Protecting Emma

by ML Michaels

  Julia raced off like a shot, Edmund trailing behind.

  Julia sat next to her mother and sighed. "I thought I'd never get a chance to move out," she said. "Thanks for putting up with me all these years."

  Hannah put an arm around her. "Of course, honey," she said. "That's what we're here for. And you know you can always come back."

  Valerie gave her mom a sidelong glance. "I think I've had about enough of dad's Sunday night football one-man parties."

  They laughed, looking around the bare suite.

  "I just hope you're happy out here," Hannah said finally. "I just wish we could help more..."

  She looked like she was about to get weepy again, so Valerie plastered on a smile. "Mom, don't be like that," she said. "You've given me all the help I needed and more. I'll be fine on my own."

  "Still no luck finding...you know?"

  Valerie's mouth set in a tight line. She wished her parents would stop asking her about Julia's father. It was hard enough living with that herself without also having to be reminded of it every time she ran a little low on cash.

  "No," she said. "And I've stopped looking. Jelly Bean and I will be just fine on our own. I promise."

  Her mother nodded sadly. "Okay," she said. "I trust you."

  Valerie smiled. At that moment, Valerie's phone rang. She checked the caller ID and answered with a grin. "Guten tag, brother," she chimed.

  "Hey, sis. How's the move going?"

  Valerie eyed her mother. "It's been interesting."

  "Steven!" her mother called. "Tell Valerie that she's not too old to be living at home with her parents."

  Steven chuckled. "You are definitely too old," he said quietly. "You're a working mom now. How's that feel?"

  Valerie sighed. "Finishing college was not as exciting as I had hoped," she said. "Since I was already at the paper, it was...anticlimactic."

  "Well at least you don't have to watch Dad do his touchdown dance anymore."

  Valerie laughed. "I'd love to chat, Steve, but we're just about to go grab the rest of my boxes and eat some dinner. Can I call you later?"

  "Actually," Steven replied, "this isn't a social call."

  Valerie frowned. "What did you do? Did you blow something up?"

  To Valerie, her brother was still the dorky kid doing science experiments in the garage, even if he was an expert engineer now.

  "No, no," he said. "Nothing like that." Then after a pause he added, "I'm coming home for a visit."

  "What?" Valerie shrieked, eyebrows shooting to the roof. "Really?"

  "What is it?" Hannah exclaimed, rushing over to the phone. "Did you get a girl pregnant?" she called.

  Edmund came racing out from the hallway, Julia piggybacking on his back. "We're having another grandchild?"

  "No!" Steven called over the phone, laughing. "Put me on speaker, sis."

  Valerie did as he said.

  "I'm coming home for a visit," he explained. "I'll be arriving on Monday. I need a ride from the airport."

  "This is very last minute," his mother said, always suspicious. "Did you get in some trouble with the police?"

  Valerie could practically hear her brother roll his eyes. "No, ma, I didn't get in trouble with the police. I just wanted to see you all, and my current contract is ahead of schedule."

  "And under budget?" Edmund asked.

  "Geez you guys are of one mind," Steven said. "Can one of you pick me up?"

  Valerie could see that Hannah was already making arrangements in her head. She was glad that there was more space in the house for him to stay now that she'd moved out.

  "Of course!" her mother said. "We can get all the firefighter art off of the walls, and you can have your old room back, just as it was when you left!"

  "Oh, the Jacobsens will be so happy to see you," Edmund chimed in. "They keep telling me all about how their boy is a doctor now upstate. But mine's an engineer in Germany!"

  Steven laughed. "So you mean that you'll be happy for me to see the Jacobsens, not that they'll be happy to see me."

  "Does it matter?"

  Valerie's stomach grumbled, reminding her that they had at least two more loads of boxes before the car was empty. "We've got to go, bro," she said. "Email me your flight info and I'll make sure Mom and Dad get it."

  "Thanks," he said. "Oh, and one more thing—Justin's going to come visit me while I'm down, so don't plan out every night I'm here mom. I need some boy time."

  Hannah went into some spiel about how she never got to see her son and how dare he make plans to see anyone else etc. etc., but Valerie wasn't listening.

  Justin.

  Her heart thumped.

  Justin.

  Her stomach clenched.

  By the time she hung up the phone, her fingers were shaking.

  "Are you alright, dear?" her mother asked. "You're all red and you're trembling."

  "Yeah, mom," Valerie said. "I'm just excited to see Steven."

  And dreading seeing someone else.

  Justin needed a vacation. God, if he had to slip away from one more puck bunny at a club or listen to any more voicemails from ex-girlfriends, he was going to lose it. Since the playoffs were over, for his team at least, he was essentially free to take a break. And he needed it.

  "I can't believe you're just going back to Sherwood, man," his friend Joel said. "Why not come to Mexico with the rest of the boys?"

  Justin decided to omit that he was trying to get away from the rest of the boys. "I just need some time at home," he said instead.

  Joel eyed him warily over his beer, scoping out the bar for ladies. "Any good tail in Sherwood?" he asked.

  Justin chuckled. "There's good tail everywhere, man," he said. "You've just got to know where to look."

  Not that he was planning on seeking any in the first place. Though, as he thought that, he remembered the one girl who had managed to draw his interest there. Valerie. He’d thought there was something special between them, but it never happened. She hadn’t wanted to continue their relationship when he went pro. It had hurt more than he wanted to admit at the time. He wondered how she was doing these days. She'd probably gotten married and had a couple kids by now.

  "What are you even going to do there?" Joel asked, stroking his newly shaved chin.

  Justin shrugged, taking a drink of his beer. "Hang out with my buddy Steven," he said. "Do some hiking. I dunno."

  Joel's bemused expression quickly turned to lust as he spotted a blonde across the bar that was giving him a look. "If you'll excuse me for a minute," he said, before leaping off of his chair and heading toward her.

  Justin turned back to his beer and pulled his phone out. He quickly searched Facebook for Valerie North out of curiosity. Hmm. Her profile was totally closed down to people who weren't her friends. It seemed odd to him that they weren't Facebook friends. He was sure they had been at one time.

  He turned to watch his friend lay the moves on the pretty blonde. He barely needed to do anything. The look in the girl's eyes told Justin that she recognized Joel, and that was all it would take.

  Justin reflected how awesome that had been when he first started out. He could have had a different girl every night if he wanted. But soon that had gotten stale, and he'd not bothered to take anyone home in a while.

  Joel came back over and introduced Justin to Alicia. "She's a yoga instructor," Joel said enthusiastically.

  Justin tried not to roll his eyes. "I'm gonna get out of here," he said, slapping a fifty on the table. "I've got a flight in the morning."

  "But it's Saturday night!" Joel protested. "The world is our oyster."

  Alicia looked at him with fire in her eyes, but he merely shrugged. "Every night is Saturday night when you're rich and famous," he said, winking.

  Then he made his exit from the bar, slipping through the crowd that practically parted before him. It wasn't difficult to make your way through a crowd when you were roughly the size of a small car.

  Outside, the cool ai
r refreshed Justin. He sucked it in greedily, deciding that he'd walk back to his apartment. It wasn't far, and the Boston nightlife was just starting to ramp up. Though he didn't want to be a part of it on that particular occasion, he still enjoyed diving into the atmosphere. It reminded him of all those nights when he was a rookie for his university's hockey team. When they'd go out after a big game and party until the sun rose. He smiled as he walked down the street, remembering his coach's chastising when he showed up with red eyes one morning for practice, still stinking of beer from the night before. That man had never really believed in Justin until the end, right before he got drafted.

  Bet he was wishing that he'd been a bit easier on him now.

  After reaching his apartment, Justin walked in and shed his blazer, dropping it over one of his unused dining room chairs with a sigh. The place felt empty. It would be nice to be back in his hometown, even if his parents had already moved to Boston to be closer to him. Sherwood had a lot more going for it than Joel gave it credit for. Lush forests, mountain hikes, wide, cool lakes.

  And, hopefully, Valerie North.

  The office was a flurry of activity when Valerie got into work on Monday afternoon. Her boss' door was wide open, which meant he was in a good mood at least. There wasn't much that went on in the small town, but their little newspaper reported all of it. Right now, Debra, head of Lifestyle, was tapping away at tomorrow's headliner: Sherwood Fashion: School Smarts.

  Valerie sat down at the desk next to her and pulled out her laptop, pushing some of her long hair behind her ears.

  "Weren't you supposed to be in like two hours ago?" Debra asked.

  Valerie snorted. That was just like her. "I told you two days ago, Deb," Valerie said. "I went with my parents to pick up my brother from the airport this morning."

  "Right, right," Debra said. "Sorry. Coffee machine's on the fritz, which means I'm only half here."

  "Your brother's here?" Cam asked, as he walked past. He did the science news. Not a busy section in Sherwood. "Has he done anything cool over in Germany that he could report to us?"

  Valerie shook her head. "Nope," she said. "And anyway, he's got his hands a bit full with my mom. She's fussing over him and demanding all his free time. Already threw a hissy that he wanted to spend time with Justin."

  Like a scene from a movie, the whole office ground to a halt.

  "Justin?" Herman bellowed from his office.

  Oh no. Valerie hadn't meant to say anything.

  The large man emerged from his office, mustache bristling. "Is Justin Brown here?"

  Valerie grimaced. "Yes."

  Herman's eyes lit up. "Justin Brown, hometown hero..." he murmured to himself. "Justin Brown, the leader of Sherwood's youth generation..."

  "I don't think he's staying for long," Valerie said. "He's probably just stopping in to see Steven and leave."

  Herman approached her desk, towering over her. "Can you get an interview?" he asked. "It could be the story of the quarter!"

  Valerie wasn't sure how much of a story it could possibly be. Not too many people in the area cared about hockey. Sherwood was more of a football city. But, then again, when Graham Richards had come home to visit after spending some time up north playing lacrosse, that had caused a helluva racket in the city.

  "I don't know," answered Valerie. "I mean, you could always call and ask him."

  Herman shook his head violently, his big jowls rippling. "No, no, no!" he said. "He doesn't know me. He knows you. You've got to call him!"

  Valerie blanched. "I haven't spoken to him in years," she said. "We were never that close."

  Herman wasn't having any of it. "Valerie, please," he begged. "We could really use this interview."

  "But I don't even write for sports," she said as a last ditch attempt. "Chris was in school with us too. Maybe he could give it a go."

  Chris Hinton had already crept up at the mention of Justin's name. "No way, man," he said. "That guy's always scared the crap out of me."

  Valerie gave him a flat look. "He's a hockey player, not a criminal."

  "He's a big guy," said Chris, who stood no more than five-foot-six.

  Valerie shook her head, sighing. "Fine," she said. "But if he says no, we're leaving it at that, okay?"

  Herman nodded, enthusiastically. "Absolutely."

  She wouldn't put it past him to renege on that, but there were enough witnesses around that she'd have someone in her court if things went awry.

  Herman stared at her for a couple of minutes more while Valerie shuffled some papers at her desk.

  "Aren't you going to call?" he asked finally.

  Valerie grimaced. "Can I not call later?"

  Herman shook his head. "Get 'er done girl."

  It was going to be a long day.

  "Hey man," Justin said into the receiver. "I just checked in. Wanna grab drinks later?"

  "Totes, bro," Steven replied. "Uh, one thing first... My sister asked for your number. Is it cool if I give it to her?"

  Justin nearly laughed out loud; he hadn’t thought it would be that easy.

  “Of course,” he replied. “Haven’t seen her in ages.”

  Steven chuckled nervously. “She works for the paper now,” he said. “I think it might be something about that. Just a warning.”

  Justin frowned, but said, “That’s fine. Go ahead and give it to her.”

  “Cool, I’ll text you later. Bye.”

  “Bye.”

  Justin relaxed back into the pillows of his hotel bed. It was a pretty comfortable room but far from luxurious. Sherwood didn’t have much in the way of luxury to offer. That was part of the town’s charm, though. It seemed that just about everywhere else, people with money could throw their weight around. In Sherwood, the rich and famous had no more options than regular folk.

  Of course, that had been a lot more charming before he’d acquired a taste for Egyptian cotton sheets.

  He closed his eyes and pictured Valerie in his mind, as he remembered her: long brown hair, stunning blue eyes, sun-dusted skin with freckles across the bridge of her nose. She was gorgeous. He was surprised to hear that she was still working in Sherwood, no less at the tiny Sherwood Press. He always pictured her going off to do great things as a writer. Like maybe she would have gone to LA to write movies, or to Washington to be a hard-hitting journalist.

  The idea of her at home still just didn’t seem...right.

  A few seconds later, his phone rang. The number was unfamiliar, so he assumed it was Valerie.

  “Hello?”

  “Hey, is this Justin? This is Valerie, Steven’s sister.” Her voice was every bit as soft and melodious as he remembered. It reminded him of a tinkling bell.

  “Hey Valerie,” he replied. “How are you? It’s been a long time.”

  “Yeah. The paper was wondering if you’d want to do an interview. I told them you’d probably be busy, but I thought I’d call to find out anyway.”

  She certainly didn’t seem in the mood for a chat. He began to wonder if he’d done something wrong. He thought back to the last time he’d seen her, but still couldn’t think of why she might hate him all of the sudden.

  “An interview?”

  “Yeah. If you’re too busy, that’s totally fine.”

  Justin chuckled. “What makes you think I’ll be too busy?” he asked. “I’ve got all the time in the world. Will you be interviewing me?”

  “Yes.”

  “Then I’m definitely interested.”

  There was a pause. Then she said, “Okay. Uh, can you come into the office tomorrow?”

  Justin smiled. “Do you have dinner plans? I just got in, and I’m starving.”

  “I can’t,” she said. “Tomorrow at the office.”

  “Yeah, that works.”

  “Do you still know where the Press is?” she asked.

  “Of course. I’ll be in around nine.”

  “See you then.”

  Justin hung up the phone feeling a bit uneas
y. For someone who was seeking him out for an interview, she sure seemed to be avoiding him. Perhaps in the morning, she wouldn’t be the only one searching for some answers.

  His phone rang again. At first he thought it might be Valerie calling back, either to cancel or apologize, but it was Steven.

  “Hey man,” Justin answered. “What did I do to make your sister hate me?”

  “Hate you? She doesn’t hate you.”

  Justin scoffed. “She sure didn’t sound too into talking to me,” he replied.

  “Well you can ask her yourself tonight,” Steven said. “I completely forgot to tell you that we’re having a family dinner at my place, and my mom asked if you could be there.”

  Justin smirked. “Oh, I’ll be there alright.”

  “Mom,” Valerie called out. “Is the soup supposed to be this color?”

  Hannah strolled into the kitchen from the deck, where she’d been turning on the barbeque. “Don’t be silly. What other color is beet soup supposed to be?”

  “Is that soup?” Julia asked, walking into the room and rubbing her eyes.

  “I think so,” Valerie replied. The next she said in a fake hushed voice. “But if it tastes bad, we have to eat it anyway so grandma doesn’t get mad.”

  Hannah hit Valerie lightly on the arm. “Hey,” she said. She turned to little Julia. “Dinner’s not going to be ready for a while Jelly Bean, why don’t you go back to sleep for a bit?”

  Julia nodded sleepily and headed back to the couch in the other room. Valerie heard the sound of cartoons dimly in the distance. “You’re teaching her bad habits, you know,” she said to her mom, stirring the soup idly. “Napping while everyone else cooks dinner. If I had done that, you would have throttled me.”

  Hannah smiled sweetly, grabbing the bag of meat out of the fridge. “And you’re teaching her that it’s okay to insult her mother’s cooking. Wait till that comes to bite you in the ass.”

  Valerie laughed. “Oh, come on, mom,” she said. “You’re making barbecued chicken with a soup starter! I don’t know anybody who wouldn’t make fun of that.”