Free Love and Chaos by Elizabeth Powers Page A

happy.
     
     
    “I
tried to tell you,” Emma pointed out with frustration, any happy residual
effects of the California sunshine long gone. “But then you all just talked
about how I was kidding, and I figured I’d wait until I got home to deal with
it! I know. It was cowardly. But...”
    “Emma,
this is something we would expect from Jen, not from you.”
    “Well
that’s not exactly fair.”
    “What
do you mean?”
    “You
should have equally high or low standards for both your daughters,” Emma
argued.
    “We’re
used to Jen acting crazy. But for you to marry this man, without informing any
of us? Emma, that’s just not right.”
    She
leaned back against the seatback and closed her eyes tightly. “I know that,”
she said quietly. “But it seemed like the right thing to do at the time.”
    “How
did you meet this man, anyway? And how do you know that he’s any good?”
    Emma
laughed without humor, her eyes opening and meeting her father’s in the
rearview mirror. “I met him through Jen. And he’s a decent man, Dad.” She was
surprised to hear herself defending him, a man who had essentially blackmailed
her into marriage.
    “Do
you love him, dear?” her mother asked anxiously.
    Emma
never could lie to her mom. So she did the next best thing - she evaded the
question. “What kind of question is that?” she asked. “Do you honestly think
I’d marry him if...” she let the sentence trail off as her mother looked
bemused.
    “No,
Emma, I guess not. But I didn’t think you’d elope with a man we never met
either.”
    “I
like being unpredictable sometimes,” she said with a heavy sigh. “Look, it’s
not a big deal. We’re married. You’ll like him. I’ll bring him by. But for now,
I’ve got to get Chaos and get home. I have a really long day tomorrow, and I’m
tired.”
    “Home?
Where is home now, Emma?” her grandmother asked sharply.
    “For
one more night, it’s at my old house,” Emma answered honestly. “I didn’t have
time to pack my things before I left for San Diego. I’m moving in with Mason
this weekend.”
    Gran’s
eyes searched hers, then seemed to shutter tight. “Fine then.” Looking away
from her granddaughter, she crossed her arms in front of her and looked out
into the night.
    Emma
sighed. This was going extraordinarily badly, she thought. But it wasn’t like
she had planned this. She had hoped to ease her family into this, not for them
to hear the news by reading about it in the newspaper.
    “Look
everyone,” she said quietly. “I’m very sorry you found out the way you did. I
tried to tell you before I left, but I ran out of courage, and that’s my own
fault. But I didn’t intentionally hurt you, and I hope you can forgive me.”
    She
watched as her family all looked at each other, then back out into the night.
Oh hell, she thought, nearly deciding to throw Jen to the wolves, but then
talking herself quickly out of it. She’d made her choice. Now she needed to
live with the consequences.
     
     
    The
reaction at work was a lot better, Emma decided. Mostly because she just lied
through her teeth. She’d learned her lesson with her family - if she was going
to make it through without being judged as an idiot, she needed to embellish
the story so it sounded romantic and wonderful and... well, yeah, fake. But
work was important, she reasoned. Her employees and colleagues needed to
respect her. So she pleaded privacy, true love, whatever it took to get people
to look at her with amusement and genuine caring, rather than with horror at
what she’d managed to get herself into.
    Rhoda
was particularly enthralled. “Oh my goodness, Emma. He’s absolutely gorgeous.
You dark horse, you. So this is why you've been working at high speed lately -
so you could get home to that man. Wow. I completely get it.”
    Emma
just laughed. “He’s something else all right. Hey, can you get me the Miller
file when you have a chance?”
    The
only thing left was introducing