms or was it just a line of bull crap? I want to believe every bit of it. It gives me hope and courage, but what do you think?”
“I think Filly has the ability to read people,” Sophie answered. “Kind of like a sixth sense. I don’t know if palms really figure into it all that much, but what she said about our hands sure made me feel better.”
“I’m going to believe that she’s got the gift of seeing beyond today because I want to,” Emma said. “I want to get past all that stuff I’ve buried and move on with life. Now, enough of this, let’s get you packed up. What time will Teddy be here tomorrow?”
“Right after breakfast,” Sophie answered.
Emma stood up and touched her milk glass to Sophie’s. “To a bright future for both of us, just like Filly said.”
“To us!” Sophie said.
Chapter Eleven
Sophie was up at the crack of dawn, made coffee, and took a cup to the front porch. Teddy wouldn’t arrive for at least a couple of hours, but she was too excited to sleep. Tonight she would fall asleep in his arms, and tomorrow morning they would have breakfast together. That was, if he wasn’t breaking up with her. He had never given her a reason to even think that was the case, but if he did, she wasn’t sure she could handle it. He’d been her rock as well as her manager for years. She didn’t want to lose him in either way.
“Good morning,” Emma said behind her.
“What are you doing up at this time of day?” Sophie moved over to give Emma room to sit beside her.
“Wanted to watch the sunrise this morning. I’m glad I get to see it with you. I had another dream last night.” Emma eased down on the porch so that she wouldn’t spill a drop of the full mug of coffee in her hands.
“Why didn’t you wake me?” Sophie asked.
“I stood up to my mother in the dream,” Emma said. “I told her that this is my life, and I’ll live it however I please. She started to tell me how foolish I was and said I was too delicate to know how to run my own business.”
“What happened?” Sophie was having even more second thoughts about leaving Emma alone.
“I said I might fall,” Emma said, then grew serious. “But if I did, I’d get up with the help of all my new friends, pull the cactus needles out of my ass, and try again. Then I picked up my suitcase and carried it out of the house. I told Jeffrey to take me to the bus station, and he nodded. That’s when I woke up. What do you think it means?”
“I’ll go back to one of the therapists’ lines and ask, ‘How did it make you feel?’”
Emma blew on the top of her coffee and then took a sip. “Free at last. Kind of like the words of that song say: ‘Free at last, thank God Almighty, I’m free at last.’”
“Well,” Sophie said, “I think the suitcase symbolizes the baggage that you’re carrying with you, and the fact that you’re willing to take it with you and own it as yours is a good sign. You aren’t hiding anything anymore, and you don’t care what Victoria thinks.”
“That’s easy to say when I’ve got this perfect hiding place away from her right now.” Emma sighed. “But when the time comes that I have to face her in person, will I cave in, or will I be able to tell her to go to hell?”
“You’re gaining more and more independence every day, Em, but when that time comes, I’ll be standing right behind you. Victoria has lost her power. Just remember that,” Sophie told her.
“I hope you’re right,” Emma said and then pointed at the eastern sky. “Look at that gorgeous sunrise. This is going to be a good day. I haven’t had this feeling since we were kids and it was the day for Rebel to come clean our house. That always meant she would bring you with her, and I couldn’t hardly sleep the night before.”
“Then you’re not going to miss me?” Sophie teased.
“Not in the least,” Emma told her, “and if you believe that, I’ve got some oceanfront property in New Mexico that I’d like to sell you.”
“We’ve made some good memories,” Sophie said.
“But none of them are as good as what we’re making these days.” Emma grinned. “We shouldn’t be talking. We should be painting that gorgeous sunrise. I’ve never seen so many brilliant colors. How many have you painted?”
“Not many, but I do plan on doing at least one somewhere in the Big Bend park this summer. There’s this place . . .” Sophie pulled her phone out of her hip pocket and flipped through her pictures. When she found the one of two enormous rocks with a big round one cradled between the two like the hand of God had laid it right there for them to hold up, she handed the phone to Emma.
“That’s awesome,” Emma said.
“See that hole at the bottom of the round one?” Sophie pointed. “I want to put the rising sun right there, with maybe some dark clouds all around it. What do you think, Em?”
“That would be surreal, as if nothing, not even evil, can stop the light from shining through,” Emma answered.
“I just have to be there when the sun comes up to get the essence of the whole thing, to feel it down deep in my soul,” Sophie said. “I’d forgotten how much I missed talking art with you. I wish I’d plowed right through Victoria and come to see you.”
“She’d have had someone toss you out on your ear.” Emma’s tone was dead serious. “She will have her way. If she can’t control me, then she’ll cut off my money, hoping that I’ll starve, but I won’t now that Leo is buying my work.” She cocked her head to one side and said, “I hear a vehicle coming. I thought Teddy wasn’t arriving for another couple of hours.”
“Sometimes folks make a wrong turn and—” Sophie gasped. “It is Teddy. He’s early.”
She was halfway across the yard when Teddy parked his truck. He got out and opened his arms, and she ran into them. His eyes sparkled, and he held her tightly for a few seconds before he tipped up her chin and kissed her long and passionately. How could she have ever thought he was going to break up with her? Her heart pounded in her chest, and every nerve in her body wanted more than a kiss, even if it was steamy hot. If Emma hadn’t been sitting on the porch, she would have pulled him inside and dragged him back to her bedroom, but today the sex would have to wait until they were in the house he’d rented.
“You’re early,” she panted when he finally pulled away from the kiss.
“I couldn’t wait to see you, so I drove longer yesterday and got up at three this morning. Couldn’t sleep anyway. I’m tired of us being apart, darlin’,” Teddy whispered.
“Want a cup of coffee before we go?” she asked.