Timing is Everything

EMMA

Emma was sure that she had ruined things with Luke, so she went out with Adam. They had fun and Emma let herself develop some feelings for Adam in a short period of time.

Although now, as she looked back at it, she was just trying to forget Luke. The sex was good, but not mind-blowing like with Luke. Emma realized she needed to stop comparing everything to him.

She hadn’t heard from him in six weeks and that wasn’t like him. They always emailed each other to keep in touch, but they were still too proud, stubborn, and hurt to be the first to reach out.

About a month after she and Adam started dating, he had basically moved in with her, staying at her place when he was in town instead of in a hotel.

Two months after Luke had left, Emma still wasn’t feeling good and collapsed one day after practice. The coach rushed her to the hospital and Emma got the shock of her life when they said she was pregnant.

She was floored and took a cab home to think about what to do and how to tell Pops and Adam. Adam was due home that night, so she waited for him.

They had a long night as he listened to Emma’s news. She was stunned when he asked her to marry him. She agreed, thinking that her chance for happiness with Luke was gone and that she had to make the best of it.

She knew it wasn’t the best way to enter a marriage, but Adam was a good man and he loved her. She loved him too, just not the way she loved Luke. She would be happy and they would raise their child together.

Emma had to quit the swim team and quit school. She didn’t want to go to school pregnant and she had to think about the baby’s health.

So she moved back home and planned a wedding with Carol, the DeMarco women, and Joan Reynolds, Luke’s mom. It was weird having her there, since Emma wished it was Luke she was marrying.

Pops was not happy that she had gotten pregnant, and was miserable when she said they were moving to Maryland.

“Not only are you moving, but moving up north?! That’s at least a two-hour plane ride away!”

“Pops, that’s where the company’s headquarters are and I don’t like it any more than you do! I have never been that far away from you!”

The pregnancy hormones took over as she sobbed in his arms. He held back his tears until he was alone or with John, and then vented over whiskey or bourbon.

The wedding planning was a whole other matter. Adam’s parents insisted that the wedding be held in a church, but Emma had always wanted to get married on the beach, in a much less formal affair.

It didn’t matter that Adam’s parents weren’t paying for it; they made their opinions very known.

Joan and Carol tried to no avail to get Adam’s parents to relent for the sake of Emma and the baby’s health, but they held firm.

Emma relented and got married in a big church in West Palm Beach. Emma just couldn’t take the stress of trying to plan a wedding in two months’ time while pregnant.

Emma vowed to herself that they would never have that kind of control over her again, especially when it came to her child.

As May and the wedding date came around, Emma had packed her apartment and her room at home and sent her things to Adam’s house in Maryland.

He’d bought a house as soon as she agreed to marry him and told her to redecorate however she wanted after the wedding.

She had a beautiful dress, her best friends as her maids of honor, a man that loved her and a baby on the way. But she wasn’t really happy.

She had started countless letters to Luke, but nothing ever came out right. She cried every night, not knowing what to do.

Finally, two days before the wedding, she got an email from him. She read it by herself and sobbed, then printed it out and put it in a special lockbox that she had for treasures.

She would pull it out every few months and read it, remembering what they shared. He promised that they would always be friends and that this wouldn’t change anything.

She held onto that hope and they made it work.

Even though his parents didn’t, Adam understood how important her friends were to her, and that they were her family.

Adam had Emma go down and visit them as often as she wanted, and she had them come up for visits whenever they could.

Pops, Carol, Sylvia, and the twins were all at the house waiting for Trevor to be born. They were all there in the hospital and were by her side for a month afterward, helping.

She loved every second. Adam’s parents weren’t so thrilled, but Pops put them in their place.

She and Luke saw each other for the first time when Trevor was four months old. Luke had a twenty-six-hour layover at JFK and Emma went to see him, introducing him to Trevor.

Emma took lots of pictures and they vowed to make their friendship work. It got easier as the years went by, but her feelings for him never went away.

To this day, she still loved him, but the timing was always off. Something always got in the way.

Her life continued as she spent all her time on Trevor and loved him with all her heart. She and Adam never had any more children.

She’d always thought it was her, as her own mother could have only ever had her.

Adam seemed okay with that, and they just loved their son. He was a very handsome young man as he got older, with his bright blue eyes, dark brown hair, and perfect complexion.

He favored Adam in looks, except for the eyes: Adam’s were a much lighter blue.

Trevor grew tall at six feet, four inches and played all kinds of sports to stay in shape. He was never short on female admirers.

Trevor loved his Florida family and loved being down there as much as possible. It aggravated his grandparents that he would rather go down there than to their house in the Hamptons for the summers.

They were too stuffy, and he hated to feel so closed off. He was very much like Emma in personality: outgoing with a very sharp mind.

Adam had talked about Trevor going into medicine for as long as Emma could remember, and that’s what Trevor was going to do in college.

Emma wasn’t completely convinced that was what he wanted, but he wanted to make his father happy. Their relationship had been strained since the divorce.

Trevor hadn’t felt comfortable around him since the split, and only saw him when he had to.

Emma stood up after her trip down memory lane and decided to head up to her rooms and finish putting the pictures and paintings up.

She pulled out the frames and positioned them around the room on different shelves.

She particularly loved one of Pops, Trevor, Jerry, John, Evan—Luke’s Dad—and Luke out fishing when Trevor was ten years old.

Luke was on leave, so Jerry had taken them out on his big boat. Trevor caught his first fish that day with Luke guiding him the whole way. Their friendship was cemented that day.

They even emailed each other and Trevor made sure to stick notes in the care packages Emma sent Luke every month or so.

Emma went into her closet to pick out something to wear and saw her special lockbox sitting there. She sat next to it on the floor and opened it up, pulling out the letter from Luke, and read it again.

My Dearest Em, I know we left things badly that day and I can’t tell you how sorry I am for the way I acted. We had an amazing weekend together and I know that I hurt you by wanting to re-up.

I thought I was doing the right thing for you, but now see that it ended up changing everything.

I know you are getting married and it kills me that it’s not to me. I can’t tell you how much I want it to be me and for that baby to be mine.

I want to be the one to make you happy every morning and sleep with you in my arms every night.

I want to kiss you until you can’t breathe and I want it to be my name that you call in the heat of the moment. But time is not on our side.

So I need you to promise that you will be happy and well; that you will grow more beautiful with each passing day and that you never forget what we shared.

And don’t ever forget how much I love you. I always will.

Always in my heart,

Luke