Page 26 of Here With You

“Now, Tilly, don’t speak of the dead unkindly. He did the best he knew how.”

“Yeah, well, so did others like Darth Vader and Hannibal Lecter. Look at what happened to the people they knew.”

“My father didn’t boil me in a pot or disembowel me with a light saber.”

“No, he eviscerated you and your sister with unkind words. He destroyed your lives by making choices that should have been yours all along. If you don’t think he killed you both, you’re wrong. You’ve been the walking dead since Miles left. For the first time in forever, you seem lively.”

Em gasped. “Not true. I have a full life. I choose to be single.”

Tilly laughed. “Do you?” She took another bite, then another.

“You don’t get to be my armchair therapist when you’re sitting in the same position.”

When Tilly’s plate was empty, she sat back and patted her belly. “There’s a difference between you and me. I’ve never had a great love. My lover is food, and I savor him every day.”

“And mine is the resort. We are both married. Your spouse is the restaurant, and mine is the rest.”

Tilly placed her silverware and napkin on her plate. “How long will you lie to yourself? Don’t forget, I’ve known you forever. I’m the girl who held your hair while you threw up, not because you drank too much but because you were heartsick when he left.” She stood. “Also, don’t forget that I knew your parents. The resort wasn’t passed on to you. You had half a share, but your father didn’t want you running it because, I’ll say it verbatim: ‘You’re too spirited, and you’ll destroy everything I created. Giving the reins of the resort to you would be like handing matches and kindling to a pyromaniac.’” Tilly huffed. “Those were your father’s words, not mine.”

“He was wrong. I’ve run the resort since Olivia died, and nothing has gone wrong.”

“True. If he was wrong about that, don’t you think he could have been wrong about Miles?”

Tilly stared at Em with a smug expression and then walked away.

Em turned back to the window and saw Miles enter the blind spot at The Brown’s entrance. How had she missed him and his date? Damn, Tilly distracted her with thought-provoking comments.

She took a few more bites of everything. Not because she was hungry, but Tilly went to the trouble of ordering her a meal, and she would eat most of it out of respect. When she finished, she cleared her plate and walked to the door.

Tilly called out, “Don’t forget what you’re missing.” She held up a zucchini before she took her butcher knife and chopped it in half.

How could she forget? The image of Miles standing there wearing nothing but a smile would be etched into her brain forever. Knowing he was in the restaurant made her heart race and her palms sweat. Was she ready to see him with someone else? The beauty about his absence was he wasn’t around to remind her of what she was missing. There was some truth to the saying,Out of sight and out of mind.

Her phone chimed, and Charlotte’s message lit up her screen.I left what I used on you in the staff bathroom. Touch up before you show up and adjust the twins so they look like they’re reaching out for a hand … shake.

She laughed as she headed toward the staff bathroom. She’d be happy to touch up her makeup. It was a hot summer day, and she’d probably sweated off most of what Charlotte applied. In the back of her mind, she heard her mother’s voice.We don’t sweat, honey. We glisten.

When she looked in the mirror, she saw she had glistened all her lipstick off, and her cheeks were slightly pale, but all the rest was as perfect as if Charlotte had just left with her suitcase.

On the shelf above the sink was a bag with her name. She pulled out the tube of lipstick and looked at the name and laughed until she snorted. It was called Pounce on Your Prince Pink. “In my case, they should have named it Punch Your Prince Pink.” Thinking about Miles with another woman made her want to feed him a five-finger sandwich. How dare he move on when she was still pining for him.

She gasped. Tilly was right. She’d never gotten over him. And now that he was here, and she’d been so awful to him, he’d moved on.

She applied the lipstick and brushed on more blush. She stared at herself in the mirror. “It’s time for operation make him regret he left me.” She finger-combed her hair, and when she didn’t get the effect she wanted, she bent over, shook her head, and stood, making her appear to have twice the hair she had moments ago. Everything was bigger in Texas, especially hair.

She pasted on a smile she hoped looked genuine and walked into the dining room. It was low-lit, and her eyes had to adjust before she could locate Miles at an out-of-the-way table. His date had her back turned to Em. Her platinum hair caught the glow of the lights, making it look more like spun gold. Miles always liked the blondes, so it didn’t surprise her that his date was in that range, but it did surprise her how tiny she was. Blonde and thin and most likely beautiful. A thread of jealousy raced up her spine and wrapped around her heart. The squeeze was the most painful thing she’d felt since her sister’s death.

She didn’t want to appear interested, so she stayed away from his table for a few minutes, making the rounds but always working her way toward them. When she got there, she braced herself for whatever emotion overtook her, but her heart sank to her sandals when she rounded the table to get a better glance.

“May? Is that you?” She pulled out a chair and took a seat. Her almost-mother-in-law was half her normal size. Her once-full cheeks were sunken, and her skin sallow. Her eyes were ringed with dark circles, making her look exhausted and emaciated.

“Emmaline Brown.” May’s shaky hand took hers and squeezed. “You haven’t aged a day.”

“Oh, I’ve aged thousands of them.”

May cupped her cheek. “I sure have missed you, young lady.”

“I’ve been here the whole time.” She was no longer jealous but ashamed that she’d let what came between Miles and her keep her from his mother. Her inner voice reminded her that the phone rang on both ends.

---