Jack made a face and lowered his plate, “Sorry.”
Dave apologized as well and all continued, with Emily asking quietly, “What happened to the old carpet?”
Apparently she didn’t ask quiet enough because Will, who was sitting behind her up on the couch, couldn’t help but chuckle, “Oh lord, it was disgusting. We were all eating in the dining room of our old place, which was really just the other half of the living room. Somehow, both Elizabeth and I left for the kitchen at the same time, which we know better than to do. By the time we heard the commotion and got back from the kitchen, food was flying everywhere. Stuck to the cupboards and ceiling. And, of course, since the boys were younger, none had really good aim, so most of it overshot its intended target and flew into the living room and all over in there as well.” Emily grimaced at this as he continued, “And it was one of those nights we were all eating leftovers so the food ranged from pudding to nachos to mashed potatoes and gravy, spaghetti, hot dogs …” Remembering vividly the entire incident, he shut his eyes, “Everybody went to bed early that night. No allowances for weeks …”
“So it destroyed the carpet I take it?”
“Some of those stains never came out, especially the ketchup and spaghetti sauce. It looked like we’d held ritual slaughter in the living room on a regular basis.”
Trying so hard not to smile at the images flying around in her head, “I’m sorry.”
Will saw her lips quivering and he laughed outright, “It’s okay. It’s kind of funny now, but, at the time, I wanted to kill them all and I don’t think any judge in the world would have convicted me.”
“Did you ever find out who started it?”
“Amazingly enough, no. Not one of them caved, not even Tucker, who was only three.”
Studying his face for a second, “You kind of admire that, don't you?”
Answering her with only a wink, “So, anyone need anything to drink?”
▪▪▪
After dinner, both the puzzles and the board games came out and the hours flew by.
More food was eaten, desserts were devoured, friendly arguments were settled and finally midnight approached. The kids became positively ecstatic when Will called everyone into the kitchen and began passing out pans and pots and lids and spoons.
“What in the world are we about to do?” Emily asked, slightly unnerved by the whole affair.
Jack just bumped her shoulder, a huge grin plastered on his face, “At midnight, we bang the hell out of the pots on the front porch, then we run back inside and pretend we have no idea where the noise came from.”
They all crowded onto the front porch and Will, official timekeeper, called the countdown out loud along with the TV. At exactly midnight, the nine of them on the porch let it rip. Emily had never heard her ears ring like this before as she banged away with the rest of the troops. Suddenly, almost as soon as it began, it ended and she was caught up in the rush of people all trying to get back in the front door at once.
The laughter carried through the house for a good two minutes as the family hugged and toasted each other with plastic glasses of milk, water, juice and other things.
Once that was finished, Jack, deciding now would be a perfectly appropriate time to let his family see, turned Emily around and kissed her, full on the lips in front of a chorus of “eew, gross” from his younger brothers and, from his parents, well, not much because they were already kissing and didn’t seem to care.
And to his utter glee, she wrapped her arms around him and gave him a nice, long kiss right back.
▪▪▪
The younger kids gave up around twelve-thirty and Will and Elizabeth said goodnight about a half-hour after that, leaving Jack and Emily in the living room.
Fishing his iPod from his pocket, he held up something he’d purchased the day before, “Here you go.”
“What are they?”
“It’s a set of earphones but they’re split so two people can listen at the same time instead of having to use only one ear each.”
Snuggling up against him on the couch, “What’re we listening to tonight?”
Scrolling through to find his latest playlist endeavor for her, he slid his arm around her shoulder and settled back into the cushions, Just listen.”
▪▪▪
Somehow, during the night, they’d slid around and were now curled up into each other on the thankfully deep couch. Her head buried in his chest, he had his arm around her waist and his feet entwined with hers.
Will didn’t have the heart to wake them up, so he silently poured himself a cup of coffee he’d set on the timer the night before and drank it sitting in the front room while reading his book.
Elizabeth found him there about an hour and a half later, dozing with his book closed on his lap. He woke up when Elizabeth came in the room though, “Morning. What are you doing in here? Don’t you usually watch the news?”
Stretching his arms above his head, “Jack and Emily are still asleep in there, so I figured I’d see how much further I could get in this,” holding up his book.
“Wait. Both are asleep in there?”
Will nodded, “Yeah, on the couch.” He stood and, putting his finger to his lips, he led her into the living room, and whispered, “They looked too comfortable to wake up.”
As she took her husband’s hand and walked him back to the front room, “That’s my problem with it. They look a little too comfortable. Like it’s happened before.”
He let go a second later and headed towards the window, spending a few moments in silence before replying, “She needs this, El.”
Coming to stand next to him, “What do you mean, she needs this? She needs to be asleep next to our 16-year-old son?”
Turning away from the window, he sat down on the window seat and nodded, “Yes.”
“How does that work? Because last time I checked, it wasn’t the best thing in the world to leave a 16-year-old boy with his girlfriend, regardless of what either may need.” She would have said more, but the sadness around his eyes made her stop. Instead she moved between his knees, resting her arms around his shoulders and, kissing him on the forehead, she took in a slow breath, “Can I ask what you know that I don’t?”
Linking his hands behind her waist, “Can I ask that you trust me with what I know?”
With her index finger, she traced around the small wrinkles in his forehead and across the delicate skin near his still sad eyes, willing to let the subject drop for the moment, “Of course. I just wish it didn’t make you so sad.”
▪▪▪
Jack woke up just after his mom and dad went back upstairs. Realizing his hand was yet again on Emily’s hip, he dared not move for fear she’d jump up again.
Instead, he spent the next ten minutes just breathing her in, feeling her heartbeat next to his and knowing with utter certainty that he wanted to wake up like this every day for the rest of his life.
▪▪▪
She woke up to an eyeful of blue thermal shirt and it made her grin involuntarily. Loving the feeling of being so close to him, she hated to move but when your nose itches, your nose itches. Moving her hand to scratch, she bumped the bottom of his chin and he laughed, whispering, “If you’re trying to hit me, that was a damn feeble attempt.”
Sliding back slightly, she moved her head to look at him, then slid up so she was eye-level, “Sorry. My nose itched.”
“You’re not allergic to me, are you?”
“I think it’s just breathing in shirt fuzzies for the last six hours.” Smiling at him, “Not that I’m complaining.”
Rubbing her back through her shirt, he felt her tense for a moment, then relax again, “How’d you sleep?”
“Perfect.”
He moved his head forward a bit and kissed her lightly, “Good morning.”
Kissing him back, “We’ve gotta stop waking up like this or someone’s gonna get the sneaking suspicion that I just might be your girlfriend.” The look on his face w
as priceless and she couldn’t help but laugh, “I am your girlfriend now, aren’t I?”
His body began tingling from head to toe, “Well, actually, you said you would love to be sometime in the future, but you didn’t nail down a concrete date.”
Moving closer and giving him a longer kiss, “I’d say there’s nothing like using the first of the year as a concrete date.”
Removing his lips from hers for just long enough to answer, “Agreed.” He pulled her closer and sliding his tongue into her mouth, he grinned as he felt her tongue connect with his own.
▪▪▪
They were forced to separate and hit opposite ends of the couch when they heard a toilet flush upstairs. Emily gave him one last quick kiss before heading into the bathroom and Jack remained on the couch for obvious reasons, that apparently Emily had not felt, which he was extremely grateful for.
And by the time she returned, he was relaxed and watching the Weather Channel. “Snow’s coming again.”
Before she could reply, Tucker walked in, “Morning. More snow’s coming?”
“Yeah. Another 8 inches or so tonight and tomorrow.”
“Why don’t we get all this when school’s open?”
Getting up, Jack ruffled his younger brother’s hair, “Because if Mom had to put up with all of us any longer than necessary, her head would explode.”
“True.”
Jack pulled at the arm of her t-shirt, “You hungry?”
“Starving.”
“I’m gonna go see who else is up and find out if we’re making breakfast or if it’s fend for ourselves day.”
Emily stood and followed him, stopping by the sink for something to drink and to wait for further cooking instruction. A minute later, Jack came back downstairs, followed by several pair of pounding feet. Amused at the noise that seemed to be perpetually filling the house, she asked over her shoulder, “Are we cooking?”
He crouched next to her and dug out the electric frying pan, “Yup. Pancakes all around.”
▪▪▪
Emily playfully waved away all assistance but Jack’s during the pancake making, telling Elizabeth, “You’ve cooked enough in the past week, let me do it this time.”
And so she did, making wave after wave of light, fluffy pancakes to which she’d added a touch of vanilla and some sugar. She got countless compliments from everyone, adoring looks from Sam and, for the first time, praise from Tucker, who leaned over and whispered loudly to Dave, “She cooks the best pancakes and she can throw. I didn’t know girls could do both.”
Emily leaned in between them when she heard this and stealing a bite of Tucker’s pancake, “I can also fix a bicycle, mow a lawn, repair an oven and stop a leaky faucet.”
Dave even looked impressed now, “Wow.”
“Pretty good for a girl, huh?”
The rest of the morning flew by and Emily realized she had best get home before someone began to ask questions. Will had promised to take all the boys to the movies for the afternoon, so Jack didn’t walk her home. He did, however, give her a lingering kiss on the porch before she left, “I’ll come by when I get home if it’s not too late, all right.”
She nodded back, her stomach happily fluttering at his touch, “Bye.”
Waving, he watched her head down the street.
Chapter 14
Several weeks later, near the end of January, Emily was getting ready for school when she began to feel dizzy and light-headed. Her ears were ringing and thinking that laying down might be a good idea, she discovered it wasn’t such a hot plan after all.
The world tilted and as she hit the floor only a few feet from her bed, she vaguely wished that Elizabeth was there with her.
▪▪▪
Figuring the only person who’d be ringing her doorbell at eight-thirty in the morning would be the mailman, Elizabeth gasped in surprise to find a shivering Emily on the porch without a coat and dripping with sweat.
Immediately pulling her inside, “Emily? Why aren’t you at school?” Feeling her head and realizing she was burning up, “More to the point, why aren’t you at home?”
Giving her a glassy stare and a confused look, “What?”
Already jamming her feet in her boots and pulling coats out of the closet for both of them, she wrapped Emily in one, and turned her towards the door, “I’m gonna get you home okay? Then we’ll call your mom and go from there.”
Emily tried to shake her head, “No, no home.”
Ignoring the protest and gently pushing her towards the car, “It’s all right honey.”
Finally managing to get her in the seat, Elizabeth drove them the few blocks over and, getting out, “Do you know if you have your keys?”
Emily’s head was rolling around at this point and she was turning a lurid shade of green. Pretty much in no condition to answer, Elizabeth felt in the pockets of Emily's jeans and came up with the key. Using the only one on the ring, she let them in and half-carried her up the stairs.
Finally getting into the house, Emily’s stomach began to lurch and, moving fast, Elizabeth did the only thing she had time for … she got out of the way.
Once the puking had stopped, Elizabeth led her over to the bed and sat her down, leaning her against the wall, “Stay here for a minute, okay? I’m gonna go get you a pan.” She kept asking questions as if Emily were in some condition to answer them, more to keep her awake than anything else. Grabbing a pot from under the sink, she went back to the bed and set it down.
Next she examined the situation. Emily was soaked with sweat, shivering from the fever and the cold and covered in a fair amount of her breakfast. She made this priority one and crouched down in front of Emily, trying to get her to focus, “Em, I’m gonna help you get changed okay? Which are your clothes?”
Looking around the room for the first time, she took in exactly what Jack had a month earlier: the single bed, the one chair, the fact that the only door in the place led to the bathroom, which she could see into from where she was. The pieces of the puzzle fell into place so perfectly she felt stupid for not seeing it sooner.
Turning back to Emily and stroking her damp hair, “Honey, your mom doesn’t live here, does she?”
Emily, in no condition to think of a lie, or to really even think at all, shook her head, “No.”
“Does anyone live here but you?”
Shaking her head, she began to gag again. Elizabeth had the pan under her head immediately and held her hair as the next round began and ended.
At this point, Elizabeth pushed all the crowded thoughts from her mind and focused in on the once again shivering girl. First, she switched out the pot for a clean one, then found a t-shirt in one of the crates against the wall. “Honey, I’m gonna help you get changed, okay? We need to get you into some dry clothes.”
Pushing against her hands, she tried to wiggle away, “No.”
“Emily, you can’t stay in what you have on.”
With another feeble attempt, she brushed Elizabeth’s arms away and tried to get up, “No.”
Contributing this to the fever, she tried again, this time using her ‘Mom’ voice, as the boys called it, “Put your arms up.”
By now, the fight was completely gone and Emily obeyed, putting her arms in the air so Elizabeth could pull off the thermal shirt she was wearing. She found the t-shirt underneath soaked and pulled it off as well.
What she saw next made her stop. Emily sat there, slightly slumped over in just her jeans and her bra, with an angry pink scar running diagonal across her chest.
It had to be a good 12 inches long and Elizabeth, for the life of her, couldn’t come up with any idea where it might have come from.
But as Emily’s eyes rolled back in her head, she again had to ignore her own thoughts for the moment. Getting the shirt on, Elizabeth gently laid the girl down, working on the button of her jeans. Finally sliding those off, she wiggled a pair of old sweat pants up her slim hips and, rolling her onto her side, pulled the covers ove
r her.
The next priority was cleaning the floor and, pulling open the closet doors, she located the washer and dryer, as well as a mop and bucket. Putting them to good use, she had the floor mopped quickly and she then dumped Emily’s clothes, along with several towels she’d used on the floor, into the washing machine. She didn’t start it however, because, inevitably, there’d be more dirty items before the night was through.
A noise brought her back to the side of the bed and this time, Emily didn’t even really wake up as she leaned into the pot. Deciding to just sit beside her for awhile, Elizabeth ran a cool hand over Emily’s flaming hot cheeks, and pushing the sweaty hair from her forehead, “I’m sorry.”
Crumbling Walls (Jack and Emily #1) Page 13
