Page 102 of Last Night Was Fun

“Well, that is certainly an interesting way to start a relationship,” Frank said. “Who knew you could fall for someone through text.”

Emmy flamed in embarrassment, but he was right. She had fallen.

“Oh, Frank, it’s perfectly normal these days,” Vera said. “Half of relationships start online now.”

“More than half,” Emmy muttered. “But the way we met is not theproblem. The problem is I have to choose between him and the job.” Another wave of tears swelled up inside her. Her voice rose in pitch and wobbled. “And I really want that job.”

Her mother rubbed away the tear that spilled down her cheek and gazed at her with pained sympathy, knowing full well her history with this scenario. “And you really want him too.” It wasn’t a question. It was a fact, unlike with Jacob.

“Yeah,” Emmy said, sobbing. She’d turned into a weepy puddle.

“Oh, sweetheart.” Vera pulled her into another hug. “You’ve always known what you wanted and followed your heart—that’s why you even have this job in the first place. And you’ve worked so hard for it.”

Emmy leaned back and wiped her wet, puffy eyes. She frowned at her mother in confusion. She was sure she would tell her to go for the guy and ditch the job, not only because she was constantly cheering for her to prioritize her love life but more so because she despised baseball. But it sounded like Vera was saying the opposite. “You think I should go for the job?” She glanced at her dad. “You guys don’t even want me to have this job.”

Vera recoiled. “What? That’s not true.” She looked over at Frank. “We want you to be happy, we’ve just never understood why you’d want to spend time so close to the thing that—” She cut off and took a shaky breath. Her face paled, and she looked like she was bracing herself before continuing to speak. “The thing that took your brother from us.”

Emmy gaped in surprise, thrown. Her mother never spoke about Josh so openly—none of them did. Except for Piper. He was usually an enormous, gut-wrenching elephant they all avoided. But sitting in her parents’ backyard already feeling cracked open and raw, Emmy found herself willing to broach the topic.

“Baseball didn’t take Josh from us, Mom. Addiction did. And the reason I work in baseball is because Iwantto be close to him. I love the sport as much as he did and getting to be at the park every day and seeing the field and the players and the fans, it makes me feel likehe’s still here, even if it’s just for a few seconds now and then. And I also feel like I need to—” Her voice cut off in a choke of tears. She took a breath. “I also feel like I need to make up for him being gone. So you guys have something to be proud of.”

Both her parents stared at Emmy like they were seeing her for the first time. She’d never expressed her feelings to them in such certain terms before and she wasn’t sure how they were going to react.

Her mother broke first.

“Emmy, we aresoproud of you. Please don’t ever think differently. You don’t need to make up for anything. I’ve never disapproved of your job. I just couldn’t understand because I could never...” She weepily trailed off. Frank stood and came over to wrap his arms around both of them.

“We’ve all done our best,” he said softly.

They held one another for a long moment, and Emmy let the satisfaction of knowing she had their support flood through her.

“I love you guys,” she murmured from the center of their embrace. “Sorry if I don’t tell you enough.”

“Oh, honey, we know. You don’t have to apologize,” her mother said, and pulled back to wipe her eyes. “And besides, your father and I aren’t exactly exemplary models of expressing emotion.” A soggy laugh popped from her mouth.

“And yet here we are having a family cry,” Frank said, sniffling as he chuckled.

Emmy joined them, feeling her sore heart lift. “We should do this more.”

“What, cry?” Frank said.

“No. Talk about Josh,” she said, and wiped her nose with a napkin. “I miss him.”

Her parents leaned on each other and laced their hands together. “We miss him too,” her mom said in a thick voice.

Emmy let go of a big breath, feeling the permanent hole in her heart mend with a tiny patch. She wasn’t sure she was any closer tosolving her problem, but talking with her parents had soothed an ache she’d been carrying for a long, long time. “What do you think he would tell me to do?” she asked.

“Josh?” her mom asked as she got up from her chair to tuck a reaching vine into a trellis. “Oh, he’d say go for the guy. He was always a hopeless romantic.”

“Got that from his mother,” Frank said, and leaned over to peck Vera’s cheek.

The sight warmed Emmy’s heart and filled her with gratitude for inviting her brother’s memory into the conversation. She’d talked about him—with Gabe, with Piper, now with her parents—more in the past few weeks than she had in years, and it felt good. There would always be pain, of course, but Josh could brighten any darkness. She just had to be brave enough to let him shine through.

“And you? What do you think?” Emmy asked her parents.

Her mother gave her a sincere look and crossed back over to her side of the table. She took her daughter’s hands in hers. “Emmy, you are so smart and so driven. I know I push you to spend time focusing on other things, sometimes unfairly, but you’ve worked so hard to make it to where you are in your career, and you deserve to keep moving up.” She paused and tucked Emmy’s hair behind her ear. “But I’ve also never seen you as happy as you were in Mexico. He lights you up, sweetheart. And you deserve to feel that glow.” She placed her warm palm on Emmy’s chest and softly smiled. “We can’t tell you what to do, but I know you’ll follow your heart, and it’ll lead you to where you’re supposed to be.”

Emmy wished her heart would tell her what to do, but it wasn’t offering up any advice at the moment. All it was doing was beating the same confused pattern it had been for the past three days, ever since they got the ultimatum email at work. When Jacob had given Emmy an ultimatum, most of her thoughts centered on shock, and then regret for having invested in their relationship at all, but that decisioncame to her quickly. He was easy to let go because they weren’t a good fit. But Gabe... Gabe fit like no one else she’d ever known, and she worried if she gave him up, it would leave an intolerable void.