A rocky marriage and a past love interest have Emily living on the edge. Emily is not feeling too hot about her life. She and her husband James are both lawyers. While Emily wanted to represent the disenfranchised when she entered law school. Seven years after graduation she's working for a corporation that has sold bad bottled water. People are having all types of problems. Emily's job is to make sure they have legitimate claims. To accomplish this she needs to follow the script verbatim.
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When she gets a call from a young woman who claims to have miscarried twice Emily winces. She wants kids herself and at thirty-one she and her husband have been trying. To represent the company responsible for miscarriages and birth deformities is not cool to Emily at all.
James isn't able to accompany Emily to her firm's dinner. He has to work late the same excuse he's given Emily for months. Yet he wants her to attend his big meeting, scheduled for two days after hers. He wants his dry cleaning picked up and cash from an ATM.
Emily decides at the spur of the moment to get out of dodge. She leaves a note for husband simply saying she needs a break. She packs a bag and sets out towards Province town.
Once there she still isn't settled and heads a place she had known ten years earlier. The hometown of her best friend Vicki. Only they hadn't talked since Emily had fled. She'd had a summer romance with Vicki's brother Jude. He'd cheated on Emily and broken her heart. Over the years he'd send letters which she'd left unanswered. He'd sent one right before she took off which she'd pocketed. He was living in Alaska, but would be back in Bell Valley by the end of the month. Planned or through her subconscious, Emily's sense of timing would place her at the spot of their old romance in time to see Jude.
Vicki and her husband own a bed and breakfast. When Vicki sees Emily she is a bit put out. Emily disappeared from her life and stayed gone for ten years. . Mad and deeply hurt. She still gives Emily a big hug and then let's her have it verbally. She offers an exhausted old friend a bed and is determined to talk about things once Emily has rested from her ten hour drive.
The women talk openly, Emily shares that her life is totally crazy, she has no real friends after living in New York for seven years, and her husband may be having an affair. She asks for forgiveness for being a funky friend who let her bestie down.
Jude shows up a couple days later. They talk and Emily sees him as smug and still selfish. She's forgiven him. Two days later James shows up and he and Emily make love in the woods before heading to her attic room. When she awakens James is gone, did she dream him. Her aching and love burned thighs lead her to believe that some serious reconnecting took place the night before.
Emily had never told James about Bell Valley or Jude. The couple was used to dealing with the present and the future. Not the past. She didn't feel inclined to fess up until James asked if she had planned to meet Jude. Emily said she had hoped to miss him, but since she didn't they'd had a couple of conversations and he was just a friend. Nothing romantic had or was going to happen.
The night in the woods did it. Emily and James are pregnant. Her parents are thrilled. Jude is a non factor in fact he's off to the next big thing. Emily resigns from the job she hated, not taking her boss up on the four weeks of unpaid leave time they agreed on after she'd gone missing.
Taking time out to return to Bell Valley saved Emily's life and gave her marriage a rebirth. Being pregnant was an added bonus. As Emily tells people taking time to find out who you are can make the difference between living and simply existing.
Best part of story, including ending:
I liked this story because Emily was a trip.
Best scene in story:
My favorite scene was when Vicki expressed how hurt she was from Emily bailing and not keeping in touch.
Opinion about the main character:
I liked that Emily would not go back to James until she was ready.
