Arty bowed his head and said, “Lord, thank you for this food. Amen.” Then he looked over at Filly. “That short enough?”
“It’ll do.” Filly nodded. “Now pass the potpie, and, Em, you start talking.”
Emma wasn’t sure where to begin, but the most important thing in her mind was Sophie’s happiness, so she said, “Teddy and Sophie want to have a commitment ceremony right here in the park on July Fourth, and they want to know more about how to jump the broom, so, Filly, what can you tell me that you haven’t already?”
“Are you serious? That’s fantastic,” Josh said.
Emma almost reached across the table and laid her hand on his. Just that thought shocked her. She hadn’t even wanted to be in the presence of a man after the rape. She could tolerate her father, though he’d never visited to test that point. She wondered if him not coming to see her was due to something her mother had said—or threatened.
Good God, you aren’t a child, girl. You can have friends, both male and female. Sophie scolded her in her thoughts.
“Well, now, that’s good news, but this is a long way from anywhere for the guests,” Arty said.
“Don’t be a killjoy,” Filly fussed. “Folks have cars. We can have an early evening ceremony and hang twinkle lights in this tree. I’ll make the cake, and we’ll fix up this old table with a pretty white cloth. How many folks will be attending?”
“No more than ten, I would guess.” Emma noticed that Josh finally smiled. “The bride and groom, Rebel, Teddy’s father, and us. Now, about that broom thing?”
“Rebel could stay in one of the empty trailers, and Teddy’s dad could stay in the other one,” Josh offered. “Rebel has been down here before, so we know her.”
“I’ve told you everything I know about the ceremony. The bride and groom say their vows, give each other a ring if they want to, and then they join hands and jump over the broom. And that’s that. We’ll decorate it up real pretty,” Filly gushed. “I’m so dang happy, I could dance around a bonfire.”
“Please don’t.” Arty dipped deep into the chicken potpie and put several spoonfuls onto his plate. “I don’t have enough burn medicine to cover your body if that big floppy skirt of yours went up in flames.”
“Oh, hush!” Filly slapped him on the arm. “We’ve got time to plan the ceremony and think about an appropriate wedding gift. Do you think they’ll come back here every year once they’re married?”
“There’s more,” Emma said. “They’re going to buy a house in Del Rio and live there permanently. This trip to Europe will be Sophie’s last big gallery showing.”
Filly threw a hand over her heart. “She’s not going to stop painting, is she?”
“I asked her the same thing, and she says she’ll never quit painting,” Emma said. “But there’s still more.”
“She’s pregnant?” Filly clamped a hand over her mouth. “Are we going to be grandparents?”
Emma shook her head. “No, but it’s almost as big as that. She and Teddy are buying an old store building with a big loft. He’s going to run a gallery, and she’ll use the loft for painting. And . . .” She still had trouble believing the rest herself. “And she wants all of us to let her put our work in the gallery. They’ll open in the fall, and she asked me for my work exclusively at that time. You all can talk to her about that part when she gets home, but she wants some of your work to go in the gallery, too. I’ll sell some stuff to Leo until then, but—”
“That’s huge!” Josh said. “But we can’t cut Leo out altogether. He’s been too good to us through the years.”
“We can sell to both places,” Filly said, “but you make a good point. Leo depends on us, so we’ll need to share between the two.”
“Sophie will come up here once a month to get whatever we’ve got for her, so we’ll get to see her pretty often.” Emma didn’t realize that she’d included herself in the future plans until the words were out of her mouth.
“We?” Arty raised an eyebrow.
Emma frowned. “About that? I know I’ve only been here a few weeks, but I love this place and . . .” She paused, trying to figure out a way to ask to rent Sophie’s trailer on a permanent basis. “I’d like to stay on after July.”
“You don’t want to move to Del Rio to be closer to Sophie?” Josh locked gazes with her across the table.
She felt like his eyes could see right into her soul, but it didn’t make her uncomfortable. Instead there was something exciting about sharing the moment with him.
“She offered to let me move into the house with her and Teddy, but they need their time to be together,” she said, “and I’m”—she blinked and looked down at her plate—“I know in my heart that I may never be ready to live in a big city. So, Josh”—she raised her face—“can I rent Sophie’s trailer, or will you sell me a little land when I can afford it to build a tiny house on? I prefer having the trailer because it’s home now, but I understand if you don’t want to tell the snowbirds that rent it that it’s taken on a permanent basis.”
“You can have the trailer for as long as you want it,” Josh said without hesitation.
To Emma, that was even better news than having her paintings displayed in Sophie and Teddy’s gallery. Tears dammed up in her eyes, but she refused to even shed happy tears. Sophie said that she was strong and could make her own decisions, and she’d just managed to do both. She didn’t have to leave Hummingbird Lane. If she could only make enough money with her artwork to pay the rent and feed herself, she could be happy there forever with her little newly found family.
“Well, hot damn!” Arty clapped his hands. “Every bit of this is the best news ever. If we had a bottle of champagne, we could celebrate.”
Emma shuddered at the thought of champagne. She filled her mouth with potpie to quash the memory of the taste.
“I’ve got some beers in my fridge,” Josh offered. “After we finish supper, maybe we could raise a bottle and have a game of cards.”
“Yes!” Filly said. “Em, I was going to tell you that you could live with me if Josh wasn’t comfortable telling the folks they couldn’t rent the trailer. We just love having you here with us.”
Emma couldn’t help but compare their enthusiasm with the blunt statement her mother had made that day when Victoria told her she had never wanted children.
Chapter Fourteen
For the next week, Emma and Josh spent almost every evening on his back porch listening to his records. She painted through the day and had supper with the folks in the evenings. Filly ran in and out of the trailer throughout the days to show Emma the jewelry she had made, to check on her progress with her pictures, and to write down plans for Teddy and Sophie’s marriage ceremony.
Emma could hardly believe it when she looked at the calendar that morning. It seemed like she had lived at the trailer forever, and now could live there as long as she wanted. She had finished five paintings for Leo since Sophie had left. She had even caught herself humming and singing while she worked. But that day was going to be a test for her. She would be left alone at the park for most of the day. The last time she talked to Sophie, she had said that her lawyer had checked into the money situation and was thinking that he might be able to settle things with Victoria.