Being Emma Read online

“It did and I’m sorry to have had a hand in your getting hurt. I promise, ‘No more matchmaking.’ How’s that?”

  “Apology accepted and now for the finale.” She got out a lighter. “Should I burn it or rip it up?”

  “If you burn it, make sure the flames don’t go on the floor. Jake would be mad if you started a fire in the sawdust.”

  “Ha…” Diane flicked the lighter and a small flame appeared. “Okay… Bye, bye, Ethan Moody.” She lit the edges of the picture. The paper started to crinkle with the heat…

  “Wait!” Sharon snatched the picture from Diane and threw her wine on it, putting out the sparks.

  Janie and Diane both blinked in surprise at her. “What?” Diane started to say something.

  “If you don’t want the picture, I’d like it. He’s cute…” She gazed at the photo.

  “… You can have him, Sharon. Good luck…”

  “He’s not such a bad guy… Maybe he and Sharon would get along.” Janie smiled weakly. Diane’s eyes rolled up into her head.

  “Is that another feeble attempt at matchmaking, Deputy?”

  “Nope. Delete my last comment, Sharon. I have nothing further to say.”

  Sharon laughed. “I could get you to take a lie-detector test to get it out of you.”

  “Damn waste of a good glass of Merlot too.” Diane wiped the table off with their napkins.

  Sharon glanced at her watch. “Gotta get going. I have an early shift tomorrow. This was fun, ladies. Thanks for letting me tag along.” She smiled at them.

  “Pleasure was ours, Sharon. Let’s do it again.” Janie smiled back.

  “Absolutely. I’ve got your number. We’ll do something next week.”

  Sharon got up, slipped a few bills on the table and left the bar. She waved at them before she went out the door.

  “Nice woman…” Diane counted the money she left. “She gave Jake a good tip. He’ll be happy to see her again…” Janie laughed.

  Janie sipped her beer and looked around the restaurant. Diane was ready to launch into the second part of her little plan… She raised her eyebrows at Janie and began her attack. Janie saw her look.

  “What’s the matter with you? You look like the cat that swallowed the canary…” How right you are, thought Diane.

  “Oh, nothing… Really…” Janie thought she was hedging.

  “You’ve got something else to say. Out with it.”

  “It’s just…” She put on her best innocent face. “I tell you, I was so mortified when Ethan snubbed me at the dance.”

  “Yeah… that wasn’t very nice of him.”

  “No, indeed, but then Craig came along and asked me to dance.”

  “Yes, he was very gallant, wasn’t he?” Diane’s voice went a little lower.

  “It was more than that…” Janie took another sip.

  “What on earth are you talking about?”

  “…Craig… When he touched my hand, I went all mushy…” Janie sat up straighter.

  “Mushy?”

  “Yes, mushy?”

  “Why did you go all mushy?” She looked confused.

  “Why does a woman go mushy over a man?”

  “… Ah…”

  “I mean, he comes along and rescues me like a knight in shining armor – You said that yourself.”

  “Don’t start quoting me, Diane.” She set down her beer. “Do you like him?”

  She asked so softly that Diane had to lean over.

  “What?” Janie cleared her throat.

  “Do you have feelings for Craig?” She practically whispered.

  “… You’re okay with that, aren’t you? I mean you two are just friends, right? Isn’t he fair game?”

  “Fair game?”

  “Well… he doesn’t have a girlfriend and maybe he’d like one.”

  “Are you volunteering for the job?”

  “Sure, why not? Don’t you think we’d be a good match? You didn’t like John and Ethan didn’t work out, so why not Craig?”

  Janie’s mouth dropped open and she was stupefied. What could she possibly say to that?

  Diane smiled. She thought the kick in the pants was definitely in action.

  Janie looked wiped out.

  “Janie, are you all right? You don’t look so good.”

  Janie couldn’t catch her breath – The full meaning of Diane’s words knocked the wind out of her. Diane was almost sorry to see Janie change from confused to distraught in the span of a few minutes, but knew it was for her own good. And Craig’s… the poor guy needed a hand here.

  Janie tossed some money on the table and got up to leave.

  “I’ve got to go, Diane.” She started for the door.

  “Janie, wait. Are you all right? Can you drive?”

  “Yes… sure.” She walked to the door and leaned against the doorframe to catch her breath.

  “Do you mind if I call Craig tomorrow and ask him out?” Diane knew she was pushing it.

  “… Um… You mean like a date?”

  “Yes.” Diane smiled.

  “Diane, I have to go. I’m going to throw up.” That said, Janie stepped outside and threw up on the sidewalk. She bent over, feeling faint.

  Again, Diane would have been sorry, except she knew Janie was in love with Craig and just couldn’t see it. Forest for the trees type of deal…

  “Here… Sit down.” Diane parked her on an outside bench. “I need to tell Jake about this mess.” She hurried inside and came back in a few minutes.

  Janie still looked awful.

  “Wow, are you catching the flu?” Janie walked stiffly to her car and got in.

  “Night, Janie,” she heard Diane call. Diane smiled broadly and went back into the bar. “She can thank me later…”

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  She wasn’t too sure how she made it home, but somehow that’s where she found herself. Janie made it up the stairs and into the apartment. She collapsed into one of the living room chairs and took stock. Yeah, she’d caught her breath, her heart had started up again, but her ears couldn’t believe what they heard. Her brain certainly couldn’t process it.

  Diane and Craig… What alternate universe had she stumbled into? Janie had always thought she had a pretty good handle on life, but the past month or so had been mind-blowing. And this latest bombshell from Diane pushed her right over the edge.

  Janie leaned forward and put her head on her hands. How had things gotten so screwed up? One minute she was a happy deputy and the next minute she was losing her best male friend to her best female friend. She felt like throwing up again and rushed into the bathroom. She didn’t this time, but decided to lie down on the cool tile anyway. She felt overheated, all of sudden, and that helped. Brushing her teeth helped a little too.

  She finally limped to her bedroom and stretched out on the bed. Janie didn’t even bother to take off her clothes – She just pulled back the covers and crawled in. Wrapping herself in a cocoon, she took stock again. Why was she so upset? Diane and Craig would be a good match. Why not? Because… was the only thing she could come up with, at this moment in her cocoon. She pulled the covers over her head.

  In the darkness under the comforter, Janie’s mind began a picture show. And the pictures were all of Craig – Craig in a suit being an accountant, Craig in jeans and a cowboy hat, Craig in a kilt at the Scottish fling, Craig giving her archery lessons, and Craig giving her those smoldering looks at the dance.

  Hundreds of pictures were displayed on the movie screen inside Janie’s head. There was no relief from them… They kept popping up, like one long movie. Pictures of them together when they were kids, riding the school bus together, Janie punching some kid who was mean to Craig, riding horses, playing in the snow, laughing, eating, talking… It was non-stop and crushed her with feeling. A layer peeled back…

  Janie started to cry. She pulled the covers back and sat up in bed. What was happening? She just about never cried. Something had to be pretty bad to make Janie cry. Knowing som
ething had to be done, she searched through her pockets for her cell phone. She snapped it open and made a call.

  “Meg,” she sniffed, “my two days off start tomorrow. Would you mind if I came over to see you? … Sorry this is such short notice… Okay… Thanks… I’ll drive up tomorrow.”

  Then she made a second call – to Craig. Thankfully, he didn’t pick up, so she left a message telling him that she couldn’t make practice for the next few days – She was going to visit Meg, Carter and Sofia in San Francisco. When he listened to it later, he became nervous that she wanted to get away from him. He got on the phone to Colt.

  ####

  Everyone seemed to be going somewhere the next day. Janie was driving up to San Francisco – It would take a few hours, but she was glad to have nothing to do and no one to talk to for a while. All the talking she wanted to do was in her head. She had quickly called her mother to let her parents know she was going up to visit Meg. Lily had been puzzled as to why, but Janie nonchalantly remarked that it was just a spur-of-the-moment thing. She felt like a trip out of town and had a few days off. She knew her mother wasn’t convinced, but said nothing. Lily was pretty good about minding her own business, Janie noted, but her grandmother was a different story. She could almost hear the phone lines ringing from her car.

  She drove through South Lake Tahoe and marveled, as she always did, at the gorgeous, blue lake. Being windy today, there were frothy, white caps on the water and she knew from experience, it would be cold, cold, cold. Their family had had many summer outings at Tahoe and the water was still freezing in August. Lake Tahoe was filled with melted snow water from the surrounding mountains. It never really warmed up… She thought of her goofball twin brothers, Miles and Joey, and some of the stunts they pulled there as teenagers. One of their more outrageous moves was to sink the new aluminum fishing boat Sandy had given them one Christmas. They had forgotten to put the plug in the boat before launching and it sank like a stone not too far from shore. She laughed out loud thinking of how pissed her dad had been at them.

  A couple of hours into her trip, she stopped for lunch in Sacramento. Remembering that her brother, Colt, had met his wife, Mandy, for the first time in Old Town Sacramento, she decided to eat there. Eating in the same restaurant where they had once eaten made her smile. It had all started there for Colt and Mandy and look what they had today. Colt had his horse training business on the ranch. They had married and now had three children. She knew happy endings existed – All Janie had to do was look at her family.

  Then she thought of Mike Church. They had parted amicably and she thought he was incredibly fun to be with. Settling down one day was a foreign idea to him… Was it to her? What exactly did ‘settling down’ even mean?

  While she was driving, thinking good thoughts of him, he was doing the same about her.

  Mike was driving out of town as well. He had rented a car from the Reno Airport and was taking it back before he caught his flight to Juneau, Alaska. His company had gotten another bid for a well to be drilled up there, so he was off again. He thought of Janie and what it would have been like to settle in Nevada. To be truthful… As much as he liked Janie, which was a lot, he couldn’t see staying in her small town. There was still much more of the big, wide world for him to see and he wanted to see it. So there you had it… She was in one place and he was in another. And that was okay… He had a funny feeling that she was about half in love with some friend of hers anyway. There had been a few comments that made him wonder. She was a great gal and he’d miss her…

  He was barely out of Naples when he saw a car with its hood up by the side of the highway to Reno. He glanced at it driving by and it had obviously broken down. Mike was pleasantly surprised to see Diane standing by the car, talking on her cell phone. He pulled off the road in front of her car, when Diane saw him and waved. Mike smiled at her, parked and got out to see if he could help.

  “Hey… Having trouble? I’d say it’s nice to see you, but you’d rather be somewhere else, I’m sure.” He walked over to where she was standing by her car.

  “… Hi Mike! Gee, what a surprise to see you. Where are you going? Leaving?”

  “Yup. Catching the 4:00 to Seattle… Overnight there and then on to Alaska… More new country to see…” She smiled.

  “Janie told me that you were taking off. Maybe you’ll come back to visit us sometime.”

  “… Maybe…” He smiled back at her. “What’s the problem here with your car?” She frowned at it and kicked a tire.

  “Broke down again. Second time this month. Crummy thing… I shouldn’t have bought it. Lesson learned, I hope.”

  “Did you call for a tow?”

  “Yes, and I’m stuck until he gets here.”

  “How about I keep you company until the tow arrives?” They smiled at each other.

  “That would be very gentlemanly of you, Mike. I’d appreciate that. Thanks.”

  He invited her to wait in his car until the tow truck came. They chatted about their jobs and lives for probably thirty minutes and then the tow arrived.

  Winching up her car on the back of the truck didn’t take too long, and Mike offered her a lift to the garage in Naples, which was the closest one.

  “How about I drive you into town so you don’t have to sit by that strange tow truck guy?” Diane laughed.

  “Thanks, that would be nice. He doesn’t look too bad though.”

  After dropping her off at the garage, Mike said his goodbyes and waved to her as he drove off. Nice guy… Janie did all right there. Then she looked at the name of the garage where her car had been towed – Marston’s Car Repair. Oh, boy… This was John Marston’s place… She swallowed hard.

  John came out right then as her face turned red, and she still couldn’t look anywhere else. He was a nice looking man with sandy hair, a little shaggy. He had soft, brown eyes that were smiling. Her heart lifted up a bit and she smiled back. He walked over to her.

  “Hi, Diane. Long time, no see.”

  “John… Good to see you again.” They stood awkwardly, trying to start the conversation. … The car seemed a safe bet to him.

  “What happened with your car?”

  “Same thing as before. I lost power steering again and had to pull over. It’s like driving an elephant when that happens.” He laughed and was pleased that she hadn’t changed from when he last saw her. Pretty, long brown hair, cute nose and face. When he didn’t respond immediately, she blushed again.

  “Ah… sorry. Lost my train of thought for a minute there. So it’s the power steering, huh?” He had been giving her looks that made her wonder… What’s he thinking?

  “… I believe so. I’m certainly not a mechanic, but it’s doing the same thing as the last time.”

  “Okay. Let’s get you checked in and I’ll have one of the guys get it up on hoists to see what’s going on. Were you driving somewhere special? Do you need me to drop you off anywhere?”

  “Nowhere special… I thought I’d head up to Carson City to have some coffee in a little place I like there.” He looked sincerely in her eyes.

  “Would you like some company?” She could hardly believe it. Maybe he wasn’t going to hold it against her about that declined date way back when. She grinned.

  “Absolutely.” He beamed back at her.

  “Let’s get your car taken care of and then, coffee it is…” They both walked into the garage office pretty sure they could take up where they had left off… Which is what they did…

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  Meanwhile, Janie was pulling into San Francisco. She had taken Highway 80 from Nevada into California and always held her breath going over the Bay Bridge. It wasn’t as pretty as the Golden Gate, but it marked the entrance into the city of San Francisco. She loved the town – Her family had been coming here for years to shop, go to theatres, the De Young Museum at Golden Gate Park, the cable cars, and on and on… There were more things to do in this bustling city than she had time in which t
o do them.

  Janie wove her way through town to Pacific Heights, where Carter and Meg lived. They had bought a house not far from his parents after they married a little over three years ago. She smiled as she remembered their beautiful wedding and how her dad, Sandy, and Meg had been laughing as he walked her down the aisle. They all thought he and Meg had lost their minds, but it did lighten the atmosphere – It was good to laugh instead of cry…

  The reception had been fun too… All the men in her family – her dad, grandpa Sam, brothers Jesse, Colt, Miles and Joey joined Craig for a rousing toast to Meg and Carter. It was slightly embarrassing at the time, since they were all a little tipsy, but she remembered it fondly now. And Craig – She had danced every dance with him. Had she really? He had always been there with her and for her. She dashed her hand to her eyes. Couldn’t she have two thoughts together without thinking of him?

  Their place wasn’t too hard to find and Janie had called Meg to let her know when she’d arrive. She pulled up to their house and glanced up at it. The parking area was just below the house that sat on a small hill. Janie got out of the car and stretched… She moved her shoulders around to stretch them out, and sniffed the air – ocean air. Delectable… Her skin greedily drank in the moisture blowing in from the ocean. Nevada was such an incredibly dry state that would dry her skin something awful. The moisture from the air on the California coast made her skin feel like a thousand bucks – Moist and supple.

  She was impressed walking up the sidewalk to the house. Pretty, cream-colored two story with terrific views of the bay. Wow… Pricey area of town, but then Carter was a professor now at the University of San Francisco, since completing his PhD in British Literature. Meg had had a cookbook published that sold well and did a cooking spot on a TV show for a year. She was working on her second cookbook now, when their little daughter, Sofia, would let her. Walking past Sofia’s trike on the lawn, Janie rang the doorbell. She immediately heard footsteps of a little person running to the front door. Sofia pushed the screen door open and smiled at her.