She must have very much soooooo had to talk to me for she dragged me out of the kitchen, to the stairs and up them. It was clear boy Taylor agreed with her urgent need for communication for he put his hands on my back just above my bottom and gratuitously shoved me up the stairs Amber was yanking me up.
We hit the door to her room. One that I’d noted earlier had a white board on it with little pink and blue flowers drawn in at the edges. But contradictory to the cheerful flowers, the words “Enter and Die!” were printed on it in hot pink in the middle and under that, smaller but in all capital letters, “THAT MEANS YOU RUNT!”
It should be noted that under that, in much smaller letters and in black marker was written in a different hand, “Don’t call me runt!!!!!!!!!”
This amused me when I saw it earlier and it amused me seeing it again. However, at that moment my amusement was intermingled with confusion as to what was currently happening as Amber threw open her door and yanked me in.
I had not seen any of the children’s rooms but Ethan’s (entirely decked out in some sporting team’s paraphernalia, even the sheets) as Conner and Amber’s doors were closed.
Now I saw how Amber could exist in this intensely masculine abode.
There was not one inch of her pink and blue room that didn’t scream “Teenaged Girl!” from stylish but bright bedclothes to pages cut out of style magazine tacked to the walls to band posters to jumbles of clothes and shoes on the floor and accessories and cosmetics on every surface.
I had little time to take all this in for Amber was standing before me. The Taylors having moved to form a loose huddle around us, the door having been closed, Amber was visibly deep breathing while pressing the air down in front of her with her hands in a way I found alarming, repeatedly, chanting, “Okay, okay, okay.”
She sucked in a huge breath.
Then I winced when she smiled an enormous smile and screeched, “You’ll never guess what happened!”
Although I feared my eardrums were bleeding, her excitement was infectious so I smiled back and asked, “What happened, my lovely?”
“Alexi Prokorov said hey to me!” she cried.
I blinked. “Who?”
“Only the…coolest guy…in the entire school!” boy Taylor informed me.
“He is,” girl Taylor confirmed. “He’s the absolute bomb.”
I looked from girl Taylor back to Amber as she again began chanting, “Okay, okay, okay. Soooo…we were at the diner last night and he walked right up to me and said hey!”
“I’d done her face up in romantic palette number two,” boy Taylor leaned into me to share.
This was a good choice.
I didn’t get a chance to say that, girl Taylor was talking, imparting the unusual news that, “Alexi doesn’t date girls from Magdalene High.”
“He never has,” boy Taylor put in. “He usually goes out with the hottest of the hot from other schools.”
“He has a motorcycle,” Amber added and when she did, my heart skipped a beat.
Uh-oh.
“And he plays guitar,” she went on.
Oh dear.
“And he’s in a band,” she continued.
Oh no.
Her face changed, it went soft and wistful as she whispered, “He’s dreamy.”
“This is huge,” boy Taylor announced. “Huger than huge. The one guy who beats out Noah is Alexi. I mean, girls from Magdalene don’t even set their sights on him because they know they have no shot.” He smiled big. “This is awesome.”
“He writes his own songs,” girl Taylor added. “I saw his band play in the underage club that’s used to be an old garage down by the cove. It was amazing.”
“Look,” boy Taylor demanded and I looked his way to see he had his phone screen facing me. “I got this pic as he was leaving the diner. It isn’t very good but it tells the tale.”
I stared at his phone thinking the photo on it did, indeed, tell the tale.
The picture was of an exceptionally good-looking young man. He was rather fit and although he was sitting astride a motorcycle, captured on the phone arrested in lifting up a shiny black motorcycle helmet in front of him, it also appeared he was quite tall. He had very messy but attractive dark blond hair. He had excellent bone structure. He was wearing faded jeans, the knee torn and ragged, black motorcycle boots, a black t-shirt and a black leather jacket.
I stared at the photo thinking the young man in it was every high school girl’s dream.
I also stared at it thinking that if this young man came over to take Amber out on a date, Jake was going to lose his mind.
“Um…” I mumbled, fear constricting my lungs as I tore my eyes away from the photo and looked at a beaming Amber.
I got no further as she declared, “And Noah’s called me. Twice.”
“She didn’t pick up,” girl Taylor shared.
“He left a message. She’s leaving him hanging,” boy Taylor finished.
Although I was proud of Amber for doing this, her doing it shed even more light on Ellie doing the same to Conner which raised my current anxiety levels significantly, something which was notable seeing as they were already significantly high.
“I think that’s very wise, Amber,” I told her and she smiled a bright smile. “Now as for this boy—” I began but said no more when she jumped straight to me, grabbed my hands and held them tight.
“Josie, he came right up to our table and said hey right to me. It was the best moment of my life.”
Oh my.
In the face of her happiness, entirely unable to do anything but, I pulled one of my hands from hers, lifted it to cup her cheek, leaned into her and whispered, “Then I hope he likes you, my lovely. But I expect he does because you’re beautiful, you’re smart and you’re a good friend and he likely knows all of that.”
Hope washed through her features making her even more beautiful as she asked, “You think?”
“I think and hope, my lovely girl,” I replied.
Her smile got bigger.
Before anyone could say more, we heard bellowed from below, “Dip’s up!”
Jake.
Amber let me go, jumped back and cried, “Ro-Tel dip! Yee-ha! I’m starved.”
Then she dashed by me and out of the room.
Boy Taylor followed her.
Girl Taylor and I were left behind, staring out the now open door.
I turned to her.
“Is this Alexi a decent young man?” I asked quietly.
“He’s more decent than Noah,” she answered.
This would not be difficult to achieve and thus didn’t make me feel better.
“But if Alexi goes for it, Mr. Spear is gonna freak way the heck out,” she stated the obvious.
“Indeed,” I agreed to the obvious, looking back to the door.
Girl Taylor got closer to me so I turned my eyes to her.
“He gets straight A’s, his music really is super cool and word is he’s a one woman man. I also know he’s between girlfriends right now. But I’ve seen him a couple of times with his chicks and he’s with them like Con is with his chicks. So she could do worse, that being Noah. But Alexi is definitely better.”
I found the news Alexi was a “one woman man” somewhat soothing. The information he treated his girlfriends like Conner did (except having only one at a time) was even more so.
So I smiled at her as I reached out and gave her hand a brief squeeze.
Then I motioned to the door with my head.
She preceded me and I followed her down the stairs.
She said, “Hey, Mr. Spear,” as she walked past Jake at the bottom of the stairs, moving toward the living room.
“Hey, honey,” he muttered to her as she did, but his eyes were on me.
Then his large body was blocking mine as I reached the bottom of the stairs and thus I had to stop and look up at him.
“Everything cool?” he asked quietly, studying me closely and I knew I was not hiding my une
ase.
“For Amber, yes. For you, if things play out as she wishes…” I hesitated then finished, “No.”
“Come again?” he asked, his brows knitting.
“A young man said hi to her last night at the diner. Boy Taylor showed me his picture and he’s very attractive. He was also sitting on a motorcycle.”
Jake’s brows unknit and his jaw got hard.
I went on.
“I’m informed he plays guitar.”
His eyes flashed and a muscle jumped in his cheek.
I continued speaking.
“He also writes his own music and plays in a band.”
Jake looked beyond me, grumbling, “Fuckin’ fuck me.”
“I’m further informed he gets straight A’s and he’s a one woman man.”
Jake’s eyes came back to me and I could see immediately he did not share my minor relief at these revelations.
“Who woulda thought I’d miss Noah,” Jake remarked.
I pressed my lips together wanting to laugh but knowing I absolutely should not.
“A motorcycle?” he asked.
I tipped my head to the side and gave him a little wince.
He tipped his head back and said to the ceiling, “Why couldn’t you have given me all boys?”
I found this obvious conversation with God intriguing and thus asked, “Do you believe in God?”
He looked back to me and his brows were again knit. “Uh…yeah.”
“If this is so, I’ll inform you that Reverend Fletcher has invited me to attend services and he expressly asked that I bring you and the children along.”
“I bet he did,” Jake murmured, moving to my side and slinging an arm around my shoulders.
“I’ll tell you now, I’m not fond of waking up early but they do have an evening service.”
He looked down at me as he moved us toward the family room and I slid my arm around his waist.
“You’re not fond of gettin’ up early?”
“No.”
“You get up early to work out with me.”
I just looked at him.
He grinned and did it slowly. He also pulled me closer. Last, he looked in the direction he was taking us.
“Evening services it is, Slick. But not tonight. Next week. Happy to get closer to God to ask Him in His house to look after my girl when basketball stars and guitar players with motorcycles are in the mix.”
“Indeed,” I agreed but the word was weighty which earned me a squeeze of his arm and him tipping his head down to give me another grin.
He moved us into the living room where there was a football game playing on Jake’s extortionately large television and children all around consuming orange dip with red and green bits in it, doing this utilizing corn chips.
Jake, in Jake fashion, seated me himself. He did this in an overlarge club chair with matching ottoman that was really meant only to seat one but he made it seat two, albeit snugly.
He then commanded, “Eath, get Josie and me another bowl a’ that and bring in a fresh bag of chips.”
Ethan jumped off the couch and raced to do as his father bid. Therefore, in no time at all, I was confronted with a bowl of dip held in Jake’s big hand, the bag of chips resting in his lap.
It was time to make my judgment.
And I was much surprised to find the dip tangy, spicy and of a very smooth consistency that was quite nice and the chip was fresh, crispy and salty.
An excellent combination.
“It pass inspection?” Jake asked as I went for another chip.
I looked to him to see him studying me, lips again quirking.
“It’s not camembert,” I shared. “But it’s tasty.”
His lips stopped quirking and he yet again grinned as he went for his own chip.
Football game watching commenced and I found I liked sitting very snugly in Jake’s chair with Jake watching it with our lively company around. Ethan very into the game, thus shouting a lot. Conner and Jake often commenting about players, plays or calls. Myself engaging in conversation that had very little to do with football and much to do with fashion, makeup, skincare, and accessorizing as well as commentary on the good-looking players on the field with Amber and the Taylors.
After the first game ended, Jake ordered us all to the kitchen where we prepared our tacos (the meat, Jake explained to me, had to simmer awhile “for it to be real good, honey”).
Although I saw the envelope from which he’d poured the spices, and thus suspected the fare would be mediocre, he was not wrong. The tacos were delicious. Ethan and Conner microwaved the rather spare remains of the dip and spooned it into their tacos and I decided to try that should I have another taco afternoon at Jake’s for I thought it might be rather appetizing.
We ate in front of the TV and Amber and the Taylors had taken our used plates and cutlery back to the kitchen and refreshed our drinks when it happened.
The doorbell rang.
“Amber,” was all Jake said and she surprisingly dutifully got up and went to the door.
The front door was not close (there was an informal living room that looked more like a romper room for teenagers with a large sectional in it that had two laptops and a tablet scattered on it, as well as exploding backpacks on the floor, and also a dining room at the front of the house).
Not being close, we only heard murmurings and no one seemed overly bothered they had company.
Until Amber came back and my head snapped her way when I heard the trembling tone of her voice.
“Um…Dad, Con…uh, Mr. Earhart and Mia are here to talk to you guys.”
Mia?
The young woman who confronted Conner and Ellie at the football game?
I felt Jake’s body get tight next to mine, heard Con mutter, “What the hell?” but my eyes were riveted to Amber’s face.
She looked afraid.
Suddenly, I was out of the chair because Jake put his hands to my waist and shoved me to my feet.
Then I was moving toward the front of the house because Jake was also out of the chair, had grabbed my hand and was dragging me there.
He did this rumbling, “Con, with me and Josie. Amber, keep everyone in here.”
But Jake did not need to issue this order to his eldest. Conner was at our heels. I felt him there.
I just didn’t know why I, too, was attending this impromptu and clearly not welcome meeting.
I thought little of this the minute I hit the foyer and saw the man standing there.
He was not as big or fit as Jake but then again, not many men were. They were much the same age, I guessed. But even not as large or conditioned as Jake, this man was no pushover.
The other thing he was was enraged.
Utterly.
And his incensed eyes were glued to Conner in a way that I genuinely feared he might cause him bodily harm.
Without thinking, I pulled my hand from Jake’s and took a step back. My shoulder hit Conner and I stopped, forcing him to stop with me.
Then my eyes moved to Mia and my skin started prickling.
She was up to something. I could tell by the light in her eyes and the smirk on her lips. In the face of her father’s extreme fury, she should not be smirking.
Something was wrong and whatever it was, she was behind it.
“Neal, what’s up?” Jake asked casually but cautiously and I looked to him to see he, too, was positioned between the man and his son.
The man named Neal tore his gaze from Conner and looked to Jake.
“We gotta talk,” he bit out. “Private.”
Jake studied him only a moment but did it closely. He then nodded and held out a hand to the living room, which was a room that had a door, unlike the others on the bottom floor.
We trundled in, me holding back which meant Conner had to hold back and this meant I maneuvered it so that Conner and I were the last to enter the room.
I kept him well removed from Mia and her father and twisted to ask him quie
tly, “Please close the door, sweetheart.”
I could see by his face he was confused, perhaps a bit angry, and also very wary.
He closed the door.
When he turned back to the room, so did I.
“What’s this about?” Jake asked.
Neal didn’t delay in laying it out.
“Mia’s pregnant.”
Oh my.
He wasn’t done.
“Your boy got my girl pregnant.”
The room became stifling. I felt it coming from all directions as I watched Jake’s face turn to marble.
But I heard Conner clip, “That’s complete bullshit.”
“Mind your boy, Jake,” Neal instantly demanded in an irate rumble.
Jake turned to Conner but said nothing when Conner repeated, “It’s total bullshit, Dad.”
“I can’t believe you,” Mia hissed at this point and I looked to her.
And it was then I knew that if she was going to instigate this kind of drama in order to salvage her wounded pride and inflict pain on the one who wounded it, she should be a much better actress.
“And I can’t believe you,” Conner shot back. “You know that’s totally whacked.”
“It is not!” she snapped.
“If you’re pregnant, whose is it? ‘Cause it sure isn’t mine,” Conner returned and the air in the room grew even heavier.
“Con,” Jake said in a warning tone.
“You need to be real careful, son,” Neal just warned.
“May I ask how you know you’re pregnant, Mia?” I queried at this juncture and I saw her eyes come to me but felt her father’s do it.
“Can I ask who you are?” her father inquired.
I looked to him but Jake answered. “Neal, this is Josie Malone. She’s close to the family.”
“I wish it was better circumstances, Neal,” I said quickly but softly. “But really, it’s rather important to know the basics of what’s happening here so we can have a constructive discussion.”
“I took a pregnancy test,” Mia stated before her father could reply.
I looked to her.
“A drugstore one?” I asked quietly.
“Yes,” she answered.
“Do you have the results with you?”
Her face got hard but I noted it did this to hide the shifty. “I freaked when I got a positive and threw it away.”