Wish You Were Gone(75)

“I get it, I do. But you also have to take care of yourself, Emma. Take some time for you.” Lizzie froze with her hand on the center of Emma’s back. She remembered that first conversation with Gray after Emma had dropped her suspicions about the necktie—how she’d suggested they take Emma out for a hike. Perhaps she’d been on to something there. “What if we got away for a night or two? Had a girls’ weekend. You need to take a break from all this… thinking.”

Emma laughed and tilted her head sideways on her hand. “Ya think?”

“Didn’t James give you a gift certificate on your last birthday for that new spa out in Newton? Did you ever use it?”

“I totally forgot about that.” Emma sat up straight. “No. I never did.”

“Well, we should go! Just you and me,” Lizzie said, warming to the idea. “Maybe new surroundings and some meditation will give you a fresh perspective. Not to mention a good hot stone massage.”

Emma smiled up at Lizzie. “You know what? I think that’s a great idea.”

There was a sudden shriek from the second floor and Emma and Lizzie both went running.

“Kelsey?” Emma called.

Hunter and Willow stepped out into the hallway, and Kelsey was already jogging down the stairs, grinning from ear to ear, her face flushed. If this was what emotional upheaval looked like on her, Lizzie was confused.

“I got an audition!”

“You did?” Emma shouted, then ran up and hugged her daughter. “Oh, Kelsey, I’m so proud of you! When is it?”

“Next Saturday,” Kelsey said. “If I nail this, Mom, I’m in!”

“That’s awesome, Kels. Congrats,” Hunter said.

“Kelsey, that’s so great,” Lizzie added.

She glanced up at her own daughter, expecting her to congratulate Kelsey as well, but Willow simply turned around and walked back into Hunter’s room.





EMMA


“So, you’re sure we can do this?” Hunter asked, his eyes bright as he looked at Emma. She was busy taking “before” pictures of the living room, complete with the wall they were about to demolish. “The whole house isn’t going to come crashing down around us, right?”

“You have no faith in your mother?” she asked, smiling goofily as she put her camera back in its case.

It had been a long time since she’d seen him look this excited about something, and of course it was breaking down a wall. When he was little, he’d been Handy Manny for Halloween one year and had spent two months prior and one month after the holiday not building things, but taking things apart. Also, having long conversations with his tools.

“It’s not that. But I know what a load-bearing wall is. I’ve seen enough of your shows to get the point.”

“It’s not a load-bearing wall,” she said, feeling sort of proud that he’d learned something through all her TV bingeing. “I checked with the contractor.”

“All right then.” He lifted his sledgehammer. “On the count of three?”

They counted together. “One… two… three!”

And then they swung. Hunter’s hammer made a clean hole. Emma’s barely made a dent. Hunter looked at it and laughed, which made Emma laugh, too, but also made her more determined. She took another swing, this time letting out a screech to back it up, then another, and another, until her hole matched his.

“Nice work,” Hunter said, leaning in toward her hole as if to inspect it. “But if you’re going to keep screaming like that, I think I’m going to have to disown you.”

She smiled, and they got back to work. And as hard as it was, and as much as her muscles protested, she found she loved every minute of it. She loved working side-by-side with her son, who miraculously had nothing to do this afternoon and even more miraculously had decided to come here with her rather than sit in his room and play whatever the hell his current game of choice was. She loved the sweat pouring out of her. The dust flying everywhere. She loved how, every once in a while, when she paused to catch her breath, it would dawn on her all over again that this was hers. Her house to do with what she pleased. Something all her own.

Maybe Lizzie was right after all. Closure. Doing something for herself. Moving on. She just needed to embrace it. Until Zoe got back to her with those deleted emails, anyway.

Finally, they’d gotten the wall down to the studs, and Emma stepped back to admire their work. Now the sight lines were clear from the front door all the way back through the kitchen and dining room to the back sliders. The place was so much brighter, it was like an entirely new house.

“Water break?” Hunter suggested.

“Donut break,” Emma replied.

She went to the old, barely functioning fridge and pulled out two bottles of water, two bottled Dunkin’ Donuts coffees, and a box of donuts. They ate them over the kitchen counter and drank silently for a few minutes.

“Mom? There’s something I want to tell you.”

Emma’s peaceful frame of mind was shattered by his sudden seriousness. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing. Well, not… it’s just… I overheard you and Gray talking to Jenny Mahone. At the memorial.”

Shit.

“That’s why I bailed and missed my speech. I needed air, I guess.”