Page 95 of Free to Believe
Don’t go, Holly, I silently beg. But the rolling of my office door tells me Dani and I are alone.
“You told your sisters you’d would have loved to have shown Jenna Fashion Week.”
And just like that, I’m bleeding. I glance down to see if the bright white petals I’ve been attaching to the exquisite dress are stained with crimson, rather like the ancient myth of how the amaryllis flower came to be. “Yes, I would have,” I reply quietly. “If this is what she wants, she should see what it really involves, not just the glitz and glamour portrayed in the magazines.”
Dani nods. “I’ve tried to tell her over the years about the hell I went through when I first started. About the crass insults, the handsy photographers, the times I’d try to starve myself to make sure I’d fit into a certain sample size. She didn’t believe me.” Stopping in front of me, Dani grabs my wrist above where the glove covers it. “I think she’d believe you.”
I try to wrench my hand away, but it’s held too tightly. “The time for that’s past. It would be impossible.”
And then I hear a voice I thought I’d never hear again. “It’s not so impossible, Em. Daddy said it was okay if I came. He thought you might want me here.”
I rip my wrist away from Dani with a gasp. Turning, I face the girl who holds the same dreams in her eyes that I had in mine at the same age. Who I feel I breathed part of my soul into when I was pushing air into her lungs. “Jenna.” Tears run unchecked down my face.
She runs across the workroom so fast that even using a cane, you’d never know she was injured in a car wreck only a few months ago. Her body slams into me. For moments, we clutch each other. Her head lies on my shoulder, mine on hers, our sobs mingling. Not even finishing the signature dress in the collection matters as much as this.
Nothing matters as much as this.
It isn’t until I hear Dani murmur, “Good surprise?” that I pull back and cup Jenna’s face. I fell in love with Jake’s daughter as much as I did him. But until this moment, I didn’t realize I was mourning not one, but two people.
Stroking her blonde hair back from her face, I murmur, “The best.” Shaking my head, a shadow of a smile crosses my face. “I don’t know how you all managed to pull it off.”
“Well, after your sisters talked to Dani, I talked to Daddy and the rest is history.” Jenna giggles, wiping her eyes. I inhale sharply. Hearing even the slightest news about Jake is a new wound I’ll have to sew up later.
Dani interrupts. “I think that’s about all Em wants to hear about your father for tonight, Jen. I’ll talk with her about the rest soon. Right now, she has to finish the dress I’m going to wear for her, and we need to get to Corinna’s.”
Jenna jumps up and down with teenage enthusiasm. “Oh my God! Dani’s wearing your dress? This dress? It’sstunning! I have a million questions. I can’t wait to come back and help tomorrow. I can help, right?” She looks at me anxiously.
I’m looking at another four hours of work minimum tonight, but I think I just found a temporary intern. “You’ll help, Jenna—” She beams. “—but if you think you’re touching a single stitch on this dress, you’re insane.” I smile as her face falls. “You will be assisting me running errands, going for more fabric, things like that.”
“I came down from Nantucket to be a gopher,” she grumbles.
I cup her chin. “No, you came down from Nantucket to see me and to intern for Amaryllis Designs. You want to see the craziness of Fashion Week from the inside out? Then buckle up, buttercup, because I have three days to finish this dress before we move to New York City. That’s where the real stress begins.” I let her face go. “Be back here by seven—that’s a.m. And although you’d better have coffee from The Coffee Shop with you, it’d better not come anywhere near this room. Corinna can tell you where to put everything in the kitchen.”
If I didn’t feel the excitement pulsating off her, I’d let her go play with Dani for a few days. But Jenna’s one of the rare few I’ve met who doesn’t just want to draw pretty pictures. She wants to feel the ache in her fingers, her shoulders, and her heart as her designs are judged by the world.
And if I can help this child of my heart, the child I helped breathe life back into, I’ll do anything.
59
Jake
“How are you doing, baby?” I’ve barely talked to Jenna in the past few days. It’s giving me an early preview of what college is going to be like next year. It sucks.
“Daddy, you won’t believe how amazing it is here!” she squeals excitedly. “Right now, we’re in Em’s sister’s penthouse in New York City in a place called Tribeca. It’s enormous! Dani and I are sharing a room because Em has all of her dresses hanging up in Ali’s daughter’s room. And no one’s allowed in there until tomorrow when we head over to the studio to start fitting models.”
When Dani filled me in about how they were going to surprise Em, I prayed it didn’t end in heartbreak for my daughter. It turns out, Em welcomed Jenna with open arms and a lot of tears. “It sounds like you’re having a lot of fun,” I manage to get out.
“It’s a lot of hard work, Dad.” Her voice turns serious. “Em hasn’t had more than three hours of sleep since before I arrived in Connecticut. First, she was working on the final dress, then she’s been handling all of the details that are critical for this show to go right.”
I frown. “Is that all the sleep you’re getting?”
“No. Em’s being a pain. She’s making sure I’m down for at least six a night,” she quickly tells me.
“Is Em doing okay?” I ask casually. I’ve stooped to a new low. I’m asking my seventeen-year-old about the woman I love but destroyed.
There’s silence on the other end of the line. “Jenna?”
“I…I was just trying to figure out how to answer. She’s brilliant, always, but Daddy?” Jenna’s voice is regretful as if the words she’s about to say are going to hurt me.
