The Rest of the Story(62)

Trinity and Bailey exchanged a look. Then Bailey said, “That is a great idea, actually.”

Gordon, pleased, turned back to the TV and started dusting again.

“You think?” I asked Bailey as she headed back to the kitchen.

“It can’t hurt,” she said. “And neither can asking your dad again if you can have a little more time. For your mom, and her memory, if nothing else.”

I wasn’t so sure about that. My dad had always been selective about my mom’s legacy, what we remembered and what we didn’t. I truly believed he thought he was doing me a favor by keeping the bad stuff out.

“Just ask him,” Bailey said, spraying down the stovetop. “The worst he can do is say no.”

“No.”

The answer came so quickly—mere moments after I’d gotten up the nerve to ask—that I wasn’t even ready. “But you didn’t even think about it!”

“Emma—”

“You asked me to come here so you could go on your honeymoon. I did,” I said, pacing across the sand below Mimi’s house, where I’d come to make this call while everyone else got dinner together. “And I’m learning a lot about Mom, and myself, and just don’t understand why, if I have no place to stay, I can’t—”

“Because you do have a place to stay,” he finished over me. “And if you’d just let me talk for a second, I’ll tell you about it.”

I bit my lip, then sat down at the picnic table. Now that I’d pledged to try to take control of my life, the last thing I wanted was to hear more plans that had been made for me. Unfortunately, I didn’t have a choice.

“What I was going to say, before you started in about this—” he began.

“It’s my history,” I blurted out. “My memories. I’m already here, I should be allowed to finish what I’ve started.”

“Emma. Please just let me talk for a second.” He sounded tired. “As you know, we are currently between residences, as is your grandmother. After some discussion, she’s suggested a temporary solution that I think will work for all of us.”

Whatever it was, I was sure I wouldn’t like it. But I stayed quiet. For now.

“Nana has a friend with a resort in Lake North,” he continued. “He’s been offering her use of a suite of rooms for ages, and now seems like a good time to take him up on it.”

It took me a second to process what he was saying. Finally I said, “Wait. You’re coming here?”

“We,” he replied, “will be spending two weeks at Lake North, all of us. Then we’ll head home to our hopefully finished homes.”

“You’re coming to Lake North,” I said again. “Great. So I’ll just stay here. Everyone’s happy.”

“No. You’ve been with Mimi, and we’re very grateful. But it’s time to be together as a family now.”

“This is my family, too.”

“Emma.” He sighed. “I know you’re having fun. But I don’t think these people are at the same level as Tracy, Nana, and myself.”

“Why do there have to be levels?” I asked, getting to my feet again. “I went from a four-person unit to discovering all these cousins and aunts and uncles I never even knew I had. I don’t want to just forget them now.”

“No one is asking you to forget anyone.”

“But why didn’t we ever visit here, except for that one time before you and Mom split and the funeral? Why didn’t she ever come back, with me or just by herself?”

He groaned. “Do we have to get into this now? I’m so jet-lagged I can barely think.”

“I know about the accident,” I told him. “What happened with Chris Price. But only because of Bailey. It makes me wonder how much else I don’t know.”

“You don’t need to know everything,” he said. Now there was an edge to his voice.

“Maybe I do,” I replied. Silence. I pressed on. “Look, Dad. I know you want me to remember only the good stuff about Mom. But it’s okay that she was human and flawed. You don’t have to hide that fact from me.”

“I couldn’t even if I wanted to!” he said. He exhaled. “And that’s just my point. Despite everything, you are okay. My one job is to protect you. I tried to do that by building our lives in Lakeview. There just wasn’t room for anything else.”

“You can protect me without keeping secrets,” I said. “She was my mom. And this, here, it’s part of my life. And you kept it from me.”

“We both did,” he replied, sounding frustrated. “Look, Emma. Your mom never went back to the lake because by then it meant nothing but tragedy to her. It was where her problems started, the drinking, the addictions. Her bad choices led to the death of her best friend. She never got over that.”

“Then why did you guys bring me that summer?” I asked. “What was the point?”

“We were trying to save our marriage,” he said. I could hear the fatigue now in his voice, although whether it was literal or just this subject was hard to say. “Nana couldn’t help with you and we had no other options.”

“Just like this time,” I said. “So they’re family when you need a babysitter, and strangers when you don’t. That makes sense.”