Decisions

Part 8: The Paths We Take

It has been nearly five years since Emma Cassidy laid eyes on her small town. She kept away from her old life, trying to put her past behind her, but her publicist thought it would be healthy for her to return home. Emma agreed after much negotiation. As the car drifts further and further from her new life and back into the past, Emma finds herself missing the mountains and the peace and happiness she found within. She has met thousands of people and seen amazing far off places but it is the Colorado Rockies she will miss the most. They have been her home for much of a year now, a place to hang her hat, so to speak. She had gotten used to the view out her apartment window, and though she liked living in the city, she loved the seclusion of the wild more. Now her view is disappearing out her window, fading off into the distance as the car drives closer to Emma's former hometown.

It is a long drive, or it feels as much to Emma. Five long hours don't compete to the three times as long flights she has taken, but somehow to her, it feels much more tiring. Perhaps it is her body's way of preparing for the drama that is soon to unfold when she enters her childhood home. Most of the places Emma has gone she has flown, with her assistant, her manager, and her bodyguard/driver in tow. Apart from this trip, they follow her everywhere, for the fifty weeks of the year that she travels, for the past five years. Each stop lasts a better part of a week, allowing her time to explore and mingle with those who love her novels. Her first book had been an instant best-seller, topping charts Emma didn't even know existed. The sequel even surpassed the first, and the stand-alone didn't do as well but was still better than they hoped. She saw many places, but it had been her trip to Australia, the first time, that had changed her life in ways she never saw coming. For the first time, Emma felt hope.

The familiar street lamps are already lit by the time Emma's car pulls into town, and she laughs to herself at the overdone Christmas decorations on every exterior, and interior, of the shops in the town. Emma's first Christmas away from home had been spent in Ireland, and decorations now seem to pale in comparison. The only thing that seems to surpass it will be next year's Christmas, where Emma will enjoy her brand new cabin in the Rockies. Her heart beats with excitement to all the traditions she plans to start, and traditions she plans to continue from her first Christmas away from home. Everywhere she goes she finds new traditions, not just for Christmas, and she brings them to her new home and adapts them to her liking. This year was no different, but she would not be home to enjoy them much, seeing as how she is going back after Christmas. Still, Emma has learned it isn't where you are that matters, but who you are with.

"Ms. Emma." Emma startles at the sound and looks up in a daze to see Charles with his hand outstretched and the door open. "Is everything all right?" Her eyes focus on the world beyond the interior and safety of the car, settling on her parents' house. Out of everything daring and nerve-wracking that she has done in the years gone, this is the most gut-wrenching. She has never been more nervous, not even when she was convinced to go cliff jumping in Australia.

"I am alright." Emma smiles, placing her hand in his, allowing him to help her out of the car. "Thank you." She says to him as he shuts her door. "I'm sorry if I have been a pain over the last few years, but I do appreciate you being there for me and a part of my team." She says to her driver and bodyguard Charles, who has been like a father figure to her the last four and a half years.

"No, Ms. Emma. You have been no trouble at all." Charles smiles as she hugs him. "I am going to miss you."

"Well, don't worry." Emma returns, pulling away, and grabbing on to her suitcase. "We will be on the road again before you know it. As you know I am halfway through my fourth book and Mr. Brandswell will be expecting another tour. But for now, I am glad for the down time."