Embracing Emma (Companion to Brisé) Read Online Free PDF

stupid boy when I was younger. Let’s leave it at that.” He chuckles. “So I had to be the one to tell your mom that her parents were gone. I felt every one of her tears, like a dagger to my heart. That’s the same thing your tears do to me.” I laugh at him. It’s true. I can turn the waterworks on, and he will do whatever he can to avoid seeing me cry. “I wouldn’t leave her side. My parents were opposed because they felt we moved too fast. Before that time she wasn’t my girlfriend, just my best friend.”
    “Like me and William?”
    “There are similarities there. But you are a lot stronger than your mom. We sheltered her. She was sick for so long we didn’t want anything to hurt her, so we tended not to do anything to upset her. I don’t regret it because she eventually found her strength, but she had to leave me to become an individual.”
    “I’m my own person, Dad.”
    “I know that, Emma. I really do, but sometimes young love can blind you to the world around you. It did for your mom and me. I didn’t see how much she was grieving. How sick she was becoming. I ignored it because she let me, she encouraged it.”
    “That’s when you found out her cancer wasn’t in remission?”
    “Yes, and there was a baby.”
    “What?”
    “Mom was pregnant when her cancer came back. It’s not only my story to tell, but I wanted to share that part with you. Things happen, lines get crossed, and I know you have a good head on your shoulders, but I never want you to lose yourself. Your mom and I did; so when she left, I died that day, and she never began living. We had to come back as two different people, and I don’t want that to happen to you. This thing between you and William scares me.”
    “Do I have a brother or sister?”
    “No, Emma you don’t.”
    “Did she . . .?” I can’t say the words.
    “No, Emma, she didn’t have an abortion. Let that part go for now. Maybe your mom will tell you. I wanted to tell you some of it so you know where I’m coming from. Your mom bonded with you the second she knew she was pregnant. I didn’t have that with the other pregnancy and vowed to do things differently when we found out about you. I knew you were a girl before you were born. I was wrong on the ballerina part, but I knew you’d be my little girl.”
    “Are you scared of losing that?”
    “More than anything.” He’s getting choked up. “I don’t want to lose you, I don’t want you growing up too fast, but I don’t want to hold you back. I’m trying to find a balance, but all I can see in my mind is swaddling you, bringing you home from the hospital, feeding you . . . it seems like it was all yesterday so forgive me if your old man is struggling with this.”
    “Is it because it’s William?”
    “In part.”
    “But you love him.”
    “I do. But so do you.” The light bulb goes on.
    “So if it was anyone else, things would be different?”
    “Maybe. I don’t think I’d feel like I was sucker-punched in the gut. I see you two. I feel what you have.”
    “I do too, Daddy.”
    “I know, Princess. Just make good choices.”
    “I will.”
    “And know your mom and I are here . . . no matter what.”
    “Love you.”
    “Love you, baby girl.”
     

     
     
    Nana arrives before everyone else and is busy fussing over my cupcakes and decorations. I sit back and watch her, idolizing her. Nostalgia has filled me since my talk with Dad last night. “Nana, how did you and Papa meet?”
    “Oh, we knew each other our whole lives. Went to elementary school through high school together. He went off to college, and I stayed here working in the bakery. It’s that dry cleaners on Seventh Street now, but when he came back after that first year, he turned my head. Not just mine either. That damn Sally Green tried to move in on him, but I got there first.” I can’t hold back the giggle at Nana’s fierceness in recounting that detail.
    “So you got your man?”
    “Emma, a young lady doesn’t