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EMERY

The light of her phone lit the dark room, and Emery slapped her hand against the night table, fumbling for it, yanking it off the charger. “Hello?”

It was too early to be Caleb. He’d arrived in Mobile late last night and booked a room for himself and Bentley. Cassidy remained locked away.

“It’s a dive , but clean. Bent has an unoccupied bathroom.”

“Hello?” Head still planted on her pillow, she waited for an answer, holding onto the depths of sleep where she was free, no longer the center of a royal scandal.

“Em, you got to come.” It was Ava, her voice soft and frantic.

Emery sat up, snapping awake. “Why? What happened? Is it Jamie? If he broke up with you—”

“No, no, we’re good. It’s, um, Mom. Joanna. Dad’s beside himself.”

“Mom?” She pictured her mom, small and pale, wheezing the death rattle in her hospice bed. “I mean, Joanna? Is she all right?” E mery threw off the covers and stumbled against the antique chest of drawers.

“She was standing in the café office and—” She began to weep, and a voice sounded in the background.

“Em, it’s me, Jamie. Can you come? Doug and the girls are struggling. I know family is not your thing—”

“I’m on my way.”

“Are you sure?”

“I said I’m on my way.”

* * *

She’d never been in a hospital. Once she and Dad returned from Sea Blue Beach with a weakened Mom, hospice came to their house to care for her.

Walking the white hall with brown doors toward Joanna’s room—after fifteen hours on the road with a gallon of coffee and a gallon of Diet Coke—she was spacey and jittery, not braced for what awaited on the other side of the door.

Nevertheless, she peered into the room through the dim lights to see Dad perched by the bed, his hand locked with Joanna’s, his expression drawn—a look she knew well.

A look that defined her anxiety every minute on the road, no matter how loud she played the radio.

No matter how loud she sang along. Nothing conquered her real and surprising fear of losing Joanna.

Ava rose first, her brown eyes tired but bright. She gripped Emery close. “Thank goodness you’re here. We need you.”

“You do?” she whispered. Really? Even with Dad and the sisters here? And Jamie?

“You’re our rock.” Elianna moved Ava aside to hug Emery. Blakely piled on, stretching her long arms around them.

“We’re all here now,” Ava said. “Though I’d rather stage this family reunion at my wedding, not in Mom’s hospital room.”

Emery bent over Dad, hugging his shoulders, resting her c heek on his gray hair. “Everything’s going to be all right.” She tried to sound confident, though she knew nothing more than Joanna had collapsed. “What’s the final diagnosis?”

“They ran tests,” Elianna said. “She’s dehydrated, and her blood pressure is whack. Between the cafés and the wedding, she’s been going nonstop. This past weekend she worked in our warehouse without air conditioning or any fans. Never stopped to drink or eat.”

“The temperature was ninety-five in that windowless building,” Ava said.

“Em, can I get you something to eat?” Blakely rubbed her hand down Emery’s back. “Cafeteria is closed, but the vending machine has Clif bars.”

“I’m good.” She pressed her hand on Blakely’s. “I ate my weight in road-trip junk.”

“I’ll bring good coffee and pastries from the café tomorrow.” Elianna stood on the other side of Dad, one hand on his shoulder, her attention on the silent machines checking Joanna’s oxygen, blood pressure, and heart rate. “No offense to the hospital cafeteria.”

Of all the scenarios Emery imagined she’d walk into—formed from Ava or Jamie’s distracted, spotty updates—a cocoon of family was not one of them.

“They gave her something to sleep,” Dad said. “But someone should stay with her. I don’t want her waking up alone.”

No, he wouldn’t. He feared Mom dying between hospice shifts while he was teaching at the university. Or while Emery was at school. Or if someone stepped into the kitchen for lunch.

“Let’s figure out who’s staying,” Ava said. “Dad, you need some rest. Elianna, you’ve got the cafés in the morning, and, Blake, you have school. I’ll stay if someone can bring my laptop. I can get work done in the quiet.”

“ I’ll stay,” Emery said, glancing at Joanna, who looked so helpless and frail under the hospital blanket.

“Are you sure?” Dad said. “You’ve had a long drive.”

“Positive.” She patted the back of his chair. “I can sleep here. I did lots of chair sleeping with Mom.”

Dad squeezed her hand as if to say, We’ve been here before , haven’t we?

There was some debate over the next morning’s schedule—who would relieve Emery—but in short order, she found herself alone in a dark room with Joanna.

Sitting in Dad’s chair, she fixed a wrinkle in the blanket, then finger-combed Joanna’s platinum hair, which was rarely out of place. Then cupped their hands together and waited, listening.

“Hey, you,” she whispered. “You’ve been in my life as long as my mom. Maybe going forward, I could try a little harder? Because this is making me realize how well you’ve loved me. But I’m so tired. Why don’t we just rest?”

She fell asleep on her folded arms, waking with a start when something touched her head.

“Emery?” Joanna said in a hoarse whisper. “What are you doing here?”

“Hey, Jo.” She shoved a lock of hair from her eyes and scootched the chair closer. “I was going to ask you the same thing.”

“Oh, you know, a girl likes a little drama once in a while,” she said. “This is some pickle, isn’t it?”

“A very sour one.”

Joanna smiled. “Your dad likes to remind us how much you loved pickles as a girl. Is that why you’re here? A big pickle moment?”

“I’m here because you scared the wits out of me, Joanna.”

“Ah, just a bit of overwork. I knew I wasn’t drinking or eat ing enough. That warehouse was so hot, but I wanted to get it organized before the wedding. Why, I couldn’t tell you. I can’t remember the last time I slept more than five hours.”

“Listen, you can’t do this to Dad and me.” She pressed Joanna’s hand to her cheek, washing it with a tear. “He’s lost one wife. He can’t lose another.”

“I’m not going anywhere. Too stubborn.”

“And I’ve already lost a mom, Joanna. I cannot lose another.” Her gaze locked with Joanna’s glistening one.

“You’re not going to lose me. Not anytime soon. And it’s good to know you want me around.”

“I deserve that, don’t I?”

“Emery, I love you like my own.” Her grip on Emery’s hand was soft and weak, but her message was strong and clear. “I never expected to replace Rosie.”

“I know, I know. I just ... convinced myself you all were a family without me, and it was up to me to remember Mom.”

“How about we make a pact, you and me: to never forget Rosie. She’s the unseen guest at the dinner table, the one we add to conversations. ‘Didn’t Rosie love tacos?’ Or ‘This is Rosie’s recipe, one of our favorites.’”

“Or ‘Put on a Delilah Mead record. Rosie loved her music.’”

“Perfect. Do we have a deal?”

“Yes, we have a deal.”

The nurse entered on her rounds, so Emery escaped for a cup of coffee. It was hot and black, gut-rot, and after a few gulps, she poured it out.

“I’m sure she shot something into this tube to knock me out,” Joanna said when Emery returned to the room. “Until I drift off, I want to hear the updates while I have you all to myself. I feel rather lucky. How was the royal visit? I saw the news about trash on the beach. What happened?”

E mery released every detail in one seamless breath—how excited the town was, how down-to-earth but unmistakably regal and impressive the royal couple were, and how the ensemble Joanna sent was perfect for the first night.

“I have to see pictures,” she said, her words slightly slurred. “But when my eyes are open. Go on, what else?”

“The trashing? Still under investigation by government and local authorities. My royal collector’s edition of the Sunday Royal Gazette printed without ads.”

Joanna sighed. “Tell me about the boy. Ava called him a ‘hunk-o-rama.’”

Well, that was one word for him. “Caleb Ransom. We met the summer Dad, Mom, and I were there. He was my first kiss, my first love. The moment I met him, I felt like I’d known him my whole life.”

“You love him now,” Joanna said. “I hear it in your voice.”

“Do I? He says he loves me. Said I’d stole his heart when we were sixteen, and if I wasn’t going to love it to give it back.

” Repeating it out loud painted a reality of life without him—again.

After four short months in Sea Blue Beach, she could not imagine a future without Caleb Ransom.

“I’m scared, Jo. I could love him too much.

Maybe I already do. What if I lose him? I’m not sure I could bear it.

I know, I know, I can’t go through life fearing the people I love will die. ”

“Then don’t, Em. Let the fear go. When I lost Eric, I lost my compass, my reason for being.

” Joanna’s voice rebounded as she told her story.

“We were so intertwined with each other as high school and college sweethearts. He was the only man I’d ever loved.

But I had to grow up. I had to find faith and hope in God.

I was a thirty-eight-year-old widow with two little girls.

I resigned myself to being a dedicated mother and running our first café. Then I sat next to your dad at dinner.”

“ He says there’s room in his heart for you and Mom. There’s room in yours for Dad and Eric.”

“The heart is a marvelous thing, Emery. Rosie gave him you. And now I have you. Eric gave me Ava and Elianna, and now Doug has two more loving daughters.”

“And Blakely?” Emery laughed softly.

“Oh that girl ... she owns all of us.” Joanna’s voice began to fade. “But what would the world be like without Blakely Quinn?”

“Yes, what would the world be like...” Emery rose up kiss Joanna’s cheek. “Night, Mom. I’ll be here when you wake up again.” She bent to her ear. “I love you.”

CALEB

“Cass?” He entered her Star Motel room Monday morning, hoping to see his sister out of the bathroom, composed, and sitting on the bed. But the room was dark. The bathroom door was shut. “I brought breakfast.”

He set the carry-out tray from Fat Boys Diner on the desk under the mounted TV. Bentley was in the room Caleb rented, working on some school assignments. Principal Tucker called Caleb this morning, wondering about Bentley since he was absent from the Friday night reception and now, school.

“His mom wanted to go on an adventure.”

“Is he coming back?”

“I hope so.”

“I’ll ask his teacher to email his assignments. He can keep up with learning no matter what.”

God bless that man. And Bentley was thrilled.

“Cassidy, come on, please. Bentley is scared. He says you’ve b een in there for two days.” Caleb backed up to sit on the edge of the bed, phone in hand.

Emery had called during breakfast to say she was in north Alabama, on her way to Cleveland. She sounded tired and sad, yet resolved.

His news was nothing exciting. He’d slept horribly, but this morning he was hoping to lure Cassidy out.

“You know you said there were some things you couldn’t tell me?” Caleb waited, hoping for a response. “Remember?” He paused again. Nothing. “But you can tell me anything. The truth is probably better than anything I could imagine.”

Suddenly, the door jerked open and Cassidy emerged, dressed in a stained T-shirt and baggy shorts, her blond hair stringy around her face, in need of a wash. Caleb stood, pointing to breakfast.

“The food is on the—” She launched into him, knocking him back. Arms locked around his waist, her head buried in his chest, Cassidy’s tense frame shook with deep, rolling sobs. Caleb wrapped her up.

“Hey, hey, I’m here, I’m here. Everything’s going to be all right.”

“I want to come home, Caleb. I want to come home.”

“Then come home, Cass. Come home.”