Being Emma (12 page)

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 something 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 to 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.

“Hello, Aunt Janie. Would you like to come
in?” Janie had to laugh. It was quite a contrast between Colt’s
kids who would launch themselves at her squealing with delight and
two year old, Sofia, who was so prim and proper. Janie reached over
and picked her up.

“Hello, Sofia. It’s so nice to see you.” She
kissed her on the cheek as Meg came up behind them.

“Sis… Wonderful to see you.” Meg put her arms
around both Janie and Sofia in a big, welcoming hug. “Come in, come
in. Don’t just stand in the doorway.”

Janie walked in holding Sofia who announced
she wanted to stay with Aunt Janie for her whole trip. Meg laughed
and showed Janie into the kitchen.