Emilia made her way into the sock store and stared mindlessly at a pair of puppy dog socks. She didn’t know what kind of dog, with floppy ears and long hair, was plastered all over them, but she thought they were cute. A pair next to them caught her eye even more. Bright pink dahlias had been embroidered onto a pair of silver socks, which she was sure dangled as a greeting from her grandmother, and her chest tightened.
Mama Cam would have loved them. She grew the biggest dahlias in town, or at least that was what she reported to Emilia every year. A wave of sorrow washed over her at the thought of her grandmother. She was larger than life with her silver hair cut short, large earrings dangling from her droopy ears, and bright red lipstick, all while sporting a flannel shirt, jeans, and sparkly tennis shoes.
She was a real character, and her grandfather wasn’t far behind, but he always made sure to let his wife shine.
There was no doubt when Emilia landed on their doorstep they hadn’t a clue that she wouldn’t be leaving their home anytime soon. Her grandparents were gearing up for retirement, not raising a child. They thought the situation was temporary and had no idea the depths of despair, deceit, and neglect their granddaughter had experienced at the hands of their own daughter and her husband. But it was nothing they ever dwelled on. Mama Cam and Papa Jack wanted to make Emilia’s life as normal as possible under the circumstances.
Emilia unhooked the socks from the peg and made her way to the cashier. She’d done a great job of avoiding her agent since his first text wondering where her daily blog post was. She’d done totally fine without his help so far in her career and was beginning to wonder if she really needed to keep him around. She was uncomfortable with having a team, and so far, hers was growing by leaps and bounds. She even had to hire an assistant a few months ago on a part-time basis.
She set her socks on the counter and waited for the woman in the store to make her way over. It wasn’t until the older woman smiled that Emilia recognized her immediately.
“Mrs. Crawford?” Emilia smiled, looking fondly at her eleventh-grade history teacher.
“That’s me.” Mrs. Crawford winked and scanned the tag on the dahlia socks.
“It’s Emil…Hailee Howard. I took your history class nineteen or so years ago. You probably don’t remember me, but—”
“Look at you.” Mrs. Crawford put the socks down and pulled off her glasses. “You’re absolutely ravishing, Hailee.” She walked around the counter and pulled Emilia into a giant hug. “I’m so glad you got rid of that drab brown you kept dying your hair.”
Emilia laughed and instantly remembered Mrs. Crawford’s brutal honesty.
“I always thought your natural hair color was prettier, and I was right.” She took a step back and scanned Emilia as if she were trying to capture everything about her for the last time. “It’s so good to see you. What brings you back to town? Didn’t the Olsens buy your grandparents’ home?”
“They sure did.” Emilia smiled and took in a deep breath.
Emilia had inherited her Mama Cam and Papa Jack’s home. It had been completely paid off and she’d found a couple to rent it and take care of it. In fact, it was that money that helped get Emilia on her feet in Oregon. It also gave her the freedom to try blogging and a few other jobs along the way without as many financial pressures as some faced. Not that she didn’t have to work, but getting the rent check every month definitely helped contribute to her income. It wasn’t until a year ago that she felt like she was confident enough with her blogging income that she could sell it to the Olsens, who were no longer a couple, but a family of four.
“That was very nice of you.” Mrs. Crawford wandered around the counter and slid the socks in the bag along with the receipt.
“What was nice of me?”
“We all know you sold the Olsens your property undervalue. There’s no way they could have afforded that place without your kindness.”
“They got me through some rough patches, Mrs. Crawford. It’s the least I could do. Besides, I gave them a lease-to-own option, and it just happened to work in their favor.” Emilia leaned against the counter and smiled at her teacher.
“Whatever you say, Hailee, and please stop calling me Mrs. Crawford. It’s Claire. When you call me Mrs. Crawford, I feel like I need to start grading homework and yelling at one of the North boys for getting into trouble.”
Emilia laughed. “Well, then you can call me Emilia. I actually changed my name when I left Silver Ridge.”
“Afraid one of us might find you?” Claire teased with a sparkle in her eyes.
“Not so much you, no.” Emilia smiled, not wanting to admit the real reason she changed her name. Actually, there were two reasons, and she’d never told a soul either of them.
“I’m glad to have you back, Emilia.” Claire handed Emilia the bag. “You know, your grandma really did grow the biggest dahlias.”
Emilia felt a lump form in the back of her throat, but she shoved it down as she took the bag with the dahlia socks from Claire and cleared her throat. “That’s what she always told me.”
“Well, she wasn’t fibbing.” Claire winked. “At least about that.”
Emilia chuckled as her phone buzzed again, and she let out a disgruntled sigh as she gave Claire one last quick wave and wandered out of the store. A blast of cold air ran over her body, and she glanced up the street to see the red and white striped awnings of the ice cream shop begin to get a light coating of snow.
What was once a fun hobby and a theoretical dream job had become exhausting and not all that authentic to her true self. She used to blog all over the place with funny anecdotes and whacky theories about the dating world, but in recent months, her agent wanted to keep her consistent and on task, which resulted in rather mundane observations. Her phone buzzed again, and she looked down to see her agent’s text.
I’ve been floating the book idea around out there, and there are a few more takers than I realized. I’ll keep you posted. Enjoy your vacation, but where is today’s post? We can’t let the publishers think you’re not consistent.
Emilia kept her eye roll to herself and slipped her phone back into her purse. She knew her agent was right about posting consistently, but she had over eight hundred posts with thousands of interactions, not to mention the number of blog subscribers. Being late one day wasn’t going to kill any supposed deal. And if it did? Oh, well. Then it wasn’t meant to be. This was where she needed to be right now, and she didn’t even understand why.
Besides, she wasn’t sure she really wanted a book deal. After all, she made plenty with her blog, and the thought of doing a book tour and living up to the hype was almost more than she could bear.
Almost.
Right when she decided she wanted an ice cream cone on this cold wintery day, her phone buzzed yet again, and she was about to come unglued on any one of the three men blowing up her phone—Daniel, Richard, or her agent, Jerry. One of them was about to get the cranky Emilia.
Before she realized it wasn’t any of the three, she’d already barked a not-so-pleasant greeting into the phone and immediately fell silent.
“Hey there.” Sam’s cheery voice made Emilia stop in her tracks and glance toward the wedding shop.
The store had a Closed sign hanging in the window, so she guessed Sam, thankfully, wasn’t over there any longer. “I know this is last minute, but I thought maybe you’d like to come up to the lodge for dinner. We have the best Kobe beef burger this side of the mountains.”
“Sam, is that because you have the only Kobe beef burger this side of the mountains?”
Sam laughed into the phone, and she suddenly felt as if all the years that had come between them meant nothing. Sam was as jovial and free-spirited as before. And he didn’t seem to be holding any grudges about how she’d ditched his cousin out of the blue either. Maybe because it wasn’t that big of a deal to his cousin. After all, they were both teenagers.
“Joel and a few other people might show up.” He let a few beats of silence go by. “Well, not might. They definitely want to see the woman who made it out of Silver Ridge and lived to tell about it.”
“How many are we talking?” Emilia asked, still eyeing the ice cream shop.
“I don’t know. Maybe six or seven.” He cleared his throat. “Or maybe fewer people. It really depends. You know how word travels around here. Could be more.”
“Indeed, I do.” Emilia couldn’t help but smile as she thought about how quickly people were ready to drop everything they had going on so they didn’t miss out on something in this small town. “I could probably use a Kobe Beef burger to keep my stamina up for a week of reminiscing.”
Two burgers in one day were Emilia’s idea of heaven anyway, so this was a perfect excuse to indulge.
“There you go. That’s the spirit. How about we expect you around seven tonight?”
“So, which restaurant of yours should I show up at?”
“The Silver Canyon Bar and Grill at the base of the mountain.”
“Thanks for organizing this, Sam. It’s really sweet of you.”
And she meant it.
“Don’t get too worked up about it. I think Dina’s still in awe that there’s a celebrity floating around Silver Ridge.” He laughed. “And that’s saying something since she used to live in L.A.”
“I’m not a celebrity.” Emilia chuckled. “But she’s certainly good for the ego.”
“That she is,” Sam agreed. “Alright, I’ll see you in a few hours.”
“Okay, Sam. See you then.” Emilia hung up the phone, feeling a little bit antsy, a little bit excited, and a whole lot of nervous.
She really didn’t feel like explaining why she changed her name. Heck, she didn’t even know which name she should go by tonight. It was a problem she never faced anywhere else because she only existed as Emilia Hudson in Oregon.
There wasn’t this added baggage to throw into the mix of unknowns regarding what she’d done with her life for the last eighteen years. In Oregon, she could skip over the parts she didn’t want people to know and dive into the ones she did. In Silver Ridge, most people knew the parts she’d kept hidden for so long.
By the time she’d gotten back to the cottage, it was more than time to look over her blog post one more time and hit Submit. After she’d polished off the ice cream cone, she’d felt extremely guilty for all her wandering through town, but she needed it for her soul. She hadn’t gotten enough courage to walk by her grandparents’ home, but there was plenty of time left in the week for that.
As she flipped open her laptop, she let out a sigh as her mind wandered to her old high school boyfriend. Over the years, she’d had the urge to look him up, but she never did. Her goal was always to live in the present, not the past. It was part survival since her parents essentially abandoned her on her grandparents’ doorstep. If she didn’t think about it, it didn’t happen.
Only it did happen, and all of the emotions merely sat and festered over the years.
Emilia read her post one last time, stewing on the last sentence.
So don’t start changing who you are just to get to date number two.
She narrowed her eyes and typed a little more to finish off her thoughts.
Unless, of course, you don’t actually know who you are or what you want to be. If that’s the case, then maybe take some time to really invest in getting to know yourself before you go on any other dates. It might be the biggest gift you give yourself, Cranky and Single in Sacramento. You can’t be genuine if you genuinely don’t know who you are.
Emilia smiled with that last revelation, skimmed the document, and hit Submit to let the world see her latest thoughts on love, life, relationships, and the dating world. What she didn’t want the world to know was that the thought of living with twenty cats and as many Chihuahuas didn’t sound like a half-bad plan.