Done and Dusted

Both Emmy and Luke are known for their reputations around Meadowlark: “Brooks, the Meadowlark screw-up, and Emmy, the Meadowlark sweetheart” (105). Both characters are also troubled by their past perceptions: Emmy because she has left the life she has always known and does not know what to do next, and Luke because he wants to prove to himself he is more than what his family thinks of him. At the beginning of Done and Dusted, Emmy and Luke let their pasts define them and their actions. This is, in part, what has kept Emmy from Meadowlark for so long and why she fears her friends and family will turn on her once they learn that she has quit racing. Luke notes how he would often see “in the paper that she’d won another title” (21) and says what Emmy fears most when he suggests, “It was almost like Meadowlark was a low ceiling, and when she left, she could grow past its barrier. So why the hell was she back here?” (48). While Emmy has a lot to lose with her reputation, Luke has a lot to gain, and he puts great effort into proving himself once he becomes the owner of The Devil’s Boot. Just as Luke is surprised at Emmy’s return, Emmy is surprised by Luke’s growth and how much he has changed since she left Meadowlark. However, Luke himself finds it hard to see past what his family has always thought of him, believing himself to be a worthless screw-up because of his past. His feelings about his past materialize when he returns home and his stepbrother insults him, as well as when his best friend berates him for feeling worthy enough to date his sister.

As the novel progresses, Emmy and Luke begin to recognize that their past does not define them as they both take second chances at life. When she separates herself from her career as a barrel racer, Emmy learns that she had pushed herself too far to maintain her reputation, recognizing that “it was hard to feel good enough when you never celebrated what you’d achieved” (202). Luke also learns that his past can’t define him when he and Emmy visit his childhood home and Emmy stands up for him when he is unable to stand up for himself. As the two grow closer, their love for one another helps build each other’s sense of self-worth and they begin to define themselves by who they want to be rather than who they once were. Significantly, this all happens because Emmy and Luke do not let their past with one another define their relationship. Though they are troubled by their past antagonism in the beginning, Luke and Emmy learn that their first impressions of one another were wrong and should be left in the past.