After All

There’s also the fact that property here is outrageously expensive and Emmett used most of the money he made on his house to start a non-profit organization back in Vancouver. With the help of Will, Ted and some of his fellow actors as investors, Emmett bought the building he grew up in and created Play for Hope, a shelter that provides beds, food, employment plans, and hopefully, a clean and controlled injection site. There are still some logistics regarding that that Emmett is working through, mainly government restrictions considering how controversial injection sites are, but we’re happy to say it’s been a success story.

At least it’s a success story in the fact that Emmett finally feels like he’s doing more than just handing out food and a hope and a prayer. With the programs he has in place, people really do get a chance to get back on their feet. Even his friend Jimmy is helping to run it. The best part is that once a month, the first floor of the shelter turns into a mini-playhouse where those in need can come together and put on shows. We’ve seen a few on YouTube and they’re adorable, if not a bit chaotic at times. Still, it gives them a sense of purpose and passion outside of the drugs. It gives them hope.

We have plans to go back soon and visit anyway, as soon as Emmett gets a break. My play only runs for a few more weeks and then it’s back to auditioning and trying to find something else. But you know what? As instable as the business is for me, I wouldn’t trade it for anything else in the world. The way I look at it is that I never know what role is coming next–it might just be the role of a lifetime.

Plus, I get flexibility to travel. Jackie and Will had their daughter a few months ago and the Facetime sessions I’ve had with them just aren’t enough. The baby, Lauren, is so cute she actually makes my often-ignored uterus have jealousy pains. When I finally see her, I’m going to spoil the crap out of that kid. I’ve already picked out a whole tiny wardrobe for her that matches the ones Kate and William dressed their baby Charlotte in.

“You’re a lucky girl, you know that?” Jodi says to me as the curtain comes down at the end of the show. Both of us get to our feet and start whistling like mad, even after Emmett has left the stage and the other actors are taking their bows.

“I know,” I tell her, smiling like an idiot.

“No…you have no idea,” she says and there’s something about the tone of her voice that makes me pause. What is she getting at?

Before I have a chance to ask her what she meant, Emmett comes back on stage, the spotlight following him until he stops right above us.

He glances down at me, gives me a wink, and then addresses the audience.

“I just wanted to thank you all for coming to see me night after night after night. It feels like I’ve been doing this forever, even though I haven’t, and it’s only because this play, this role, this theatre, is such a joy to come to every night. But there’s another reason why I’m able to sing and dance about being an ordinary man. It’s because I have an extraordinary woman in my life.” He smiles at me and in his old-fashioned suit and top-hat, I can scarcely breathe.

“I'm an ordinary man,” he starts to sing “Ordinary Man,” his rich voice soaring across the audience, “who desires nothing more than an ordinary chance, to live exactly as he likes, and do precisely what he wants.” He stops singing, looks at me and says, his voice low, “And, sunshine, what I want is you. Always you. Forever you.”

He drops to one knee on the stage and I gasp.

The audience gasps.

He fishes out a ring from his front pocket.

I gasp even louder.

The audience gasps even louder.

And for all the people around us, the spotlight on Emmett’s face, his eyes as they search mine with so much hope it nearly breaks me, the moment is somehow just between us. I barely even look at the ring he’s holding out for me, the diamonds catching the light and sparkling like crazy.

All I can see is him.

Emmett is proposing to me. In front of everyone.

Still on stage, still in costume, still in a play.

A performance?

“Real or fake?” I whisper to him.

“Real, always real,” he says.

I take a step until I’m pressed against the stage and I give him my hand.

“Alyssa Martin, will you marry me?” he asks.

I can’t even swallow the lump in my throat. I can barely say, “Yes.”

But I say it.

I say it. I mean it.

Because it’s us.

And it’s real.

“Yes, yes, yes.”

Always, always, always.



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THE END



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- I would love to hear what you thought about After All! If you have a few minutes to leave a review on Amazon, I would be oh so grateful. Just send me the link to your review to [email protected] and I’ll thank you personally.



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WILD CARD





Looking for your next read? How about Wild Card, releasing August 1st, 2017.





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Wild Card is a standalone novel and the first book in the North Ridge Trilogy about rough and rugged Canadian mountain men, the Nelson brothers. Canada’s never felt so hot.

She swore she’d never go back home.

She swore she’d never see the man who broke her all those years ago.

But you don’t always get to choose your path.

And sometimes that path is as wild and rugged as the heart.

Rachel Waters thought she saw the last of the small mountain town of North Ridge, British Columbia, when she left six years ago. But while her advertising career blossomed beneath the skyscrapers of Toronto, her mother’s sudden illness has the 26-year old returning to North Ridge to care for her, putting her career on hold while dealing with family secrets, regrets and unresolved goodbyes.

Shane Nelson has always been a bit of a wild card. The youngest of three brothers, Shane’s spent most of his life being underestimated and misunderstood. With his quiet intensity, classic good looks and thoughtful demeanor, he’s an enigma on horseback, managing his father’s sprawling ranch on the slopes of North Ridge.

But while Shane remains the quintessential brooding cowboy, complete with an arsenal of inner demons, all of that changes when Rachel steps back into his life.

She was the girl he pushed away.

Now she’s the girl who wishes she could leave.

Despite the odds, Shane will do everything to convince Rachel he needs a second chance that he doesn’t deserve but when the two of them head off into the wilderness together in search of lost cattle, more than just their hearts are at stake.

Whether it's love or lives on the line, one thing is for sure: always bet on the wild card.

ALSO - Have you read Before I Ever Met You? That tells the story of how Will and Jackie met (before the events of AFTER ALL). Believe me, you don’t want to miss it.