The woman with Jack came up to his side, slipping her arm around his waist, smiling sweetly at Emma. “Maria,” he said, “this is Emma. She’s the jogger from that day.” His breath hitched. “She nearly didn’t make it, and now look at her, back on her own two feet.”
Maria let out an emotional, happy sound and hugged Emma. “He prays for you every night,” she whispered. “He didn’t want to be okay until he knew you were.”
Emma tried to block her tears, but lost the battle, and nodded. “Same.”
Jack’s eyes were sparkling with unshed tears too. “We lost a lot, but we survived. And it’s okay to live your life.” He looked at Maria, brought her hand to his mouth where he brushed a kiss to her palm. “We’re engaged.”
Emma gasped in sheer happiness. “That’s amazing. I’m so happy for you both.”
“So now you know. I’m okay, I’m better than okay—which means it’s your turn now. No matter what it takes.”
“Jack—”
“Do it for me. Do it for you. Our lives have been forever changed, but I found closure and so can you. Promise me, Emma,” he whispered.
Your best days aren’t behind you. They’re right in front of you. “I promise.” Life was short, so damn short, and Emma suddenly felt so blessed for her second chance. And she wasn’t the only one who deserved a second chance. The people in her life . . . Alison, Simon . . . they deserved a second chance too.
She and Jack hugged goodbye, then she turned to go back inside. To her surprise, she found Alison was on the stoop, tears running down her face, making Emma stop short. “Are you . . . crying?”
“No.” Alison swiped away her tears. “I’ve just got something in my eyes.”
“You’re crying. You are a real girl, Pinocchio!”
“Shut up.” Alison hooked an arm around Emma’s neck and hugged her tight. Emma found herself hugging her back just as tight. Which meant hell had frozen over and also that maybe . . . maybe it really was a day for new beginnings.
Chapter 25
Step 25: Reach out.
Simon spent the morning in meetings at Armstrong Properties. It wasn’t his favorite thing, managing people. He could do it, he was doing it, but Alison had once told him it was slowly squeezing every last bit of his soul from his body, and he was starting to see that she was right. He’d promised his dad he’d personally handle things, but there had to be another way to do that without losing himself entirely.
He was coming to some other uncomfortable realizations as well. He’d told Emma she wasn’t ready for a relationship because she’d stalled her life by holding back on her recovery. The truth was that it was him who’d stalled his life.
That made him a complete asshole. He was working on that too.
At two o’clock, he left the offices to meet Ryan on the jobsite of one of Armstrong Properties’ newest acquisitions—a building on Commercial Row that had been built in the early 1900s, renovated a few times, but not since the 1980s. It needed a lot of love.
Ryan was the engineer on the project, and a smart choice. He was good, performed timely, never padded his bids, and was always professional.
Today though, he showed up wearing a lazy grin and was looking so chill and laid-back, Simon was tempted to check him for a pulse. “What’s with you?”
Ryan grinned. “Life’s good again, man.”
Simon shook his head. He’d gotten to the barbecue late and Ryan and Alison had already vanished. Together. “I’m happy for you guys. Is it going to work out this time?”
“Yeah, it is. Second time’s the charm. You ought to try it. With Emma.”
Simon turned and looked at the building’s rough interior, not seeing any of it. Instead he saw Emma standing on his roof, looking at him with her entire heart in her eyes . . . right before he’d destroyed them both. “Sometimes you don’t get a second chance.”
“Only if you’re a dumbass.”
“Gee, thanks.”
“Truth hurts. You Armstrongs are so over-the-top stubborn you can’t get out of your own way. You look for love to be easy, or forsake it entirely. Love isn’t easy, nowhere even close. But it’s worth the work.”
“It’s not about the work.”
“No?” Ryan asked. “So you didn’t look for the easy out and take it by walking away?”
Simon’s temper stirred. “Are you kidding me? That was the hardest thing I’ve ever done.”
“Yeah? So how’s living without her going for you?” Ryan waited a beat. “Look, go to her. Apologize straight-out, and not the kind of apology where you dress up your mistake with a rationalization to make it look like you were not really wrong, just misunderstood. Women see right through that shit.”
“Okay, you know what? We’re going to work now.” He unrolled the plans and they went over the job. An hour later, Simon left to take his dad for a checkup on his wrist. The doctor had wanted a new X-ray to see if there was healing happening. Should’ve been easy, but like everything with his dad, easy never came into it.
First Dale refused to sit in the waiting room while Simon checked him in. Wanted to do it himself. It wasn’t worth the argument, so Simon stood back a few feet pretending to look at the magazine rack on the wall while his dad checked in.
“I’m here to get my cast off,” Dale told the receptionist.
Simon bit his tongue rather than move in and correct his dad, which would only start a disagreement.
“Name?” the receptionist asked.
“Simon Armstrong.”
Simon leaned in. “He means Dale Armstrong.”
His dad frowned. “That’s what I said.”
“You said Simon Armstrong,” the receptionist said.
“Why would I say my son’s name?” Dale asked in a grumble. “I’m Dale. I’m here to get my cast off.”
“She’s got it, Dad.”
“I do,” the receptionist said, eyes on her screen. “I show this as a wellness check.”
“No, I want the cast off,” Dale said.
“Dad, let’s wait and see what the doc says, okay?”
“No, it’s not okay. I want the cast off. And you’re not the boss of me.” Then he huffed his way over to a seat and plopped into it.
Simon drew a deep breath and headed over there. They sat in silence for five minutes before Dale spoke. “I just don’t like when my mouth and my brain don’t connect.”
“I know.”
“You’ll see for yourself soon enough. Terrible horrible death is coming for all of us.”
Simon sighed. “How about we concentrate on the fact it hasn’t come yet. Can we do that?”
Dale shrugged. “Maybe, if there’s pizza after this. And then I need to go to Paw Pals. I promised Alison and Emma I’d work today.”
“Work” being that Alison and Emma would watch over Dale while pretending not to, and Dale would hang out and greet people or sit in the sweet or salty yard and play with the dogs. It’d been the highlight of his days.
“Son, you know I love you, right?”