Love, Artifacts, and You by Sarah Ready

19

Andrew

I takeSuffolk Auction House’s corporate jet to the private airport outside Romeo. The airport has a gray hangar, a runway, and a small office building. It’s in the middle of a flat farm field, surrounded by a swath of trees. When we came in for landing, I could see the buildings of Romeo, the river, the mountain, and perhaps it was my imagination, but I also thought I could see the field where the settlement lies. The hour-long flight had me tapping my foot on the floor and drumming my fingers on the armrest nonstop.

I want to get to Emma.

Except, I know I can’t just rush in there. I need to plan this. Do it right.

Once on the ground, I hire a car service, a black Cadillac with an older gentleman driver, and head into town. It’s a short fifteen-minute drive, but I’m impatient. On the way, my phone rings. It’s Van Cleeve. I grip the phone in my hand a lot tighter than necessary. I haven’t spoken to him since he drove Emma away.

In fact, I can’t think of any good reason for him to be calling. Unless, something’s happened to Emma?

I answer quickly. “What is it?” I snap.

Van Cleeve lets out a surprised chuckle. “I’ve always admired your brass, Carmichael. You really don’t care what people think of you, do you?”

Not true. I care a whole helluva lot what Emma thinks of me.

“What is it?” I grate out again. I want to ask if Emma is alright, but I don’t.

He sighs and mumbles something to himself. “I was calling as a favor,” he says, and I’m surprised to find that I believe him.

“Go ahead.”

“I’m sorry to hear about the explosion,” he begins.

“Accidents happen,” I say warily.

He lets out a poorly concealed scoff that makes me wonder how much he knows.

“Be that as it may, for the four days you were MIA, Emma was frantic. I drove all the way up to Romeo looking for you, just to reassure her. She couldn’t believe that you’d just disappear. She couldn’t fathom that you wouldn’t contact her. She didn’t know where you were. Do you understand what I’m saying?”

I sink back into the leather seat of the Cadillac. “I hear you,” I say. It’s nothing short of what I concluded flying into Romeo. Emma didn’t know about the explosion. On the phone, when she said she knew, she must’ve been talking about her dad’s part in the attack ten years ago.

“You hear me?” He sounds as close to exasperated as Van Cleeve can come to the emotion.

“Thanks for the call,” I say.

He swears. “If you don’t get your ass to Romeo and do right by Emma, so help me—”

“Appreciate the call,” I say. I give a half-smile. Van Cleeve is still cussing me out. Maybe someday, when he gets over his inappropriate crush on my soon-to-be wife, Van Cleeve and I will be friends. He lets out another string of cusses. I smile. Or not…probably, we won’t be friends.

I chuckle.

“Will you stop laughing and get on your private jet and…you’re already there, aren’t you?” he asks.

“Talk to you later,” I say.

I hang up on him mid-sentence. I grin as the driver pulls into downtown.

“Here’s fine,” I say.

We slow in front of town hall. I have a lot to do in the next few hours.

It took morethan a few hours.

Even with unlimited funds, a work crew of a dozen men, construction machinery, and half the town working to help my goal, it still took six hours to get everything ready.

The gravel crunches under the rental car’s tires as I pull into the drive in front of Emma’s cabin. Apparently, it belongs to Van Cleeve, but I choose to ignore that fact. I step out of the car and breathe in the pine-scented air. Sunset is in forty-five minutes.

I didn’t check to see if Emma was here before coming. Jessie, the town librarian, assured me she was. I ran into Jessie and one of the older ladies she was with the other day, outside of town hall. When I mentioned that I could use some help, the old lady started cackling and rubbing her hands.

“We get to meddle,” she crowed happily.

Within thirty minutes, she had half of Romeo gathered and working together to help me win Emma. I was awed and thunderstruck at the generosity of this town for a near stranger.

I clear my throat and loosen the collar of my shirt, suddenly nervous. There’s a lamp on inside the cabin and I can hear classical music coming from the radio. It’s so Emma. She loves everything historic. I rub a hand over the back of my neck and pause at the door.

I realize I’m afraid to knock. In the whirlwind of preparations today, I never once paused to think about what I’d do if Emma said no.

What if I misunderstood the message in her interview and she didn’t actually want me to come? What if instead of saying come back to me, she was saying goodbye?

I stare at the faded and scratched blue paint of the wood door. I shift uncomfortably and the edge of the engagement ring box in my pocket digs into my thigh.

What if she turns me away? If she says we’ve hurt each other enough?

What if I’m wrong?

The sun falls closer to the horizon. It’s nearing dusk. A ray of the sun shines through the leaves and lights across my face. The beam is a brilliant golden white.

I let out all the fear and tension.

It’s going to be okay.

I hold up my hand and knock on the door.