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I turned to meet his gaze and braced myself as those deep blue eyes pierced my soul yet again.
“I just...I’m so confused,” I told him. And I turned to my Dad. “You’ve been talking?” This was so hard to process. “But why are you here?” I asked Archie.
“I didn’t like how we left things.” It was a simple answer, but it didn’t really tell me anything.
“Archie came to talk about Jake,” Dad said, breaking his silence and pulling our attention to him. “To talk about what happened that day, how it impacted all of us—him, our family, your relationship.”
“Our relationship,” I repeated like a parrot, swinging my gaze to the man I loved, who looked slightly amused at my inability to form coherent sentences.
“You made me realize that nothing gets better when you hide from it,” Archie said. “And for years, I think that’s what I was doing, using the resort as a kind of shield, a distraction. But then you showed up, and pulled everything together for me—the reasons I was at the resort, and the things I’d been avoiding. And I guess I realized that I couldn’t really be whole—whole enough to be the man you deserve—if I didn’t face my greatest fear.” He paused, swallowing visibly. “And it was just convenient that my greatest fear is pretty closely intertwined with the woman I’m in love with.”
Mom let out a little “awww.”
I swung my gaze between them all, then reached for Mom’s wine, which she’d placed on the table between us. I sipped, and then guzzled the glass, putting it back down and taking a deep breath.
“Okay,” I said, wishing for the alcohol to give me a tiny bit of courage to just say what was on my mind. “So Archie shows up here, and you’re willing to talk to him suddenly?” I asked my dad. “When you wouldn’t even talk to us about Jake? For years?”
Dad dropped his eyes to his lap for a second, and then straightened up. “I’m not proud of the way I’ve behaved,” he said in a soft voice. “I didn’t know how to process what happened. He was...” Dad’s voice broke. “Jake was our son. It was just...”
Mom reached for his hand. “It was so hard.”
I wasn’t proud to have made my father break down again, but it was refreshing to see real emotion from him after yearsof silent denial. My father seemed to take strength from Mom’s touch, and he went on. “I wouldn’t have been able to talk to Archie a few weeks ago. Honestly, I was too angry. But you made me see how misplaced all that anger was, Em. You forgave, and you forced me to see that holding onto all the pain was eating me alive. Eating us. You saved us, basically.”
My father scanned my face, and I felt his regret as heavy as my own. All those years wasted in anger. But Dad wasn’t finished talking. “When Archie showed up here, telling us he’s in love with our daughter and asking if there was any way we could ever forgive him, it wasn’t really very hard to do.”
I wiped at the tears running down my face, my heart surging inside me both at the idea that Archie had said those words, and also at the changed appearance of my father. It was like letting go of all the hate had lightened him, straightened his spine, brought back the happier version of the man Jake and I grew up with.
“I hope it’s okay with you,” Archie said. “Me showing up like this.”
“Isn’t there a big Thanksgiving dinner at the resort?” I asked, remembering the plans that were being made while I was there.
Archie smiled, the dimple appearing at one side of his beautiful mouth. “The thing I’m starting to see is that the resort runs just fine without me. They don’t need me there to run it, and I know the people I love will be there when I go back.”
“Oh. Okay.” I wished for better words to say, but none were coming to mind. I sat there, between the three people I loved most in the world, wondering what was going to happen next and feeling like the whole thing might possibly be a dream.
“I got the cover story,” I said, realizing it wasn’t the right thing but desperate to find some kind of normal rhythm in this bizarre situation.
“Em, that’s great,” Archie said, his eyes shining as I met them again.
I felt it then—the connection we shared. It was still there, and I knew as soon as he spoke that somehow, everything would be all right. I wanted to talk to him, really talk to him...alone.
“Tell me how you came to join the navy,” Dad said, crossing a leg over his knee and leaning back into the couch as if chatting about my brother and his life was just the most natural thing in the world.
“Ah, I’m going to get a drink,” I said. “Get anyone anything?”
“Archie brought this amazing whiskey,” Mom said. “I might have just a little taste of that.”
I smiled at Archie. The Half Cat had made its way here after all. “Want some?” I asked him.
“Sure,” he said. “That sounds amazing. But then I’ll get out of your hair. I know it’s a big night.”
My mom shook her head. “You’re not going anywhere.” But then she looked contrite. “Oh, or. Of course you probably have plans. Is someone else expecting you?”
Archie smiled, his eyes warm, “No,” he said. “I didn’t do a lot of planning for this beyond showing up here and begging Emily to give us another chance.”
I froze in the doorway as he uttered these words, my heart bursting inside me. Could I really be this lucky?
Still, the détente in my family was new enough I wasn’t sure how our first holiday on the other side of it might go, and I didn’t know if my parents were really okay having Archie drop in like this. I could always eat quickly and go find him after.
