Page 89 of All I Want For Christmas Is You

“Does it feel weird to be dropped into somebody else’s family, taking care of someone else’s kid?” Her daughter talked as she walked from the front desk to her room at the hotel. Margot could see the lush tropical plants and turquoise blue pool with waterfalls. A breeze tousled her daughter’s long blond bangs.

“I’m getting settled in, and he’s a good boy.” No, don’t lie to her. She might be getting married in a few days, but you matter, too. “Well, actually, yeah. It’s a little weird.” She’d barely had time with Beau before he’d run off to handle the crisis.

“Who’s going to watch him when you come here?”

“Oh, I’m sure things will settle down by then.”

“Actually, I was going to ask if you could change your ticket and come a few days earlier. So far, Noah’s family’s doing everything. Which is great. I love them, but I want my mom here. You have to do my hair. Remember prom?”

“Of course.” They’d scored an appointment at one of the top salons in the city, and Emerson had been so excited, but the stylist did some avant-garde thing that looked awful. So, Margot had fixed it, and in the end, her daughter had achieved the look she’d wanted. Her heart squeezed at the memory. “I want to be there.”

“If we pay to change your ticket, will you come? All these plans are being made, and I want you here with me. I love his family—I do—but I want—”

“An advocate. I get it.”

“Like, we’d planned to have the ceremony on the beach, but all along his parents have been pushing for us to have it at the church on their property. It’s really tiny, and it’s been there for generations, so it matters to them. We finally gave in.”

“But you still prefer the beach?”

“I had to weigh it, you know? The beach versus his family’s traditions? Put it this way. It was upsetting his grandmothers and aunts. His dad was acting really distant, and you know, I want them to be happy. I’m going to be part of their lives, and that’s a lot more important to me than where I marry him, so I’m fine with it.”

Okay, she was definitely going early. She’d dip into her savings to pay the change fee. She had no doubt Noah’s family was good and kind, but no one was there to represent Emerson. “What about the reception? Is it still in his parents’ backyard?”

Emerson lowered the phone so she could unlock her room. “Yes. Everyone’s bringing something. It’ll be a big potluck.” Once inside, she kicked off her shoes and unclasped the barrette that held her hair back. It spilled forward, all sun-kissed and wavy. “Why are you smiling like that?”

“Because I remember you at fourteen, crying when I wouldn’t let you buy Manolo Blahnik stilettos for middle school graduation. I remember cleaning out your backpack when you were fifteen and finding makeup hidden in every pocket. Sophomore year, you must’ve missed the bus a dozen times because you couldn’t get your hair the way you wanted.”

Her daughter groaned. “Don’t remind me.”

“For junior prom, I ordered seven gowns from Neiman Marcus because you couldn’t decide which one to wear. And look at you now. No makeup, no hair products. Just my beautiful girl, more relaxed than I’ve ever seen you. And you’re getting married.” Emotion crashed over her. Her daughter was joining a family that lived three thousand miles away. She would miss so much of her life.

“I tried so hard in high school, you know? To keep up with my friends, to dress like them and talk like them, and I think back to how much energy went into looking a certain way—the Greenwich way—and I can’t believe how unhappy I was. I know you think I dropped out of college because you guys stopped paying for it, but I’d been considering it the whole time. Maybe it was the wrong school for me, but it just felt like high school all over again. You know what my moment was?”

“No. Tell me.”

“I had just finished rush, and it was the night of initiation. I was upstairs in one of the bedrooms—there were three beds all smashed in this little room—and everyone was getting ready. I was listening to them talk about how they slept with their makeup on in case a frat raided them at night, and I just felt so tired. Like, there’s never a break from being ‘on?’ None?”

“Yeah, that does sound exhausting. You didn’t have to stay in a sorority, though. You don’t regret not getting an education?”

“But I get one every day. I have the best manager in the world. She teaches me every aspect of this business. I’m meeting the most interesting, successful people, and Noah’s family’s amazing. They have a totally different attitude than what I grew up with. They work to live. They don’t live to work like Dad did.”

She’d always presented their father as a hero, and she wouldn’t speak badly of him now. “Your dad worked to give us a good life.”

“Yeah, I’m not so sure about that anymore. I think it fed his ego to be Managing Director. Because now that I’ve seen another way to live, I see it’s all about the choices we make.”

“And what choices do you and Noah want to make?”

“We’re going to make sure we get in a surf every day because it centers us. And we’re going to save our money so we can open a surf shop one day.”

“Are you worried about seeing your dad at the wedding?”

“I am. I wasn’t going to invite him because, really, fuck him for what he did to you, but Owen said I might regret it later. He said, ‘You don’t have to fake anything and pretend like he didn’t screw Mom over, but twenty years from now, when you’ve got kids, and you’re looking back at your wedding pictures, you might regret icing him out.’”

“That’s very wise for a snot-nosed kid brother.”

Emerson smiled. “Yeah, he’s not so annoying anymore.” But the smile faded. “Are you okay, Mom? The main reason I didn’t want to invite him is because I don’t want you to see him with the skank.”

Her new plan of making her emotional needs a priority hit a bump. She couldn’t put a damper on her daughter’s wedding, but she also had to be real. “To be honest, I’d be happy if I never saw either of them again, but you don’t have to worry about tension between us because I just don’t care enough.”

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