“Mom, I—”
Marie held a hand up and shook her head.
She wheeled around and hurried off, heels clicking with each sound. Emma stared after her, a familiar tightening in her chest. When Jules stepped into her field of vision, Emma blinked and tried to muster up a smile.
“Grandma and Grandpa will come around. They just need some time,” Jules said, looping her arm through her mom’s. “I know you don’t want to tell me what happened, but I know you all love each other, and you want what’s best for each other. That’s all that matters.”
Emma sniffed and threw away the rest of her ice-cold cocoa. “When did you get to be so wise?”
“Experience,” Jules teased, pausing to give her mother a soft smile. “It’s going to be okay, Mom. Everything is going to work out. You’ll see.”
Emma’s throat closed up, so she offered Jules a nod, and they set off in the direction of the house, stopping to wave at Marley over their shoulders. During the walk home, Emma’s mind kept racing and spinning, going from one scenario to another as she tried to figure out her next move.
Was she meant to come back to Rockport after all this time?
What if she was never able to mend her relationship with her parents?
What about her life in Boston, the one she’d fought tooth and nail for?
Emma had spent so long focused on the life she’d envisioned, the one shethoughtshe wanted, that she’d never stopped to consider something else.
Being back in Rockport was making her more confused than ever, and she wasn’t sure she liked it—especially when they walked through her parents’ front door, only to find her mom singing along to the radio and decorating Christmas cookies. The sight of it made something hard and heavy churn inside her stomach, reminding her how good her mom was at pretending.
Even after all this time, Marie Sullivan still had an image to maintain.
Emma lingered in the doorway to the kitchen while Jules joined her grandmother, and the two of them danced together.
Was this what she had given up when she left?
Chapter Nine
Jules perched on the edge of the bed and linked her fingers together. “I know it’s crazy, and maybe it’s not the best idea, given that family bonding time hasn’t been going so well, but I kind of did something.”
Emma stepped out of the adjoining bathroom and raised an eyebrow. “The last time you said something similar, you’d gotten in trouble at school for wanting to kidnap those frogs in science class.”
Jules made a face. “Yeah, I still don’t think it was a good idea to dice up frogs, even if they were dead.”
Emma smiled and reached over her shoulder to switch off the light. “You always did have a big heart, honey. I love that about you.”
Jules averted her gaze and stared at the ground. “Try to remember that when I tell you what I did.”
Emma stepped into the room and glided over to where her daughter sat. She knelt on the carpet and placed her hands on Jules’s lap. “Nothing you can tell me will make me mad at you.”
Jules glanced up, her eyes wide and hopeful. “Even if I tell you I signed us up for Christmas karaoke at Harper’s Brew?”
Emma laughed. “Oh, that’s not a bad thing, sweetheart. I didn’t know you wanted some mother-daughter bonding time. You and I are overdue.”
Jules grimaced and sat up straighter. “Actually, it’s not just us. I signed up for Grandma and Grandpa too. I hope that’s okay.”
Emma’s stomach tightened as she pushed herself to her feet and looked away. “Of course, it’s okay. Why wouldn’t it be?”
She’d had Jules for twenty-three years, and during that entire time, her parents had never once fought her over her decisions. They deserved time with their granddaughter, regardless of how they’d felt about her father.
Emma wouldn’t be the one to take that away from her or them, even if it meant having to sit through an entire dinner in public, making small talk and acting like the picture-perfect family.
With a sigh, Emma went over to the closet and threw the doors open. “As long as you’re not going to put us in coordinating outfits like you tried to do with the Christmas photo.”
Jules giggled. “I thought that turned out well.”
