Emma Blooms At Last by Naomi King

imagined that Sam would want
me
to work for him?
    As she headed across the blacktop toward home, she couldn’t stop grinning. This news would certainly give her something to talk about over supper with Mamm and Dat tonight. And tomorrow when Jerome took her shopping—well, she would have to think of just the right way to tell him that she had taken his advice to heart.
    *   *   *
    â€œ T hat was a very sensible thing to do, Emma,” Mamm said with a nod. She passed the bowl of creamed peas, gazing at Emma through her pointy-cornered glasses. “Since it seems you’re notinclined to pay Jerome any attention, it’s best if you’ve got a job to fall back on. Abby and James will be starting their family, living their own lives. And your dat and I won’t be around forever.”
    â€œThat’s no way to talk!” Emma protested. She struggled to keep smiling even as her confidence faltered. “If you and Dat weren’t getting on so well, I wouldn’t have considered Sam’s job offer for a second. I—I just thought that with winter coming on, it might be gut to have something—oh, never mind.”
    Emma exhaled in frustration, gazing down at her plate of simmered chicken and boiled potatoes. Even with the green peas she was dishing up, it was a bland meal—
as plain and unexciting as your life will be, with James and Abby living across the road and gone most weekends.
She should have known Mamm would put a negative twist on her reasons for encouraging Sam to hire her.
    When Dat coughed and cleared his throat, Emma focused on him. Although he was in the early stages of Alzheimer’s, he’d seemed very alert and mentally together of late. Would he relapse now that the excitement of the wedding was behind them?
    â€œAnd what do
you
think about me working in the store, Dat?” Emma asked. “Do you think I can handle the responsibility, and dealing with so many people? Abby makes it look so easy . . .”
    A hint of doubt flickered in his eyes, but her mother answered before Dat could express his opinion.
    â€œMerle, we’ve talked about this,” Mamm reminded him. “And if Emma’s given Sam her answer, there’s no going back on it.”
    Dat pursed his lips, but then he smiled at her. “We’ll miss having you around all day, Emmie-girl,” he replied carefully. “But your mamm’s right. You’re too young to spend your life just hanging around home. We’ll get by.”
    Emma sighed. Wasn’t this the way it always went, with Mamm speaking for both of them and Dat going along with it?
    â€œYou’ve got a gut head on your shoulders,” her fathercontinued. He patted her hand, encouraging her. “If you find out that working at the mercantile’s not your cup of tea, at least you gave it a try. I know you’ll do your best.”
    And what kind of answer was
that
? By the time Emma had helped Mamm clean up the dishes and they’d all gone upstairs to bed, her excitement about working at the store had lost its sizzle. Had she answered Sam too soon? Had she bitten off more than she could chew, considering how crowds and strangers—especially English—intimidated her? And what if Jerome thought she’d been foolish to accept Sam’s job offer? She’d envisioned his approval, his encouragement because she’d be getting out more, but maybe that wasn’t a valid reason for making such a major change.
    In for a dime, in for a dollar
.
You’ve never been a quitter,
Emma thought as she dropped her nightgown over her head. If she’d made a mistake by accepting Sam’s offer, and he’d misjudged her abilities, they would figure that out soon enough.
    Tonight she needed her rest. Spending most of the day with Jerome tomorrow, dealing with his confident affection and his determination to date her, would require all the energy she could