Forever In Love (3 page)

Michael had loosened his tie and nursed his drink as he'd watched Emily dance with her dad. At first, she'd seemed happy. But then her expression had shifted to confusion...and then to sadness. Almost as if her happiness was draining away a little at a time.

He'd managed to see her face only in glimpses during the dance, but it had been obvious that Emily and her father were engaged in a serious conversation, one that had made her expression transform step by step, turn by turn. He knew she’d felt a bit off-kilter after they’d come down the hill—after he’d said
I love you
over and over in the hopes of getting her to believe that he meant it. But he definitely wouldn’t have let her father steal her away for a dance if he’d thought Tres would upset her further.

Michael had wanted to break into their dance and steal her back from her father. But he knew she’d
never
forgive him if he made a scene at her sister’s wedding. The moment they stopped dancing, however, he headed straight toward her.

Before he could take more than a few steps, however, Emily’s grandmother intercepted him.

Seeing that Emily was discussing something with the caterer, he smiled down at Ava Walker, thinking, as he always did, that she still had
it
. Even in her early eighties, she could dance rings around just about anyone.

Without a word, she held out her hands and took him with her onto the dance floor. Despite his concern about Emily, he was glad to be spending time with one of his favorite people in the world.

“You are a popular dance partner today, aren’t you, Grams?”

“It seems so.” Ava smiled as she said it.

“And I’ll bet everyone here has been wanting to talk to you about your documentary, haven’t they?” Emily’s youngest sister, Hanna, had filmed a brilliant documentary about the six-decades-long Walker-Peterson feud, of which Ava Walker had ended up at the center of simply by falling in love with William. The press had been eating up the story for months, especially once they met Ava and saw how sparkling and beautiful she was.

But when Ava raised an eyebrow at him instead of replying to his question about the film, he knew he wasn’t going to get away with diverting her from the questions he could see in her eyes. Michael might not actually be part of the Walker family, but Ava had always treated him as if he were her grandson, and he loved her dearly for that.

“I think we should have a little heart-to-heart, honey.” She paused as if to let him take a moment to prepare himself for what she was about to say. “I saw you and Emily earlier, standing together at the top of the hill. You finally told her how you feel, didn’t you?”

Michael almost tripped over his feet. Over the years, he had been amazed by how often Grams had known exactly what her grandchildren were thinking, sometimes even before they did themselves.

“How did you know?” he asked her, though he'd long suspected Ava could see straight through to what was in his heart for her oldest granddaughter.

Ava smiled, moving through another few steps with him. “Honestly? How could I
not
know? I’ve seen both of you casually date other people, but they never seemed to ‘take’. You always came back to one another, even though I could tell you never talked about your feelings for one another and it was always just as friends. Plus, from the way you were holding her hands on that hill and how close you were standing to one another... Well, I can’t imagine you were talking about the view.”

It was Michael’s turn to smile. “You don’t miss a thing, do you?”

“There’s no secret to it,” Grams said. “You just have to pay attention to someone for a long time. You have to care about them enough to want to do that. The way I know you pay close attention to Emily and know every little thing about her.”

What Ava was saying was true. Seeing Emily almost every day, living close to her, spending so much time with her, loving her for all these years, he knew the precise lines that formed in her features when she frowned at something one of her sisters had done. The small half turn of her head that said she was really listening, even when she pretended not to. And the fact that she would never accept help when it was offered, treating any kind of assistance almost as an affront to her ability to cope.

“I would have to be a blind old woman not to see how much you love my granddaughter, Michael.” Ava smiled at him, a warm smile that told him how much she cared for him. “Her sisters all see it, too.”

Michael raised an eyebrow at that. Grams knowing everything about everyone in her house made perfect sense. But Morgan, Hanna, Paige, and Rachel being in on it, too?

“They haven’t said anything to me.”

“Perhaps they’ve been a little preoccupied with their own lives. Especially lately.”

Grams looked over to where Brian and Morgan were standing beside each other, holding hands and kissing as they got ready to cut the cake. Charlotte was following just a pace or two behind to make sure that she was the first in line while Nicholas and Rachel looked on indulgently. Joel was helping Hanna film the moment, while Christian and Paige seemed to be dodging the cameras off to the side as they also stood with their arms around each other.

“Or maybe,” Grams continued, “they didn’t think it was their place to say anything.”

He couldn’t quite believe that one. “I can’t think of the last time the four of them have held back on their opinions of me.”

“Morgan really didn’t like that tie you wore the other night, did she?” Ava said with a sparkling laugh that turned heads.

He laughed, too, before saying, “She cut it off of me with scissors.”

A few moments later, however, Grams was looking serious again. “I suspect the real reason none of them have said anything to you or Emily is because they all hope that eventually the two of you will work things out. We all do. But the truth is that some things just have to take their course, no matter how long it takes.” She put her hand over his and squeezed. “I know how long you’ve waited and how hard it’s been for you.” The look she gave him was one of pure love. “But some things are just inevitable.”

Inevitable?
Michael desperately wanted to believe that was true.

No, he thought with a shake of his head. He
knew
the love he felt for Emily was true. What he needed was for Emily to see it, too. Not only how much he loved her, but also how much she loved him.

“Besides, I know what a romantic you are, Michael. Now that all of Emily’s sisters have found their own happily-ever-afters, how can you not want yours to finally come true?”

Michael’s construction business was anything but romantic. He spent all his time doing practical things with wood and brick, glass and steel. Everything was straightforward, and there were no real mysteries, which was why he said, “I never thought I’d ever hear anyone accuse me of being a
romantic
.”

“Of course you’re a romantic. And it’s not a bad thing, honey. Quite the opposite—I think it’s absolutely wonderful. It’s no wonder Morgan’s wedding brought out the grand gesture in you. It’s the same way weddings always bring my son to tears and have me hunting out the best-looking young men in the crowd to dance with.”

“Including me?”

“How do you know I’m not talking about dancing with Christian?” Grams teased. “Especially now that Paige has taught him how to be so light on his feet.”

“So light that something tells me she won’t let anyone, not even her own grandmother, cut in right now,” Michael pointed out with a teasing grin of his own.

What must it be like to be that close to someone, he wondered. To love them so much that just the thought of being apart from them made you ache inside.

But the truth was that Michael already knew the answers to those questions. He’d always known, ever since the first day he’d set eyes on Emily Walker.

“All right,” he conceded, “maybe I am a romantic.”

“But you’re also practical. You know Emily so well that you know that she would never put herself ahead of her sisters. This wedding was your first big chance to really let her know what you feel. Of course you had to take that chance and declare yourself. And I’m glad you did, because Emily
needed
to hear it. She might not have been
prepared
for it, but she needed to hear it. And you needed to say it.”

Ava was right. The need to tell Emily how he felt had been bubbling up inside of him for what felt like forever. He had been holding it back for as long as he could, and today, seeing so many of the other Walker sisters happy, seeing the men who loved them happy, he simply hadn’t been able to stop himself from saying anything any longer.

“She didn’t believe me,” Michael blurted out. “She told me that I was just getting caught up in the moment and that I couldn’t possibly love her. But I know what I feel about her. How I’ve always felt about her. I love her. With everything I am.” He looked over Ava’s shoulder at where Emily was now discussing something with the lighting coordinator while looking at the screen of an iPad. “I told her that I would prove my love to her, and that I would make her believe it’s true when I say
I love you.
”

“Oh, honey, I have no doubt at all that you will be able to prove that to her. All she has to do is open her eyes and really let herself see what the rest of us already do.”

“I also told her,” he admitted in a low voice, “that I would prove that she loves me, too.”

He was surprised when Ava laughed out loud. “You really are the best man in the world for her. Never forget that, no matter how frightened she must have been at hearing your declaration.” But Ava’s smile fell away as she told him, “I’m afraid that after everything life has thrown at Emily, it’s easier for her to believe that you
don’t
love her. Otherwise, she has to start thinking about everything she feels...and everything she stands to lose.” Grams shook her head and sighed. “Unfortunately, it’s so much safer just to look after everyone else’s lives rather than put her own heart on the line and risk getting hurt.”

“I don’t want to hurt her, Grams. That’s the very last thing I want.”

“I’ve seen you spend sixteen years tying yourself in knots, trying to avoid doing just that. I know you’re not about to start now. But sometimes...sometimes the path to true happiness is a little painful. And sometimes we need to tear down parts of what’s there that aren’t working before we can build something new and beautiful.”

That was an idea Michael was very familiar with—working construction on an island full of historic buildings meant occasionally having to pull things apart to create something better. He also knew that it hadn’t been easy for Ava to be caught up in the island feud when she fell in love with William. But Michael was certain that Ava wouldn’t have changed a thing, or missed out on loving him, for anything.

“I’ve always known you two would be friends forever,” Ava said in a gentle voice as their dance came to an end, “but now that you’ve finally taken this step today of confessing your feelings to my granddaughter? Well, I’m going to finally confess mine to you. I’m hoping for something more than
just friends
for you and Emily. Much more.”

He smiled down at the woman who had taken him in at a time in his life when it had felt like he’d lost absolutely everything. “I’m hoping for the very same thing, Grams. For so much more that Emily will never again be able to doubt my love for her...or hers for me.”

Michael loved Ava Walker dearly. She’d always been there for him, and now that he was a grown man, things were no different.

As soon as their dance ended, Charlotte grabbed her hand, and now Ava was having the time of her life teaching her granddaughter the intricate steps of the samba. Things would be different in the big Walker house now that all the sisters had moved out, and he wondered what the future held for Ava...just as he wondered what the future held for him and for Emily.

Once upon a time, when he was a child, he’d assumed life moved in a linear fashion. You played with your friends, went to school, got a job, fell in love, and had a family. But sixteen years ago, he’d learned that life wasn’t at all linear. Not when one horrible moment could make your entire life crumble around you.

Ava and the rest of the Walkers had helped him through his pain.

But no one had helped him more than Emily.

* * *

Sixteen years ago...

“I’m so sorry for your loss, Michael,” the woman said.

She explained who she was, something that sounded official, but right then Michael couldn’t focus on much of anything. His parents had died the day before in a car crash, and now his house was full of people he barely knew, and all of them were eager to tell him just how sorry they were.

But being sorry didn’t change anything, did it? Being sorry didn’t make the car accident not happen. Being sorry didn’t make his mom and dad reappear to fill the house with talking, and laughing, or even arguing. And being sorry sure didn’t take away even a fragment of the pain that had settled inside him, tangling up his heart, refusing to budge.

There were so many people in the room. Distant relatives whom he hadn’t seen in years and whose faces he barely remembered. Neighbors who had known his mom and dad, but whom he didn’t know well, if at all. There were also a couple of “official-looking” people, such as the woman currently talking to him.

He didn’t want any of them here. He didn’t want them in his parents’ house, saying empty, meaningless things about loss and healing while his mom and dad were gone forever.

“Yeah, sure,” Michael said when the woman finally stopped talking. “I’m going to get a drink of water.”

As he headed to the kitchen with his head down, even though it felt like there was a hard-rock band playing inside his skull, he still couldn’t help but overhear what people were saying about him and his parents.

“How could they have been driving like that?”

“The house will have to be sold, of course. A teenager can’t look after it all on his own.”

“Where is he going to go now?”

Eventually, the fragments of conversation blended into a dark certainty that was bigger than the sum of its parts. A certainty that everything that had happened the day before was not the end of Michael’s problems, but just the beginning.

And that even when it felt like the world should have already completely fallen apart, the worst was yet to come.

He slipped out the back door before anyone noticed, setting off down the street, not really knowing where he was going. Just as long as it was away from the house that should have felt so safe, but now felt more like a hole into which he was about to fall, being pushed slowly toward it by well-meaning people telling him how sorry they were for his loss.

Moments later, Michael’s heart stalled in his chest. Emily Walker was making her way along the road from the opposite direction, golden-haired and beautiful. She was walking toward him the way she had ever since they were little children meeting for a playdate at the midpoint between their two houses, holding their moms’ hands. Moms who were both gone now.

He could see that midpoint on the sidewalk now, a patch of sidewalk in front of a vacant lot and next to the right turn that led toward the center of town. A small signpost, pointing to a couple of the island’s attractions, also marked the spot.

For years, they’d made a game out of trying to meet exactly at the midpoint, sometimes making it easy for one another, more often racing to it. Recently, she’d grown tall and graceful, easily able to stride across the distance, so he walked a bit quicker.

Today, Emily met him precisely in the middle, throwing her arms wide and hugging him.

Michael waited for her to say all the same stupid things as everyone else. But Emily still didn’t say anything. She just held on to him, pressing him tight against her.

She was the only one who knew just what he needed right then. They’d told one another everything growing up. And, of course, Emily had experienced her own tragedies. Michael had been there when she’d found out that her mother had died. With her sisters around her, she hadn’t let herself break down in front of them, even as her sisters all fell apart. Instead, she’d made sure to keep them together as a family, even through the horrible crisis. Michael had been the one to hold her when she’d been ready to cry in secret over the loss of her mom.

Now, it seemed, it was her turn to hold him.

“Come on,” Emily said. “We’ll go to my house.”

Michael couldn’t get words past the lump in his throat, so he just walked beside her while she held his hand. The best part about being with Emily was that, at a time like this, he knew he didn’t have to say anything. And she didn’t have to ask how he was feeling, because she knew.

Finally, though, when he had managed to swallow the lump down, he had to say, “What was it like? After…”

“It was horrible,” she told him in a soft voice. “And it stayed like that for a long time.”

She was the first person who had been honest with him today, and even though it was painful to hear, he’d never appreciated her honesty more. Almost as much as he appreciated the fact that she was there for him, just as she’d always been.

He heard her swallow hard before she told him, “I’m sure Grams has got lunch going.”

Even if Grams wasn’t there, Michael knew Emily would make food for him and everyone else.

They walked up to the Walker house, going through to the kitchen. Emily’s sisters were at home, along with Ava, who was showing Paige a dance move in the living room. Her father, Michael’s English teacher from school, was there, too, reading with Hanna, the youngest of the sisters.

They all looked up at once when he and Emily entered the kitchen. He was certain that one of two things would happen: Either they would all start talking like everyone back at his house, or they would make him go back home to the wake.

But before anyone could say a word, Emily took charge. “Is there any of that soup left, Grams?”

“Of course there is. Come and sit down, Michael.”

He sat, but Emily didn’t leave his side. Rachel moved over to touch his shoulder lightly, before heading out of the kitchen.

“Do you want to play, Michael?” Hanna asked. At just seven, she was the youngest of the sisters.

“Not today, darling,” her father said, before Michael could reply. “Paige, why don’t you take Hanna and Morgan over to the dance studio?”

Paige nodded, her big eyes sad as she looked at Michael, and her sisters followed her out willingly.

“I’m going to have to call your house,” Mr. Walker said. “Just to let them know where you are.”

“But, Dad,” Emily said quickly, “if you do that, they’ll just come get him.”

Her father looked at her and then at Michael. “I can understand not wanting to be there right now. But I’ve still got to let them know he’s here.”

“Dad—”

“Emily,” Ava Walker said. “You know your father has to call. He’s got to do the right thing. Don’t you, William?”

William.
Michael didn’t think he’d ever heard anyone call Mr. Walker by his first name. He was always Mr. Walker, or Tres, or “Emily’s dad”.

“Because he’s done such a great job of doing the right thing so far,” Emily snapped back.

It was weird for Michael, hearing her talk to her own father like that, the disappointment in her tone unmistakable.

Ava looked at her sharply. “Emily, that was uncalled for.”

“Really? I’d say that it was
completely
called for.”

Michael pushed back from the table. “Emily, your grandmother’s right. I mean…at least you have a dad. I’m sorry, if I’m causing trouble being here—”

“You’re not causing any trouble at all, Michael,” Mr. Walker said, waving him back into his seat.

Emily reached for his hand and wouldn’t let go. “I want Michael to stay, Dad. He
needs
to stay. Here. With us. No matter what anyone else wants him to do, he belongs here with us now.”

All Michael wanted was to stay with them. Not just for the next few minutes, but permanently. Apart from his own home, which was now overrun with long-lost relatives and strangers, the Walker house was the only home he’d ever known.

Thankfully, Tres didn’t so much as pause before nodding and saying, “Mom, can you handle things here for a moment while I make the call?”

“Of course,” Ava replied. “Michael, sit back down and have something to eat while Tres lets them know just how much we’d like you to stay with us.”

A few moments later, they all heard Emily’s father speaking on the phone. “This is Tres Walker from up the street. I wanted you to know that Michael is over at our place. Yes, my daughter brought him home. They’re friends from school.” He listened for a moment or two. “Yes, I understand, but for the moment…no. No,” he said again in an even stronger voice. “I really don’t think that’s a good idea. Yes, I’m perfectly aware of what I’m saying, and I know exactly how this situation works.”

There was a note of authority in his voice that Michael hadn’t heard from Mr. Walker outside of school. On the occasions when Michael had seen him around the Walker house, he’d seemed nice but always a little bit sad. Michael had never seen or heard him this much in control.

As they listened to the call, Emily was right there beside him, still holding his hand, quiet yet fiercely protective. When Hanna ran back in with one arm in her coat, wanting to hug Michael, it was Emily who gently pulled her sister from him, helped her with her coat, and sent her back in the direction of the others.

“Yes,” Emily’s father said from the other room. “I understand that you need to get back to the mainland and that you want to take him with you. However, have you or anyone else actually asked Michael’s opinion on the matter?” He paused for a moment before saying, “I can see why you might have thought that there isn’t another choice. However, I would like to provide one. My house. My family. We want him here.” Michael’s heart was flipping around like crazy in his chest as Tres said, “I really do feel that it’s the best option. He should stay on the island to finish school. He should stay with us.”

Emily tugged silently on Michael’s hand, pulling him away from the table. She led him through the twists and turns of the big old house and up to her bedroom, one that was clean and neatly kept, with well-read books stacked carefully on shelves.

“It sounds like Dad is actually going to come through on this.”

The note of bitterness that had crept in whenever she spoke about her father since her mother had died was barely noticeable for once. It seemed that this time Emily approved of what her father was doing.

“Thanks for getting him to agree to take me in.” Tres Walker was a good man, but he would never have done what he’d just done if Emily hadn’t pushed him toward doing it.

“If this plan works,” she said, “you’ll be spending a lot more time around here. Will you be okay with that?”

Michael would be so much more than okay with it. He would much rather live with people he knew than with relatives he really didn’t know at all. Especially if it meant he got to stay with Emily.

Because even then, he loved her with everything he was.