Rise and Shine (Shine On Series, Book 2)

by Jewell, Allison J.

  “I’m done with this conversation.” It was horrible and embarrassing. She didn’t want to relive it with words. “If you’re gonna keep talking about this you can just head back to Bardston.”

  He said nothing. He turned to head back to the room where the others were.

  “Silas?” Emmie asked, watching him walk away. When he didn’t stop she repeated it, “Silas? Where are you going?”

  “Fine. We’re done with our conversation.” He shrugged indifferently.

  “You’re just gonna leave me, like this? No goodbye, nothing?” She wasn’t exactly sure what was going on. He was leaving her alone. Isn’t that what she’d asked?

  “Look, some man led you to the police. You and Ava out of everyone in that restaurant. I’m not believing that’s a coincidence. You’re done talking about it, fine. But I’m going to go ask Ava a few more questions. See you soon, Emmie.” He spun on his boots and marched back to the room.

  “Wait. What do you need to know? His name was Smith. You saw him the other night. He took money from the police. He was just a coward looking to make a few bucks and I fell for him hook, line, and sinker. Okay? Is that what you want to hear? I made a dumb choice. I know it. I don’t like rehashing it. It’s not going to change what happened.” She shouted each sentence a little louder than the next.

  “So, you don’t think this man was targeting you?” Silas asked, fishing around in his pocket.

  “No, not any more than any other easy, naïve girl in there,” Emmie answered, walking toward him.

  “Looks like he picked the wrong girls to mess with,” he said, resting his weight against his heels as he leaned against one of the kitchen islands.

  It was on the tip of Emmie’s tongue to ask what he meant but she decided not to. Smith probably wasn’t even the guy’s real name. Silas had to leave in a few minutes and they would likely never hear from good ole Smith again she reasoned.

  Emmie closed the last few feet between them. Silas stayed put at his resting spot on the kitchen island. She couldn’t blame him really. If the tables had been turned she would have been worried about him. She reached up a hand and tucked a long strand of hair behind his ears. It was in vain. As soon as she let go the hair bounced forward right into his eyes again. He never moved to touch her.

  “I’m sorry if I let you down. I’m sorry I yelled. Don’t leave me like this… when we are angry with each other,” she whispered, crossing her arms around her chest, although they were only inches apart.

  He couldn’t leave her standing like that. Even if he wanted to. She was beautiful. Her heart. Her body. He sighed in frustration then gave a little grin and wrapped his arms tightly around her. She relaxed in his embrace.

  After a moment Silas spoke, “I really do have to go. Just wanted to be sure you were okay… and outta the clink.”

  Emmie laughed into his chest. “I was never in the clink, not really.”

  He pulled her back and ran his thumbs down her cheeks. She looked up at him with wide eyes. He leaned in for a kiss but just as his lips brushed hers, he pulled away. Moving his attention instead to the door they had emerged from earlier. She followed his eyes to see the others exiting and making their way over. Involuntarily she took a step away from him. He pushed away from the countertop he was resting against and walked toward the others. And just like this his expression was no longer soft, kind. He was chiseled stone again.

  “Anything else we need to know?” Michael, his father, asked.

  “No, just what she told you in there. She doesn’t think they were targeted.” Silas answered the unspoken question.

  Ava frowned. “You don’t? Then why did he tell me he was counting on me telling Pop about this. Remember that was the last thing he said ‘I’m counting on it.’”

  Emmie’s eyes widened. She had forgotten all about that little detail. He had said that hadn’t he?

  Silas’s neck snapped around to Emmie. She was a few feet away. “Is that true? Did you keep that from me?”

  “No. I didn’t keep it from you.”

  “So, Ava’s lying?” he spit.

  “No. I mean… yes. He did say that but I wasn’t keeping it from you I just had forgotten about it. I was a little overwhelmed but now that Ava says it I remember something about that. But really, does that mean he targeted us? Maybe it was just his pride? He never asked about any of you.” Emmie tried to rationalize but she knew she was grasping at straws. She didn’t want to be targeted… that sounded so personal. Targeted. She liked her wrong-place wrong-time theory better.

  “Damn it, Emmie.” Silas swore turning away from her. “I need to trust you.”

  “You can trust me. What are you talking about?”

  Oblivious to the whole conversation, Gabe walked out of the room, gave Ava a peck on the cheek and a hug then said, “Silas, Trick said the car’s ready. We’ve got to go.”

  “I just forgot.” she said, squaring her shoulders defensively.

  The others had the decency to talk amongst themselves or head to the main exit through the kitchen doors.

  He shook his head and glared at her before he spoke. “You’re a smart girl Emmie but you better start thinking or you’re gonna end up in trouble. Next time we may not be there to dig you out of it. I’ve got to go.” Silas walked back toward the room without another word.

  She watched him go, her mouth dangling open for a moment. What did that mean? Clearly he was going to take the other exit that led straight out to the street. He was leaving. Emmie clicked up behind him and rested her hand on his back to stop him.

  “I’ll see you when you’re done with work. None of this will be a big deal then. A good night’s rest and a laugh, remember? That’s all we need.” She repeated a phrase she’d heard him use before. Emmie had hoped it would make him crack a smile, but it didn’t.

  “Look, Emmie, I’m sorry. I’ve got to go,” he said, turning back toward the door.

  “Bardston isn’t that far away. I could probably borrow a car from the DeCarmilla family and get one of them to take me in a week or so if you want to…” she started.

  Silas cut her off. “Emmie I’ll call you okay. I’m going to be really busy while I’m there. I’ve been letting things slide lately.” He left the ‘since I’ve been seeing you’ unsaid. “I’ve really just got to get this job done then we’ll figure all of this out.”

  “I understand,” Emmie replied. But she didn’t at all. What had caused his change? Why was he so cold? She rested her hand on his chest.

  He swallowed hard. Emmie noticed the way the muscles of his jaw flexed and relaxed. His chiseled expressions faded for a brief second before he regained his composure. He rubbed his shadow of a beard before he leaned in and kissed her on the cheek. Just like one might kiss a mother, or a sister. “I’ll call you soon, Emmie.”

  He walked to the car.

  She walked to her room.

  Neither understood exactly what had just passed between them.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Emmie had never really considered herself a numbers person. When she thought of teaching it was always reading, writing, or history that came to mind rather than math. But right now on her train ride home, numbers were all she could think of.

  670: dollars in a box at home that she now knew was from her father, Marco Del Grande

  2: cents of postage it would take to mail the money back to Marco

  24: hours it had taken for her life to flip upside down

  21: years she had lived with secrets that now fell so quickly into place

  1: brother she never knew she had

  100: dollars she found in an envelope with a note from Silas

  27: hours since she had heard from Silas

  0: people she knew on this return train to Bowling Green

  But all that was really more than numbers, wasn’t it? It was her life boiled down to a few digits. Hours, cents, people, and dollars—just a number but each digit held a story. Stories she couldn’t even bring
herself to process completely.

  The knowledge was there but she had managed to push some of it to the back of her mind.

  • The fact that her mother had known who her father was and she had a brother for all those years and never mentioned it.

  • The fact that her mother had let them sit together at family dinners at the DeCarmilla’s, brother and sister, never knowing their relationship.

  • The fact that her father was married when her mother had set up shop with him.

  • The fact that her father had seen her all the years and never treated her like more than an indifferent acquaintance.

  • The fact that he felt, because he had sent a few hundred bucks over the years, he was now entitled to an opinion on how she lived her life. Money that she had every intention of sending back to him as soon as she retrieved it from her house.

  Okay, well maybe she hadn’t pushed it that far back in her mind, but she wanted to.

  Emmie slept most of the train ride home. The restless nights of the past few days finally caught up with her on the gentle rhythm of the tracks. She awoke just as the landscape started to look familiar. Peeking out the window she spotted the restaurant that Silas had taken her to with the hidden speakeasy underneath. Not much time had passed since that night but it seemed that it had been ages. Her stomach fluttered with uncertainty as she thought of Silas. What was going on with him? Was he really that mad over the arrest and the Smith guy? She didn’t even know how to contact him now that he was staying in Bardston.

  He’d left a hundred dollars in an envelope in her room. She’d found it when she returned last night. Apparently his suffered from the same misconception as Marco; throwing cash at someone equaled taking care of them in your absence. Emmie didn’t know why she felt angry with him but for some reason she did. Maybe it was because the almost indifferent goodbye he’d left her with and barely a promise of when he’d return or what he was doing. Especially after what she’d nearly done the other night. The closer the train brought her to Bowling Green the more thankful she’d been that Gabe had intervened that night. God, what if she’d given all of herself to him and he’d left her like this? A crazy thought poked its way into her brain—was that what Marco had done to her mother? She shook her head to clear her mind. Silas was not Marco.

  Rubbing her temple she saw Silas’s face again at their first goodbye. Their proper goodbye. He’d said something in Irish. She wracked her brain trying to find the words he’d spoken but they were unfamiliar and she couldn’t recall them. He’d seemed unhappy then to leave her to go to Bardston. What was he doing there? That place was smaller than Bowling Green. Did his father have an office in Bardston too? She had never recalled Ava’s family talking about visiting the small town. She would have to make a point to ask a few questions next time she phoned Ava.

  Now Ava was boarded on a train of her own. Apparently getting arrested was the last straw for Ava’s parents. She was headed north. They refused to let her stay in Bowling Green without them. It was her punishment, like she was a child who had been sent to her room. Ava had whispered to Emmie that she didn’t mind too much. Apparently she was ever eager to start the wedding planning and shops were much more grand Chicago.

  Chicago. It seemed everyone wanted her to go to Chicago. Silas had asked her to go back with his parents. Ava had asked her to go back to help plan the wedding. Molly had even shown up this morning and begged her to go back with them. She turned all of them down. Home was the only place Emmie wanted to be.

  When Molly came to visit her this morning, she was a wreck. She had chastised Emmie for her poor decision to drink in the bar in one breath and broke down crying in the next. Her shoulders slumped and she sobbed with her hands on her face. In Emmie’s twenty-one years she had never seen Molly lose it. Even when Emmie’s mother had passed away, Molly was the strong one. Emmie made her way over to comfort the woman who had been her mother figure for the past seven years. Emmie’s heart sank at the thought her poor choice had brought this woman to tears of disappointment… at least until she started talking. It wasn’t the drinking or the arrest that had brought Molly to tears. It was her own guilt.

  She apologized for keeping Marco Del Grande and her mother’s secret. All these years. Of course she’d been in on it too. Wasn’t she the missing link? She was the one who’d always filled Marco in on what was going on in Emmie’s life. She was the one who’d told him Emmie wanted to attend college. When she owned up to that little detail it all clicked into place. The DeCarmillas had been a lie too. She hadn’t met them because her mother was a seamstress. Her mother had known the family all along. The thought made Emmie numb. She didn’t want to think about it anymore.

  They hadn’t meant to hurt her with the lies. She didn’t even know if she felt hurt. Maybe that wasn’t the right word. She just needed time. Time at home. Time to be away from the hidden truths they had tangled her up in.

  **********

  Emmie’s feet pounded against the wooden platform as she stepped off the train struggling to find the rhythm of the ground beneath her feet. She had been in constant motion since leaving Louisville and now she felt like the world had stopped. The air was cool and damp. She collected her bags and walked into the grey-purple glow of the setting sun. It was her favorite kind of sunset. The golden ball was half hidden by the hills and casted a glow on the horizon. The walk home was refreshing. She hadn’t spent much time at her house the last couple months. Ever since the fight with Mr. Thomas, Silas had become leery to let her stay in the woods alone. But with no DeCarmilla in town, she was not going to stay at their house. She had promised him to stay at their home but really, what did it matter? She was going to be alone either way. At least at her house she knew her neighbors. She’d have her dog. She’d be able to breathe her own air.

  When she reached the gate of her driveway she saw Spotty lying on the porch. He stood at attention when he heard her approach. His mismatched white and black ears stood raised as he strained to see his visitor. By the time she had taken two steps onto the property, he was bounding for her. He met her when she was about halfway to the house, licking every inch of her hand and fingers. She dropped her suitcase and bent down to scratch his ears. He was as dirty as a pig. Clearly it had been raining while she was gone and he had made it his goal to roll in every inch of mud he could find.

  “What in the word have you gotten into?” she asked, laughing at him.

  “Miss Emmie,” a soft voice called from the direction of her house. “We weren’t sure you’d be back tonight.”

  Max closed the door of her house and set a pan of scraps on the porch. He’d taken care of Spotty while she was gone. He loved her dog as much as she did. Lately, they’d shared joint custody of him. He hopped down the stairs and ran up to her. His gait was off. She noticed his limp seemed more obvious than normal. He kept his right arm folded into his body. She wasn’t sure if it was really worse or if she just hadn’t seen him as much lately.

  “Thanks for watching Spotty for me. Looks like you two been having a good time.” She pointed to the mud on the dog and then the muddy legs of Max’s overalls.

  He laughed and nodded. “We got in a little mud up by the cave. Spotty’s been determined to hang around up there all day. Crazy ole thing. If we’ve walked up there once today we’ve walked up there a hundred times.”

  “That’s odd.” Emmie thought for a second. Max shouldn’t be hanging around her cave, not with the business Walter had going on up there. But if he saw anything of Ole Maizy, Walter’s old moonshine still, he didn’t say it. So, she left the topic alone. She noticed he toe-walked the last few steps between them. “Your leg hurting worse, Max?” she asked.

  “Nah. I fell a couple of times in the woods is all. It’ll be okay tomorrow. Happens sometimes.” He shrugged it off.

  “You gonna be okay to walk home or do you want me to call Walt to pick you up?” Emmie asked.

  Max stared up at her like she had lost her mind. “You
want me to call Paw and tell him to pick me up when I ain’t even a stone’s throw from home? You trying to get me a woopin’ Miss Emmie?”

  Emmie snorted at his joke. “No. I just… Never mind, Max. Well, let me walk you home then.”

  “Miss Emmie. I’m alright. I don’t need to be pawed over.” He put his hand though the hooks of his overalls, just like his grandpa.

  She didn’t want to embarrass the boy. Emmie let it go but made a mental note to bring it up to Walter when she went to visit them tomorrow. She needed to check on them anyway, it had been two weeks since she’d seen either him or Mae.

  “Well at least let Spotty walk home with ya. Maybe some of that mud will rub off him on the way home.” She gave Max a hug before thanking him again for watching after Spotty, as the two headed down the beaten path that led to his house.

  Emmie cupped her hands around her mouth and shouted across the distance, “Oh, Max, be sure to tell Walt about what my crazy old dog’s been up to today. He’ll probably want to know why you’re all muddy.” And he probably also needed to know if there was a chance that Max had run across the still but she left that detail unsaid.

  Max nodded and turned to head back toward his house.

  And finally, after a long trip home Emmie headed into hers.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Before bed Emmie had a passing thought that she might have a hard time sleeping. It was her first time alone in a month. But, with Spotty curled at her feet, her soft bed, and Mama’s old quilt tucked around her shoulders that thought left nearly as soon as it came. She slept like the dead and didn’t wake until after the sun was high in the sky. It must have been after eight. She went for the coffee can but was disappointed as soon as she popped open the lid. Completely empty. This was not the way she wanted to start her day. She supposed today would need to involve shopping. Minimal shopping. She had no job and only a little money left. Of course, Silas had left her the hundred dollars. But it was the first of the month, she’d need some of that to pay the mortgage. She would use some to stock up on the essentials at the grocery and put up the rest.