27. Emily

EMILY

"Wait,which way am I supposed to hold this?"

I laughed as my mother tried to angle the phone the right way for a FaceTime call, giving me a scan of her room at the rehab facility she was staying in instead, followed by a wisp of white hair on the top of her head. The recovery from my mother's surgery had taken longer than we all had anticipated and her stay in rehab had been extended, but she was getting daily therapy and was still heading in the right direction. I hated that she'd been away from her home for so long while I'd been across the country, but Jesse and his family had made sure she had almost daily company since I'd left for California.

"This way," I heard Jesse tell her as her face finally came into view.

"I can never figure this out. Thanks, honey."

"Honey?" My brows shot up. "I know it's been a couple of months since I saw you in person, but when did this start?"

Mom scowled at me. "Jesse has been a good kid since you've been gone. He comes to see me when he can and his parents still come by. I even have an extra visitor today."

"Hi, Emily!"

My heart swelled at the sight of Maddie leaning on my mother's shoulder to get her face on the screen. The three most important people in my life were on the other end of this phone call, and I had to swallow back the rush of emotion.

It was hard not to miss them so much and think of what Maddie was doing, how my mother was feeling, or what Jesse's headspace was like that day. I had no regrets about coming to California to take on this project, but the need to get home was weighing on me.

"Hey, Maddie. I miss you guys so much."

"We miss you too. Are you almost done?"

"Soon, I think. I'm having dinner with Raina at her house tonight to go over our progress. I should know more then."

"I never asked you what her house is like." my mother asked. "I bet it's a mansion."

"I wouldn't call it a mansion." I lay back on the soft cushion of the chaise longue in my hotel room. The room was more like a swanky apartment with plenty of room to work on my regular clients' manuscripts during my downtime at night and on the weekends. It was nice, but again, it wasn't home. And the more I stayed here, the more the walls felt like they were closing in on me.

"But it's nice. She has a big house on a lot of property and a huge pool."

Maddie's eyes grew wide. "She does? I wish our house had a pool."

I smiled when she pursed her lips at her uncle offscreen.

"I didn't get to swim in it, though. On nice days, we work outside. March is a little warmer in California than it is in New York."

"I would think that someone like her would have a mansion." My mother huffed.

By working on this book with Raina, I had a glimpse into the world of professional sports they'd never told us about in college. Going pro was the ultimate goal and prize, why you had to give it your all plus a little more to get there. I'd never had regrets about tapping out, but I'd never truly known what being a professional athlete entailed until I'd learned about Raina's experiences off the field.

Female athletes weren't as revered as men were—or paid the same wage. While Raina had had a very successful career in professional soccer, and she'd stayed relevant through various organizations within women's sports and entrepreneurship—how she'd found me on Sharon's page—she'd given me a candid look at how she'd struggled compared to male athletes in the same sport.

I hadn't planned on being away for so long without a trip home, but the days were longer than I'd anticipated, and in order to keep the projects with my other clients on schedule, I had to work for half the weekend. I didn't want to make the long trip home, just for my loved ones to watch the back of my neck as I sat in front of a computer screen.

Raina's story was fascinating, but I was burning out and needed to speak to her about it tonight. If we still didn't have a time frame on when the book would be finished, I needed some time off to go home.

"I hope you're finding some time to rest. I don't like this working around the clock seven days a week for so long."

"I'm not a fan of it either, Mom. But it's over soon."

"I hope so," she said as she frowned at me. "You're too old to be working all hours without a break."

Jesse snickered off-camera.

"Please remind your honey over there that we are the same age."

"Actually"—Jesse's handsome face came into view—"your birthday is four months before mine. So I agree with Carmela. You're not so young." He winked and leaned back out of view.

"I better finish working so I can get ready for dinner later. I love you guys, and I'll see you soon."

"I love you too, cookie," Mom said as she wrapped her arm around Maddie. I loved watching them getting to know each other, and as tough as my mother was, I was sure she found ways to spoil Maddie when she'd come to visit. No matter where Mom stayed, either the hospital or rehab or back at her apartment, my mother always made sure to have treats on hand for potential visitors.

"Call me when you get back. I want to know what she says." Jesse's brow furrowed as he took the phone and stepped away from Mom and Maddie.

"It would be really late."

"And I couldn't care less. I fucking miss you, Em," he whispered into the phone, husky and low and causing a different kind of ache.

"I miss you too. I'm sorry this is taking up more of my time than I thought."

"It's okay. I just want you home. For a lot of reasons."

I laughed when his brows popped.

"Trust me, I want to be home for all those reasons. Until then, you finally got my mother to like you enough to call you pet names. Congratulations."

"Didn't take much. I come by and move things around wherever she tells me."

"So, she owns you now."

Jesse shook his head.

"You own me. I'll talk to you later."

He blew a quick and quiet kiss at the screen before disconnecting the call.

He owned me right back, and I feared what all this time apart was doing to us.

"Emily, you're early."Raina smiled as she held her front door open for me to step inside. The ceilings were so high, any shoes I wore clicked with an echo as I made my way down her hallway.

"I hope that's okay. I should have called you first, but I wanted to speak to you before Ashley arrived."

Ashley was Raina's personal assistant and kept notes on our progress, and while I liked her, I'd wanted to speak to Raina alone.

"Of course," she said. "We can chat in my living room until Ashley gets here." She motioned for me to follow, her fancy white flip-flops that probably cost more than one of my car payments shuffling on her shiny wooden floor. She was a stunning woman in her midfifties. Her shoulder-length black hair, dark eyes, and olive skin reminded me of one of my cousins. Thanks to my Irish/Scottish father, I burned more than I tanned and was always jealous of the sun-kissed glow most of my family enjoyed year-round.

Raina was classy and intelligent, but humble and down-to-earth. She hadn't pulled any punches in the stories she'd told me, and I hadn't picked up on a shred of arrogance despite her record-breaking stats—stats that still hadn't been broken—throughout her soccer career.

It was such an honor to work with her, but my mother had been right. I was burning out and so homesick it seeped into my bones. I was trying to find a professional way to articulate that I wanted to cut my trip short because I missed my mother, boyfriend, and my boyfriend's niece terribly and just wanted to go home—or at the very least, be able to ask for a few days off.

"Anything wrong?"

"No. Well, not wrong. Depending on what we decide tonight, I'd like to have some time off. I'd planned to go home a weekend here and there, but between the hours we've been putting in, plus the manuscripts I'd already committed to working on, I haven't had the chance to step away. I know this is an open-ended type of assignment, but either way, I'd like to take a long weekend to go back to New York as soon as it's feasible."

Raina leaned back in her chair.

"Why didn't you bring this up before? I'm surprised you haven't asked for time off earlier."

"We were in the thick of everything, and I didn't want to go home when I'd have work to catch up on anyway and couldn't spend time with anyone."

A smile curved her lips. "Spending time with the people you love is important. We never really chatted about your personal life. The article mentioned that you were single, but I should have asked."

"It's fine. I've been immersed in your fascinating life story and didn't offer anything about my personal life."

"I see." She smiled. "So, there's someone special waiting for you to head back home?"

"There is."

She arched a brow. "They must be very special to make you smile like that. Have you been together for long?"

"He was my high school boyfriend. We broke up—well, he broke up with me before I left to attend school in Maine. We reconnected at our high school reunion."

"You had one of those too," she said, a wistful smile playing on her lips.

"One of those?"

"I had a boyfriend I was madly in love with before I earned a soccer scholarship for college. Playing professionally had been my dream since I'd first kicked a soccer ball, so I'd been laser-focused on it since I was a kid. Boyfriends didn't factor into it. I broke up with him before I left, making sure I cut all ties so I wouldn't be tempted to change my mind."

"I'm guessing you never saw him again?"

Raina had gotten personal in her memoir, but the timeline started the first year she'd played pro. We hadn't included anything about her past before that, other than her being the daughter of immigrants and the first in her family to earn a college degree.

"I did. I ran into him one evening with his wife and children. Our hellos were more sad than awkward. It was strange. I'd written off any feelings I'd had back then as teenage infatuation, but it all came back again when I saw him. I think I felt a little spark from him too, but it was too late." Her gaze drifted outside to the beach and waves of the Pacific Ocean in the distance.

"I'm sorry."

She shrugged. "I'm glad he's happy with his family. Life happens how it happens. Even with all the struggles, I knew I was meant for this. Similar to how you figured out early on that you weren't."

"Makes sense." I relaxed at her warm smile.

"When Ashley gets here, we'll sort everything out for you to work remotely from now on. I can't promise I won't ask you to come back once or twice, but I don't see why you can't work on what we have from home."

I jerked back against the cushion. "Are you sure? I'm committed to this project and want to see it through?—"

"You have." She reached over to pat my hand. "You've been wonderful. I've shared all I planned to, and now we just need to make it readable. I'm sure that's very doable via email, like how you handle your other clients. We'll discuss how to set everything up tonight, and you can head home this weekend."

"Thank you. As long as you're sure?—"

I was cut off by the musical chime of the doorbell.

"It sounds like when you decided not to make soccer your career, you didn't waste any time with next steps. Don't do that now. It's a blessing to know what you want at the same time you're able to grab it."

I nodded as she made her way to the door.

I did know what I wanted. Not only was I going home to Jesse, I thought of a way to make it even better.

After our meeting, I headed back to the hotel and called Sabrina as soon as I shut the room door behind me.

"Hello?"

I glanced at my watch, forgetting once again that I was three hours behind her, but she sounded more breathless than sleepy.

"Hey, sorry to bother you this late. But I'm coming home."

"You are? When?"

"As soon as I can wrap things up here and get a flight to New York. And I had an idea for a surprise homecoming if you'll help me."

"I'd love to." I heard a loud thump, as if the phone dropped, followed by muffled whispers.

"Is someone there?"

"What? No?" Sabrina's shriek pierced my ears.

"I'd be so grossed out about what you're probably doing on my sheets if I weren't going to let you keep the apartment."

"You're letting me keep the apartment? Does that mean what I think it means?"

"She's letting you keep the apartment? Where is she going?"

I shut my eyes, covering my mouth to stifle a laugh as I recognized the low whisper.

"Tell Caden I'm coming home, and I'm going to need his help."