A Town Called Valentine(115)

Nate’s eyes went wide with surprise. She couldn’t look away.

Joe and Faith spoke over each other. “Great idea!” “We could use a bakery in Valentine.”

“It’s . . . silly,” Emily said at last, her appetite gone as she stared down at her half-eaten pork. Even she had to question why she was so reluctant to consider the idea, when her subconscious couldn’t seem to let it go. “My life is in San Francisco. I’d love it if you’d all come to visit me soon.”

“But what are you going to do there?” Stephanie asked.

Emily lifted her chin and didn’t look at Nate, reciting the words she’d kept telling herself for the last few months. “I’m going back to college with the money I’ll make from selling my building. I need to find the career that’s right for me. You’re going to college, right?” she asked, hoping for some kind of connection with her new little sister.

But Stephanie looked at her as if Emily were an elderly woman with no business joining the young people. Emily sighed.

Nate drove her home and remained silent for the ten minutes it took to drive off the Sweetheart Ranch and back into town. Emily kept twisting her fingers together, wondering what he was thinking. He didn’t seem angry or sad or . . . anything. Whereas she was a jumble of emotions, and suddenly so tired of thinking.

He followed her upstairs to her apartment. When she went to get him a beer, he caught her arm.

“Emily, talk to me.”

For a moment she stared at his hand, then up into his face. His concern eased something inside her, and she knew he only wanted what was best for her.

Softly, he asked, “Are you going to run away from Valentine Valley, just like your mother did?”

She caught her breath, wanting to deny it, but suddenly knowing she couldn’t.

“Please tell me you’re not running away from me,” he continued hoarsely. “I know from the beginning we talked about ending things, but I’ve changed my mind.”

Slowly she said, “I swear, this isn’t just about you, Nate. It seems I’ve spent my whole life trying not to be my mother. Maybe—maybe I’ve been trying to prove it, first with my marriage, and now—now with this need to start my life over. I think—I think I’m more like her than I imagined, taking too many risks.”

“Is that so bad?” Nate asked earnestly. “She made mistakes, some bad ones, but you won’t do the same.”

“I chose Greg, didn’t I?” she shot back.

“You chose him as a young girl in college. You’re not that girl anymore. You take smart risks now, coming here to restart your life, when you could have played it safe in San Francisco.”

“My mom struck out on her own, leaving everything behind,” Emily whispered. “She never thought anything through, and I was trying to be so careful to be different from her. She jumped from relationship to relationship, taking such terrible chances. I can’t accuse myself of that,” she said wryly, “not with two men in a decade.”

“See, you’ve learned from her mistakes.”

“Yet maybe I missed the point. I didn’t want to take chances. I wanted movies, where you wanted whitewater rafting. I resisted anything scary you tried to tempt me with.” I resisted falling in love with you, she thought, knowing it was too late. “I was trying to be so independent, thinking that if I stood on my own, I couldn’t get hurt again. You were the perfect partner in crime for me, asking nothing of me, promising that both of us would remain unscathed, the same as always.”

He took her face between his hands. “I’m asking now, Em. Stay. Give us a chance to see what we have. Give Valentine a chance.”

Valentine Valley was the town of her dreams, where families were interconnected, where everyone knew each other, where love was renewed—or begun. Had the romantic spell of Valentine really woven itself about her?

Perhaps the biggest risk she would ever take was staying right here, getting to know her new family, and trying to be her own woman—her own boss, she thought, thinking with new excitement about the bakery. How could she call herself an independent woman if she left town because she was afraid of being hurt again? Could she start her own business with the talents she’d been given, or the ones she’d inherited?

“If you leave here,” Nate said, “you’ll just be another lonely person in a big city.”

She thought of Melissa and felt again the woman’s pain.