Crumbling Walls (Jack and Emily #1) (26 page)

▪▪▪

Will came through the kitchen a few minutes later just as Jack was putting his dish in the dishwasher and filling it up with detergent, “So, how’d it go yesterday?”

Jack kept his sigh to himself, wishing he could just crawl into bed and dream, “It was fine. Like I told Mom, Em'll be here tomorrow and she would rather tell you herself.”

Looking at his son closely, “I meant for you. I know she’s got a lot to deal with, but so do you.  I just wondered how you were holding up.”

Turning and leaning on the counter, he crossed his arms and couldn’t help but grin at his dad, “I’m holding up just fine.”

“I’m glad she found you.”

“So am I.” Will turned to go, but Jack stopped him, “You okay?”

With a smile at his son, “Yeah, glad you two made it home in one piece. See you in the morning.”

With that, Jack was once again alone in the kitchen and he seriously considered sneaking out to Emily’s, but fought the urge and headed upstairs instead.

▪▪▪

Walking into his bedroom, he found Tim sprawled on his bed, finishing up what looked like history homework. Once Jack shut the door behind him, Tim shoved the book back in his backpack and sat up, “So, alive I see?”

“Yeah, sorry to disappoint you.”

Tim shook his head and stood, heading over to turn off the light, “You know, it would have been nice. I could have had my own room, a bit more elbow room at the table.”

Jack stripped down and crawled into bed, “You love me and you know it.”

Settling under his own blankets, “Maybe, occasionally.”

They both lay there for a few minutes until, “Tim?”

“Yeah?”

“Remember when I asked you if you loved Sarah?”

“Uh-huh.”

“Have you slept with her yet?”

Tim, who had almost been expecting the question eventually, answered his brother honestly, “No. We’ve come awfully close, but we both kind of decided we weren’t quite ready yet.” Settling with his arms behind his head, he grinned at the ceiling, “But I’ve got all the time in the world.” As almost an afterthought, he jokingly asked, “How about you and Em? Ever gonna get there or are you waiting for your third date?” The silence in the room was deafening and Tim slowly sat up as the silence continued to hang above them, “Jack?” By now he was out of bed and standing over his brother, who was staring thoughtfully at the ceiling, “Jack Andrew Callaghan, I asked you a question?” Jack stared past his brother for another second or two before locking eyes with him. Tim’s opened even wider as he backed up and sat down on his bed again, whispering, “Holy shit.”

“You can’t say anything, Tim.”

Sitting there, still dumbfounded, he couldn’t help but repeat his previous, “Holy shit,” followed by, “yesterday?”

“Really late last night.”

Tim stared at his younger brother, “Did you plan it?”

Rolling to his side, “No. Of course not. It just happened. We were there and just, suddenly, everything was perfect.”

“I don’t know whether to yell at you, be jealous of you, kick your ass or ask how it was?”

“First off, don’t yell at me, okay? There’ll be enough of that if Mom and Dad find out. Jealousy is your issue. I really don’t want to get a boot in the ass and,” closing his eyes for a second, “it was better than you could ever imagine.”

Given he was now wide awake, Tim slid back and leaned against the wall, “At the risk of sounding like Dad, I gotta ask, where did you find a condom in a hotel room in the middle of nowhere in the snow at midnight?”

Deciding at this point that honesty was the best policy, “We didn’t.”

“Oh hell, are you kidding me?”

“No. The thought never even occurred to me until the ride home today. When I mentioned it, Em said she just finished, so it should be fine but …”

“Dumbass. What were you thinking?”

“Apparently not the right thing.”

Tim reached down and rummaged through his backpack for a second, then tossed something across the way. “Here moron, don’t leave home without ‘em. Ever again.”

Jack fingered the two condoms that had landed on his pillow, “What kind of odds are we playing?”

“The odds of you ending up a father? I have no idea, but the odds that Dad's gonna kill you are pretty damn good.”

Groaning into his pillow, “How could I have been so stupid?”

Suddenly realizing he didn’t need to continue his lecture, “Hey, we’re all stupid at times. But hopefully God’ll see that Mom and Dad are a little too young to be grandparents at the moment.”

“I’ve been pleading with him about that for the last seven hours.”

Tim almost felt sorry for his brother and he switched subjects, kind of, “So, um, how do I look at her tomorrow?”

“Like you always have.”

“But I now know that you’ve seen her naked and … oh god … you were naked with her.”

“Tim!”

“What? You have and you were. And I now know this. And now, when I see her tomorrow, all I’m going to think about is her naked and you, as disgusting of an individual as you are, naked with her and I’m gonna have to throw up somewhere and ten to one, it’s gonna tip her off.”

Jack finally laughed for the first time, “Good night, Tim.”

“Hey?”

“Yeah?”

“You do love her, don’t you?”

Without hesitating, “More than life itself.”

Another few minutes passed, then Tim, his voice barely making it over to Jack’s bed, “Were you scared?”

“To death … then … just … I mean, then everything was fine.” Finally able to think about what had happened as a whole rather than a jumble of moments in his mind, “It was like it was supposed to happen that way and any other time or place would have been completely wrong. Like the whole universe conspired to get us to just that moment and then … let us go.”

Even across the dark room, Tim could clearly hear the debate going on in Jack’s mind, “And I’d stop thinking about sneaking over there, little brother. The universe might not be so generous tonight.”

Jack smiled, “Neither would Mom or Dad if they caught me.” Relaxing under his thick comforter, even his feet warm by now, “G’night, Tim.”

“’Night.”

▪▪▪

After Jack had dropped her off, Emily made her way upstairs. Walking into the living room, she headed immediately for the kitchen. After digging up something to calm the growling in her stomach, she stood there, munching her apple and looked around.

Jack had said he’d be lonely without her and, in reality, her heart was already aching to see him again. Her sleepiness gone, she saw the room for what seemed to be the first time. It was quiet and small and sparse and hers … and empty.

Confusion set in next … and she did the only thing she could ever do when there was suddenly too much on her mind. She pulled out her paper and her pencils.

Chapter 22

It was just after six the next morning when her mind quieted and she made the final finishing touches on her assignment. She had just been doodling, but around midnight she switched to the family project for class and, letting herself go, she watched her hand draw what she truly felt inside.

It was the strangest thing. Once she’d decided to draw exactly what she was feeling, the project came easy to her.

She also managed to forget what had happened the previous night with Jack. She knew that if that entered into things, she would forever doubt the decision she fought so hard to make.

And it was done.

Startled, she looked up as she heard a knock on the downstairs door. With a sudden grin, she figured it had to be Jack and ran down the steps. Pulling the door open, she could barely get out a gasp before she received a solid punch to the face.

▪▪▪

Jack had woken up and, after tossing and turning for awhile, finally decided he’d had enough waiting. Getting up, he dressed silently, crept downstairs, greeted his dad at the kitchen table and immediately began pulling on his coat and boots.

“Going over to Emily’s?”

“Yeah.” With a sheepish grin, “I’m awake so I figured, why not?”

Will stared at him for a moment, then, “Please be careful, Jack. Very careful. You’re too young and too much has happened to her for you to treat this as a flippant thing.”

Jack nodded, “I just,” looking down at the floor and shuffling his still untied boots, “I just need to see her.” Meeting his dad’s eyes, “I just want to tell her I love her. That’s all.”

A quick smile spread across his dad’s face, “Then why are you standing here with me? You’ve got a girl waiting on you.”

With his own grin, he hurried out the door, walking swiftly down the street. Will went back to his paper, worrying as every father does.

▪▪▪

The first thing Jack noticed was the set of footprints leading to the door. They weren’t his or hers from last night and Dex would have come from the other direction. Beads of cold sweat broke out on his forehead as he knocked on the door.

When no one answered, he tried the handle and the door opened easily. Now in sheer, full-on panic mode, he hauled up the stairs and skidded to a halt in the living room. Some guy was straddling Emily on the floor, swinging his fists at her.

It took hearing the thud of her head hitting the floor in reaction to the man’s fist to get him moving.

And move he did. Yanking his coat off, he flew across the room, tackling as Tim had taught him, knocking the man completely off Emily and together, they landed in a heap. Jack took advantage of his surprise attack by hitting hard and hitting fast.

Being a strong, solidly built 16-year-old, Jack held his own, but the man he fought had three years of pent-up rage and nothing to lose. As Emily watched from across the room, somewhere in the back of her sluggish mind, she knew this couldn't possibly end well.

It didn’t take too long before they’d worked their way back towards the door and with one final, desperate, no-holds barred blow to the man’s face, Jack then raised his leg and shoved the man cleanly through the door.

He watched from the top of the stairs, in what seemed like slow motion, as the man stumbled and pitched down them. In his statement later, he would also describe the gunshot-like sounds he heard when several of the man's bones cracked on the sharp-edged wooden steps.

Hesitating and breathing long, jagged breaths, Jack watched, then cautiously made his way downstairs. He couldn’t see the man breathing and, tentatively putting his fingers to the man’s neck, he felt around for a pulse, but couldn’t find one.

Backing up the steps, never taking his eyes off the crumpled figure lying on the landing, he sat on the top stair and pulled out his phone, ignoring the blood pouring from his nose and the gaping split in his lower lip and chin.

▪▪▪

Once he hung up from his fairly calm conversation with 911, he turned to see Emily attempting to sit up across the room. Not willing to leave his spot, wanting to be able to see if the man made any kind of move, he called over to her, “You okay?”

She groaned and put her head back down on the floor, her face already swollen to a nearly unrecognizable state. Then he saw her nod slightly as she curled into a ball, clutching her sides.

He let out a sigh of relief and dialed his own house, “Hello?”

“Dad, I need you to come over right now.”

“Jack?”

“Now, Dad.” Hanging up, he sat equidistant from the person he loved with all his heart and the one he hated most of all, the one he could only assume was her father, and waited.