Crumbling Walls (Jack and Emily #1) (16 page)

▪▪▪

Elizabeth decided it was high time she find out exactly where her son was and the ringing of his phone caused them to jump apart, as if she’d actually been there in the room with them. Making what had to be the most frustrated face Emily had ever seen, he answered, “Yeah? Sorry, hello?”

The conversation didn’t take long and he hung up a minute later, ending with, “Yeah, I’ll be leaving in a few minutes. I’ll tell her. Bye.”

“Tell me what?”

“That she thinks you’re beautiful and that I should kiss you more often. Possibly all the time.”

Her voice caught in her throat out of both embarrassment and giddiness, “Of course.”

“Well, that and she wanted to make sure your mom got home all right and if she wasn’t, that you were welcome to come back with me.”

Happiness dropping a notch at the prospect of more lies, “Thank her for me.”

“You sure you don’t want to come back? We could just say she had to go back to the hospital for another shift?”

Shaking her head, “I’ll be fine. And anyways, I’ve got plenty to do here. I’ve got a lot of homework and a bunch of new books to read.”

Once he pulled his coat back on, he felt in the pocket and came up with a forgotten gift for her, “Hell, I meant to give you this when we first got here.” Holding the unopened cell phone to her, “I bought it at Wal-Mart for you and I didn't want to give it to you with your other gifts, thought it might make people wonder. Anyways, it's cheap, but at least you'll be able to call if you need something and you pay for the minutes as you go once you use the 30 minutes it comes with.” Worried that she might be mad about his intrusion into her life, “I'd just … I'd feel really bad if something happened to you and you couldn't call me … us … damn it.” After hanging his head for a moment, he tilted it sideways to look at her, “I've been worried about you being here by yourself.”

Not yet taking the package, “I've been fine here by myself for a while now.”

“But what if you have this sudden and inexplicable urge to call and warn me about some plot twist in the books? How will you get a hold of me? Hmm?”

With a reluctant hand and a widening smile, she took the phone, “Well, I can’t stand in the way of literary discussion now, can I?”

“Never.” Seeing that she was going to keep it, he grinned, then motioned her towards the kitchen, “Now go open it so I can get the number from you.”

Once that was done, he gave her another kiss, after which she hugged him tightly, whispering 'thank you' in his ear before following him downstairs and locking both locks on the door after he left. Back upstairs, she went to the window to watch him trudge through the drifts back to his noisy, warm, people-filled, wonderful-smelling, happy house.

Sitting down and pulling out the books Dex had retrieved from her locker for her the day after she'd walked out, she cracked open the history text.

She couldn’t concentrate, however, and after a few minutes, she realized why.

For the first time ever …

… she missed somebody.

Eight somebodies to be exact.

It was an overwhelming feeling and she had absolutely no idea what to do with it.

For the first time ever, she was lonely.

▪▪▪

It seemed that everybody at the Callaghan household was feeling it as well.

Sam asked more than once, “When’s Emily coming back?”

Tucker wanted to know if he could go over there and have a snowball fight with her because, “‘She’s got the best aim ever … even if she is a girl.”’

Even Elizabeth commented on it, “Is it wrong that I’m slightly desperate for a conversation with a 16-year-old girl?”

Jack had to laugh at this one, “It’s okay, Mom. I know you wish you could trade Dave in for a girl but you just have to face facts, it’s all Dad’s fault we’re boys. I think you should go yell at him.”

She cuffed her son playfully on the back of the head, “Just go shovel the walk with Tim and be quiet.”

“Yes mother.”

The next day, things got back to normal. The snow still fell lightly, but Will had to go back to work, as did Tim and Jack, but there was still New Year’s to look forward to.

Emily had said yes to the New Year’s invite, but Dex, now somewhere in Texas with his family, updating Jack and Emily daily with uproarious emails of his extended family’s antics, said he wished he could be there, but the entire Grenden clan was holding him hostage.

Chapter 13

Since she didn’t have to work that day, Emily showed up around two on New Year’s Eve, armed with the story of her mom working again.

“That’s too bad. I was hoping she might be able to make it.”

The lying twisted her up inside but not having much of a choice, “It’s hard to turn down overtime.”

Patting her on the back, “I know. My dad missed a fair amount of holidays as well, but with eight of us and my mom not working, it was either that or starve.”

“There were eight of you?”

Elizabeth nodded, “Yup. Which is probably the reason I had my own bunch.”

“Was Will from a big family, too?”

“Nope. Just him and his younger brother. His mom died when they were young so it was always just the two of them and his father.”

Emily watched as Elizabeth’s lips tightened involuntarily at the mention of Will’s dad and she realized, yet again, that Will may understand her more than anyone else in the world, but still, she steered the subject away quickly, “Is it all right that I’m here this early?”

Elizabeth's face returned to its natural smile, “Of course. Most of the boys are gone actually. Dave, Nate and Tucker went over to a friend’s house for awhile so it’s just you, me and Sam.” With a twinkle in her eye, “He’s been waiting to see you.”

“Really?”

“He’s in the living room.”

She went into the kitchen and the minute she called out his name, he shot into the room, wrapping himself around her legs, “Do you want to color?”

Laughing, “Of course. Just let me put my coat away and I’ll be back.”

Returning to the hall to hang up her coat, she made her way into the living room. Lying down on the floor, she began coloring, causing Sam to sigh happily as they both delved into that lovely, shiny new box of 128 crayons.

▪▪▪

Once everyone arrived home, Emily nudged Jack as they worked their way around the kitchen, making tacos for themselves from the giant spread on the counters, “Where’s Tim?”

“Sarah’s having a party for a bunch of her friends. I guess he’s there for the night. Something about Mom told him to get drunk and stay there.”

Elizabeth was reaching between the two of them for some cheese and she swatted him quickly on the arm, “Good lord, I did not tell him to get drunk.” Turning to Emily as her son grinned at her, “Her parents called and said that they'd be having some champagne at midnight and they prefer it if any one who drinks some has permission to stay for the night. I gave it because I don’t need my son wrapping himself around a tree or worse, having someone else’s drunken kid wrapping him around a tree.” Turning to Emily, “Speaking of which, I know there’s no alcohol but you’re welcome to stay if it gets too late. Your mom’s working until tomorrow morning, isn’t she? I can call her if you’d like?”

Elizabeth could have swore Emily hesitated ever so slightly before answering, “Yeah, um, it’s usually really bad tonight so everybody stays around, but I’ll call her later. They know me over there.”

“Okay then. The couch is yours if you want it.”

Already turning to continue her taco preparation, “Thanks.”

▪▪▪

Dave noticed Emily’s third trip to the kitchen, “Hey, you finally made thirds.”

“I finally learned the trick.”

Dave grinned at her and they both echoed each other, “Don’t fill the plate so much.”

She smiled back, “Y’all could have told me.”

“It was more fun to see how long it would take you to figure it out.”

Suddenly half a taco shell leapt right off Jack’s plate and flew through the air at his little brother. Will managed to intervene before anything else took flight and turning to both his grinning sons, “Not tonight. I can’t handle trying to get ground up cheese out of the carpet. Remember what the old floor looked like?”

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.