Page 34 of Moonlight Feels Right
"This is Hunter Kane. He lives in my building," she said. Hunter was quickly becoming more than just a guy who lived at Ocean Shores, but she was too stressed out to even try to explain who he was to her.
"Nice to meet you, Hunter. I'm Linda McGuire."
He gave her a nod. "I'm going to let you both do what you need to do. But I'll keep an eye on you, if that's okay. I won't be too far away"
"It would be better if you kept your distance," her aunt said. "I don't want to spook Sara. She's going to be very nervous just seeing Emmalyn."
"What about the people she's working with?" she asked. "Will they let her leave?"
"It's usually a group of three women, and they each take breaks. Sara has told me in the past that they have a driver who drops them off and comes back at two when the market closes, so hopefully, this will go smoothly."
"Where are we meeting her?" she asked.
"I'll hang back," he assured Linda.
"Behind the last jewelry booth in the second row," her aunt said, checking her watch. "It's almost eleven. We should go now."
"Does Mom know I'm coming?" she asked as they started walking, Hunter lagging behind them.
"Last time I saw her, I told her I would try to get you here," Linda replied. "But she seemed doubtful you'd come."
"I almost didn't. It feels so hopeless, Aunt Linda. Mom will never leave Haven."
"She was different the last time I saw her, Emmalyn. She knows she's sick, and she's afraid she's getting worse. But it's not just her illness that's weakening her tie to them. Jeremy has moved on to someone else, someone younger. She said she got moved into a room with three other women. She's sleeping on a bunk bed and working from dawn to dusk."
"I'm sure she'll find another man to take her into his room and pretend to care for her. She's always been so needy for male attention."
"I know," Linda agreed. "She never got love from our father, and she kept trying to find it somewhere else. I'm just praying that if she's not so tightly tied to Jeremy, she'll be able to walk away."
She looked at her aunt in admiration. "You never give up, do you?"
"I can't give up. Sara is my sister. I'll fight forever to get her back."
She felt guilty for not feeling the same, but the only way she'd been able to move on with her life was to let go of her mother and stop praying for the impossible.
When they reached the jewelry booth, they walked around the side of it, and there was no one there. She exchanged a worried look with her aunt.
"We're a little early. She'll show up," Linda said confidently.
She saw Hunter meandering around the booth across from them, which featured leather belts and wallets. At least he wasn't stuck pretending to look at earrings.
Tapping her foot and crossing her arms, she tried to take some deep breaths, because she had a lot of anxiety coursing through her body, and it had nowhere to go.
Finally, a woman came through the crowd. She was short and thin, wearing a long blue skirt and a long-sleeve white blouse, which was the travel uniform.
Emmalyn's breath caught in her throat as she realized how much weight her mother had lost. While the clothes masked her body, her mom's face was very thin, and her hair had turned gray.
When her mom saw them both, her step faltered, and for a moment, Emmalyn thought she might run in the opposite direction. Then she took a breath and moved forward, coming around the side of the booth. They moved farther toward the woods behind them, putting some distance between themselves and the crowded market.
Her mother's gaze ran across her face and down her body. "You're so pretty, Emmy," she said, her old nickname slipping through her lips.
Her heart squeezed despite her resolve to not get emotional. "Hello, Mom."
"You look well," her mother continued. "Are you happy?"
"I am. I'm a teacher now."
"That's what Linda told me. Kindergarten, right? You were always so good with the younger children, so kindhearted."
