The others nodded.
“I know how you feel,” Larry said.
“Because of how you see yourself, your husband’s death was a blow to your self-esteem, Rosa,” Anne explained. “You see yourself as a problem solver, don’t you?”
Rosa nodded, beginning to understand what they were trying to say. “So I’ve been trying to make this my failure, when it wasn’t at all,” she said slowly, feeling the first tiny whisper of relief. “It’s not my fault if I couldn’t solve Don’s problem, because he didn’t even share it with me.”
“Exactly,” Anne said. “And even if he had, in the end it would still have been his problem to solve, not yours. Maybe you could have fixed it together, maybe not, but the choice to die was his alone. We’re all accountable for our own actions.”
“So in my case, guilt and grief and anger got all twisted together with a major blow to my self-esteem, to the way I’ve always seen myself,” Rosa concluded.
“And none of that is wrong,” Anne reassured her. “Your emotions are what they are. It’s just important that you sort it out, grieve for your husband, express your hurt and anger, then move on with your life. This was one incident, Rosa. It was a terrible tragedy, but it doesn’t define your marriage and it certainly doesn’t define who you are.”
Rosa sighed heavily, feeling as if she’d been through a wringer. At the same time, an awful weight was slowly lifting from her shoulders. She’d always been so proud of her knack for helping others sort through their difficulties. When Don had died, it had made her question everything about herself as a woman, as a wife and as a friend. She’d gone into seclusion, not so much because of what he’d done, but because of what his act said about her. It had shattered her understanding of who she was. She’d been afraid no one would ever turn to her again, that no one would ever trust her judgment because she hadn’t been able to help her own husband.
Rosa left the session feeling both drained and exhilarated, as she went to meet Helen, Jolie and Sylvia for an early dinner intended to celebrate her return to the real world.
The timing couldn’t have been better. Not only was she emerging from the darkness, but she had news about Emma to share, as well. If last night was any indication, Emma and Matt were getting a whole lot closer, which meant maybe Emma would stay right here in Winter Cove. If only Don had lived to see that, Rosa thought with a momentary twinge of sorrow. Maybe that would have been enough to make a difference. The bond between father and daughter had always been such a strong one.
Rosa walked into the Italian restaurant that Jolie had chosen because she had her eye on the owner, a recently divorced man who looked a lot like Dean Martin and who oozed Continental charm. Jolie actually stuttered when he kissed her hand. If Jolie had her way they would eat here every night of the week, which meant Rosa would gain twenty pounds from all that pasta. If it kept Jolie’s eyes sparkling, though, it was worth every ounce.
Rosa found the three woman already giggling from their glasses of red wine. They were almost finished with the first bottle by the time she joined them.
“I’m cutting you off now,” she said, laughing as she poured the remainder of the bottle into her own glass. “I could hear you when I walked in the front door.”
“We’ve been toasting Jolie,” Helen explained. “Gianni asked her to have a drink with him later.”
“Really? I suggest you make it coffee,” Rosa teased as Jolie blushed becomingly. “Strong coffee.”
“You sound as if you’re in a good mood,” Helen observed. “How was your session?”
“I had a breakthrough,” Rosa confided and proceeded to tell her best friends all about it. She reached for Sylvia’s hand. “I owe it all to you. I would never have gone if you hadn’t pushed.”
“You would have come around on your own eventually,” Sylvia said. “But I’m really glad if this group has helped to speed up the process. We missed seeing you like this.”
“Amen,” Helen agreed. She lifted her glass. “Welcome back, Rosa.”
“Welcome back,” Sylvia and Jolie echoed.
Rosa felt her heart swell with emotion as she raised her own glass. “To good friends.”
Her marriage had meant the world to her, as did her children, but these women brought something special and irreplaceable into her life. She was just starting to understand how much their friendship mattered. That they hadn’t given up on her, even when she’d been pushing them away, spoke volumes about how deep the friendship ran.
“To best friends, always,” Helen chimed in.
“Through thick and thin,” Jolie added.
All three of them turned to Sylvia and were stunned to see her eyes brimming with tears.
“What?” Rosa demanded at once, the toast forgotten.
“I’m getting a divorce,” Sylvia whispered.
All of them stared at her in amazement, but it was Helen who finally spoke, her glass lifted in a toast. “About damned time.”
Sylvia laughed even as her tears fell. “It really is, isn’t it?”
Emma would have given anything to be able to avoid going back to her house with her best friend. Kim could see right through her, and she was obviously brimming with questions about the state of Emma’s relationship with Matt. Emma wasn’t sure she had any answers. If anything, last night’s incredible lovemaking had only confused things. Just as she had feared, the prospect of leaving town—going home, she thought determinedly—was no longer nearly as attractive as it had been.
“How about a walk around the lake before we go home?” Emma suggested once they’d finally left Matt’s after a breakfast that could have qualified as a late lunch. He’d offered to drop them off at the diner or the house, but Emma had declined, saying she needed the fresh air. But even after reaching her car, which had been left in the diner’s parking lot, she was still too restless to go home and face Kim’s barrage of questions.
“Are you hoping I’m so out of shape that I’ll be too breathless to ask you anything?” Kim inquired, giving her a knowing look.
“Hardly. I’m well aware of the amount of time you spend at the gym. I know you do more than ogle all the bare-chested men.”
Kim nodded. “As long as you’re not trying to put me off, a walk around the lake would be lovely.”
To Emma’s relief Kim kept silent as they made their way past picnickers lounging on the grass and children sailing miniature boats on the water. When she spotted an ice-cream vendor, she turned to Emma with an expression of pure delight on her face.
“How about a sundae? I’ll buy.”
Kim’s love of ice cream was second only to her love of men. “I’ll treat,” Emma said. “You’re my guest.”
“I got the distinct impression earlier that you weren’t especially happy about that,” Kim said after she’d placed their order with the vendor.
“Just with your timing,” Emma said.
“Because I caught you in a compromising position?” Kim teased. “Frankly, I was relieved. I was beginning to worry you were a saint or something.”
Kim took the strawberry sundae she’d ordered and handed the hot-fudge sundae to Emma.
“I’m hardly a saint,” Emma said, paying the vendor, then turning back to Kim. “Just a confused mortal.”
“Over here,” Kim commanded, leading the way to a bench in the shade. After they were seated and she’d rolled her eyes heavenward in pure rapture after her first taste of ice cream, she met Emma’s gaze. “Tell me about this confusion. What’s that about? Aren’t you crazy about the guy?”
Emma nodded slowly. “I think I might be falling in love with him.”
“Well, hallelujah!”
“No,” Emma said miserably. “How can I love him? I don’t want to stay here.”
“Then get him to move to D.C., if it’s that important to you. Judging from the way he looked at you, he’d follow you to the moon and back without asking questions.”
“I can’t ask him to do that. He loves it her
e, as much as I love Washington. He’s found a place for himself as chief of police.”
“Then stay.”
“And do what?”
“Start your own antiques business,” Kim said readily, as if it were as simple as a snap of her fingers. “You get the career you love in the place he loves. Ta-da! Compromise. It’s a wonderful thing.”
“You make it sound so easy.”
“It’s as easy—or as complicated—as you want it to be,” Kim replied. “If I had a man as gorgeous and nice as Matt madly in love with me, I’d do anything necessary to make it work.”
Emma gazed into her friend’s wistful face and realized just how lucky she was to be facing this particular dilemma. “You’ll find your dream man,” she reassured Kim, then thought of how it had happened for her. “Or he’ll find you.”
“I know,” Kim said with forced gaiety. “I just wish he’d hurry the hell up. I don’t want to be too old to enjoy the fireworks.”
Emma thought of the way her parents had been together until recently. “I don’t think you ever get too old for that,” she said quietly. “My folks certainly didn’t.”
Kim’s expression sobered at once. “How is your mom? She seemed good to me, but I was only in the diner long enough to find out where you were.”
“She’s getting stronger every day, I think,” Emma said. “Coming back to work was a huge hurdle, but now that she’s back, I think it’s going to be good for her.”
“And Andy?”
“He’s still trying to be the man of the family, taking on too much and being way too willing to give up his own life to help out. It took everything in me to persuade him he had to play football this season, especially since he’s still not all that happy with me.” She grinned. “But now that the girls are all hanging around practice, his interest in the game has been revitalized.”
“I can just imagine,” Kim said. “He’s a handsome kid. The girls must fall all over him.”
“All except for the one he really wants,” Emma said, thinking of his awkward attempts to even hold a conversation with Lauren Patterson. Even though she’d been paying more attention to him lately, he still got tongue-tied whenever he tried to respond. Lauren, thankfully, seemed to have enough self-confidence for both of them. Emma was reasonably certain the girl didn’t intend to give up.
“Good. Every man needs a challenging woman in his life,” Kim said. “What about Jeff? I know you’ve been worried about him.”
Emma frowned. “Wasn’t he at the diner this morning?”
Kim shook her head. “I didn’t see him. Andy was cooking and your mom was waiting tables.”
“Damn! I thought Matt had finally gotten through to him. If Matt finds out Jeff’s taken off again, there’s going to be trouble.”
“It’s not exactly Matt’s call, is it?” Kim asked.
“It is if Jeff is doing drugs, which is what we’ve all been afraid of. The signs are there, and Matt called him on it once. I think that’s the only warning Jeff’s likely to get.”
“Do you honestly think Matt would arrest your brother?”
“He’s the police chief first,” Emma said. “Besides, the way he sees it, he’d be doing Jeff a favor by getting him away from that crowd he’s hanging with.”
“What’s wrong with them?”
“I haven’t met anyone but his girlfriend and she’s a real piece of work. Maybe I’m wrong about her. Maybe I’m basing my impression on appearances, but everything tells me she’s not good for him. Even Mom and Andy think she’s a bad influence.”
“Let me get a look at her,” Kim said. “Being one myself, I’m very good at spotting females who are trouble.”
“If only Marisol were the same kind of trouble you claim to be,” Emma said with heartfelt sincerity, “I wouldn’t be so worried about my brother.”
“Maybe we should forget about Jeff, since talking about him only upsets you,” Kim said. “Let’s get back to Matt.”
Emma frowned. “Just thinking about him upsets me.”
Kim grinned. “Forget about you. What about me? Does he have any sexy friends?”
Emma laughed. “You’ll have to ask him that yourself.”
“He’s a police chief. There are bound to be a few good men on the force in Winter Cove,” Kim said. She pulled her cell phone from her purse. “Give me his number. I’ll call and ask. Maybe we can double date tonight.”
“He’s working,” Emma reminded her.
“He gets a break. Besides, how hard can he possibly have to work? I thought Winter Cove was one of the safest towns in the state.”
“Because the police chief takes his job seriously,” Emma countered. “He doesn’t date while he’s on duty.” At least she didn’t think he did. Come to think of it, she had no idea what Matt’s dating history had been before she’d returned for her father’s funeral. For all she knew, he could have been involved in a torrid affair.
As soon as that depressing thought entered her head, she dismissed it. For one thing, she would have heard about it before now, especially if he’d dumped another woman fairly recently. For another, Matt was too honorable to sleep with Emma, if there was someone else in his life.
She realized Kim was regarding her with pity. “Obviously, you know nothing about the thrill of sneaking around just to steal five minutes in the back seat of a car with the man you love.”
“No, I’ve missed out on that,” Emma said. “And don’t look so smug, Ms. Two-Dates-and-You’re-Out. You don’t sneak around, either.”
“I would if I had a guy like Matt in my life,” Kim retorted with certainty. “I would not waste one precious second of any opportunity to be with him.” She gave Emma a pointed look. “If you’re going back to D.C., you should remember that. The clock is already ticking.”
Emma frowned at the reminder. Unfortunately, she couldn’t deny that that damnable tick-tock sound was getting louder and more annoying by the second.
Matt was not having a good night. He was frustrated by Emma’s refusal to even consider the possibility of staying in Winter Cove. Cramer had handed him a pile of messages the second he’d walked into the station, mostly from disgruntled locals who’d received parking tickets and fines and thought he ought to do something about getting rid of the meters in downtown, or at the very least extending the amount of time a driver could legally park without being ticketed. Two hours was not nearly long enough to shop, get a perm or have a leisurely lunch, they claimed.
“You gonna do something about the meters?” Cramer asked, following him into his office.
“Such as?”
“I don’t know, maybe give those women the numbers for the men on town council and let them get hassled for a change?”
Matt brightened. “Now there’s a thought.” He handed back the stack of messages. “Do it.”
“Why me? I had to calm ’em down, in the first place.”
“Then they’ll be really receptive when they hear the solution you’ve come up with. You’ll be their hero.”
“I’m not looking to be anybody’s hero, which is why I’ve been perfectly content with desk duty in here all these years. And if I’d wanted to be a damn diplomat, I would have gone to work for the State Department,” Cramer grumbled. “You don’t pay me enough for this.”
“I pay you to do what I ask you to do,” Matt corrected. “Besides, you get a lot of perks.”
“Name one.”
“I know about the doughnuts that Sarah Davis brings you fresh from the bakery the instant she takes ’em out of the oven,” Matt said, watching as the sergeant’s ears burned red.
“I pay for ’em,” Cramer replied indignantly.
Matt grinned. “Never said you didn’t, but you have to admit, no one else in town gets that kind of service, especially at five a.m.”
“That’s between me and Sarah. It is definitely not one of the perks of working around this dump.” He gave Matt a speculative look. “Since we’re talking about personal stuff an
d all that, what’s happening with you and Emma these days?”
“We’re friends. Always have been.”
“And that’s it?” Cramer asked, his skepticism plain.
“That’s all I’m saying on the subject,” Matt said firmly.
Cramer nodded slowly, and then a grin began to spread across his face. “Whoo-ee! You finally made your move, didn’t you? What’d she do, turn you down?”
Matt kept his mouth clamped shut.
“Or was she the reason I couldn’t get you on your cell phone all last night?” Cramer asked, his expression thoughtful.
“You know, old man, I could fire your butt.”
“But you won’t,” Cramer said with confidence. “I know where all the skeletons are buried around this place, including a few I’m sure you’d just as soon I not spread around town about you.”
Matt scowled at him. “My life’s an open book.”
Cramer chuckled. “Then you’ve told Emma all about your little fling with Jennifer Sawyer a few months back?”
Matt winced at the direct hit.
“Didn’t think so,” Cramer said smugly. “And I imagine folks around town would love to know that you finally made your move on pretty little Emma. Everyone was beginning to give up hope.”
“Who besides you has been speculating about the state of my love life?” Matt asked.
Cramer waved the wad of messages. “These folks, for starters. Soon as they finished grumbling about their tickets, they asked how things were going between you and Emma. I believe bets are being placed in some quarters.”
Matt nearly groaned. He could just imagine how Emma would react if she found out that their relationship was such a hot topic. “I’d better not catch anyone at it.”
“You gonna start arresting half the women in town in the middle of their perms?”
“If I have to,” he said grimly. He was having enough trouble with Emma without a bunch of busybodies interfering.
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