A Beautiful Fall (32 page)

Emma opened her office door, pulling it all the way to the wall and coming out in the gallery to meet him. Lara entered the room too, just back from her lunch.

“Colin, what’s going on?” Emma asked him.

“Emma, you didn’t give me a chance to finish our discussion. You ran off in such a hurry, I didn’t have time to …”

Michael stepped out from Emma’s office.

“Is this him?” Colin asked, looking first at Emma, then to Lara.

“Is this who?” Emma said.

Robert stepped into the middle of the circus.

“What in blazes is going on out here? Colin, what are you doing?”

“I’m sorry, Robert. I came to talk to Emma.”

“Go ahead, Colin. I’m listening,” Emma said.

He saw Michael in the doorway. He ran his hand through his hair.

“Emma, I don’t think you’ve given us a chance … I mean the way I feel …”

“Colin, I don’t think you …”

“Emma, please. Let me just say this. When I told you I don’t just care about work, what I should have said was … I care about you.”

“Oh, Colin, I’m sorry …”

“I should have said that to you months ago.”

“Objection,” Robert said. “I think that’s a weak opening statement, counselor.”

“What?” Colin said, taken aback by Robert’s interruption.

“Colin, as long as I’ve known you, you’ve always acted with certainty. You’ve always known exactly what you’ve wanted and gone for it. I’ve never seen an ounce of indecision on your part.”

“Colin’s not on trial here, Robert,” Emma said.

“You’re right, he’s not, but you should be, Emma. It seems your two worlds have collided. Care to give us a summary statement of where your heart stands?” Robert asked.

Emma turned so that she could speak to all three men at once.

“I feel as though I’ve been caught between those two worlds these last two weeks. I know that doesn’t explain everything. Until now, I haven’t been able to explain it to myself.”

She looked to Michael for strength.

“I became reacquainted with friends and family I hadn’t seen in years. I returned to a special place and to someone special I’d nearly forgotten.”

“I see where this is headed,” Colin said.

Emma approached him.

“Colin, you’re a wonderful man, and a great attorney, but I think Robert’s right. You don’t love me, you just think you do. You have a brilliant future waiting for you here, but it’s not any life for me.”

Emma looked across the room to Michael again.

“I want something timeless. Something I can no longer live without. Oh, Michael, will you forgive me for taking so long to see?”

“I think I can do that.”

Colin Douglas wasn’t used to losing. He looked like a broken man.

“Well, I guess there’s nothing left to say except good-bye. I wish you well.”

Colin headed toward the front door. Lara caught up with him on his way out.

“Colin, I’m so sorry things turned out like this. You were so honest and direct in what you said to Emma. I just wanted you to know, I really admire that.”

“Thanks, Lara,” Colin said.

“If you need someone to talk to, I’m here,” Lara said.

Back in the gallery, Robert approached Emma.

“I can’t say I didn’t see this coming,” he smiled, giving her a hug and his blessing.

“Why don’t you take the rest of the day off? We’ll make your resignation official tomorrow. That way I can get in touch with accounting this afternoon and have them make out a check for this year’s Christmas bonus. It’s a little early, but I know you have plans to make.”

Emma hugged Robert. He had changed her life, in his own way. Emma felt like she had his blessing for whatever she wanted to do in the future. For the first time in a long time, she knew just what that was.

“Thank you, Robert,” she said.

Emma and Michael went back to her office. She looked at the memo board above her office sofa, scanning the business cards until she found the one she was looking for.

“Barbara Jones,” Emma said. “Real-estate broker.”

She turned around to face Michael, her expression as light and innocent as a senior graduating from high school.

“I feel like everything is ahead of us, Michael. I feel like I’m starting over again. Everything’s come together so beautifully,” she said.

“No, not quite yet,” Michael said. He reached into jacket pocket and removed a dark blue jewelry box. He opened the lid and held out a diamond ring.

“Your dad helped me pick this out.”

The sight of the ring made Emma speechless again.

“Emma, I’ve been committed to you all of my life. I’ve watched over you as best I could since the day I first met you. If you’ll say yes, I’ll be committed to you for the rest of my life. With happiness and joy, forever.”

Emma kissed Michael.

“I know where I belong now. With you.”

She kissed him again, then added just one more word.

“Yes.”

~ Twenty-six ~

She’s gone country, look at them boots
She’s gone country, back to her roots.

—A
LAN
J
ACKSON

“Gone Country”

On November 17, Juneberry was abuzz with the delight of a rare double wedding.

Pastor Brian Collins was preparing to perform the ceremony at Hope Community Church. Ladies from the church had decorated the front of the sanctuary with bouquets of fresh-cut roses. Noel Connor sat in the back room, tuning his guitar. “He sounds just like George Strait,” Emma had told Michael when they were making plans for the wedding music.

“Isn’t it wonderful, Will? Your daughter is getting married. And she’s come back home,” Beverly Williams was smiling, her words spilling out with a joy shared by many in the small town. “This has been the most wonderful fall.”

Will escorted Beverly to her seat on the bride’s side of the aisle. Emma had asked her father to wear a black tuxedo because she’d always wanted to see him in one. Will obliged.

Bo, fresh from a cast-removal procedure, wore exactly what Christina had asked: a black Pierre Cardin suit, white shirt, black bolo tie, and brand-new cowboy boots. His hair was slicked back like an actor from an ’80s movie.

Michael asked Emma if she had any special requests for his wedding-day attire. She suggested a black designer suit like Bo’s so everything would match, but with one addition: the white Stetson he had worn to the Whitfields’ farm the night of the party. He was happy to comply.

A double wedding meant double the guests. The parking lot filled up half an hour before the ceremony was to begin. The sanctuary was packed. In the bridal room, Christina, Emma, and Samantha spent the morning getting their hair, makeup, and beautiful white dresses just perfect.

“This is going to be the most wonderful wedding of all time,” Samantha said. “I just can’t believe how beautiful you both are.

“So nice to see you, Mr. and Mrs. Whitfield,” Will said, doubling as an usher for guests. “We’re so delighted you could come.”

“We wouldn’t have missed it, Will. You know, this is what it’s all about. These kids really do know the value of community.”

Jim Connor walked in with baby Jimmy. Big sister Beth followed close by. Emma had shared with Will all about Beth’s decision to enroll at Clemson instead of going to California, her original plan upon graduation in the spring. In the end, the panache—and wisdom—of the Juneberry women won her over.

Will sat them on the brides’ side, finding a spot on the end of a back pew by Janette Kerr and her sister Claudia.

“It’s nice to have you and your sister here today, Janette. Nice to see you both.”

“Your day must already be off to a grand start, Will Madison.”

“I have a lot to be thankful for.”

“So do we all,” she said. “Hope to see you later at the reception.”

Will looked up to see a distinguished lady step inside the front doors of the church. She wore a beautiful winter coat and a matching hat from another era, but she wore it with such class and dignity that people turned to stare. Will knew her instantly, though it had been many years since he’d seen her. He walked to the front of the church to greet her.

“Hello, Annette,” he said to the grand woman. Her eyes turned slowly to Will’s and he knew that she recognized him. “We’re so glad to have you with us today. May I show you to your seat?”

The woman moved her head in a measured sway. She wasn’t strong enough to get around much on her own, and rarely left the assisted living center.

Will offered Annette his arm, she accepted it, and he escorted her to her seat next to Jim.

“It’s been a long time, Annette. I hope you’re feeling well.”

She didn’t answer. She just continued walking as if that activity took all of her concentration.

“Annette, Emma came back. After all these years,” Will told her. He sensed that she was listening, even though she didn’t respond.

“You were Hannah’s favorite sister. You took care of all of us in such a special way. I have to believe what you did for us all so long ago has made today possible. I want to thank you for that.”

Annette still didn’t react but continued to walk with Will.

“Your seat’s not far away, just a few more steps.”

Will helped maneuver her around the end of the pew and helped her sit on the cushioned bench. Once in her seat, Annette turned her head and looked directly at Will.

“She … loved … Emma,” Annette said, her eyes lined from the effects of a recent stroke. “She loved you.”

Will felt a chill go through him as if his Hannah were speaking directly to him. Hannah did love Emma very much. He wished she could be there on this, the day of their only daughter’s wedding. Will squeezed Annette’s heavily veined hand, the past and the present inextricably tied in that touch. She had been there the day of his wedding, more than thirty years ago, helping Hannah in the bridal room with her beautiful wedding gown.

“Thank you, Annette,” he said, wishing she could know even half the ways he meant it.

She turned her eyes back to the front, and Will walked away, wondering if somewhere in her mind she still thought of him and Hannah as “the kids.”

Emma’s cell phone buzzed on the vanity in the bridal room.

“Oh, who is calling me today!” she shrieked in mock frustration.

“No one’s calling you,” Christina told her. “That means you’ve got a text message. Don’t you know anything cool?”

“I knew that,” she said.

The women laughed and Emma flipped open the phone. She pressed all the buttons until the message appeared.

Marriage rocks! Congratulations!

Love, Lara

“Oh, well that’s nice,” Emma said.

“That reminds me, Emma,” Samantha said. “Did you see the flowers from your firm? Someone named Robert Adler signed the card.”

Thanks, Robert
, Emma thought.

Samantha looked at the clock on the wall.

“You guys, it’s almost time. They’re going to start the music soon.”

Christina and Emma stood and saw themselves for the first time in the full-length mirrors.

“Now, don’t cry or you’ll mess up your makeup,” Samantha told them.

“Oh my gosh!” they both said of each other. “You look beautiful!”

Brian Collins knocked on the door.

“Ladies, are you ready? It’s time.”

Noel strummed his guitar and the music filled the sanctuary. The doors at the rear of the church opened, and the two most beautiful brides in Juneberry stood ready to be walked down the aisle.

Christina reached for her dad’s arm and they began their unhurried promenade toward Bo. She concentrated on every step, wanting to always remember everything that happened that special day. She would never forget how they got there.

“Okay, honey. Are you ready?” Will said to Emma. He looked at her and found her eyes already staring at him, beginning to cry.

“I love you, Daddy. Thanks for waiting for me.”

“You’re the most beautiful daughter in all the world,” Will said, smiling. Every prayer he’d ever prayed had been answered.

“Let’s go,” he said.

They strolled down the aisle together, Emma looking toward Michael in his cowboy hat. She loved him and was thrilled to spend the rest of her life with him. She couldn’t imagine how she ever came to be so wonderfully loved.

When she reached the front, Emma whispered to Michael, “Knowing that you love me and that you waited for me fills my heart. Makes me want to be a wonderful wife to you.”

Michael whispered back.

“You’re in luck. We’re getting married.”

Pastor Brian Collins performed a magnificent ceremony; the couples exchanged their vows.

Michael thought about the other vow he took—to look after Emma. And he knew that Samantha was thinking about her vow, too. He wondered if a vow could ever be rescinded, if love could ever be taken back. Michael looked to Emma again, standing at his right, lost in her beauty and grace. He knew then, that this vow—the one they were making today—was forever.

“By the power vested in me by our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and the great state of South Carolina, I now pronounce you husband and wife, and husband and wife. Gentlemen, you may kiss your brides.”

Michael took Emma in his arms and kissed her.

Bo kissed Christina and then she offered a whispered prayer of thanks to God.

The crowd stood and applauded, whistled, hooted, and howled.

Noel started playing the song “Blessed Be Your Name” and began to sing as the married couples made their way back down the aisle. Cameras flashed and the townspeople shook the couples’ hands and wished them well.

Christina, Emma, Michael, and Bo poured out the front of the noisy church celebrating in the cold, crisp November air. All the leaves had fallen, and all the trees were bare.

“What a fall it’s been,” Christina said. “What a beautiful fall.”

“Who can think of the fall at a time like this, Christina?” Emma said. “We just got married.”

The brides held their husbands for warmth as they took in the gorgeous bright blue day.

“But it all happened in the fall. When it all started, we didn’t know anything this glorious was about to happen.”