Emmalee (15 page)

           
I held on to the cart for dear life and willed my knees not to buckle
underneath me.  I could tell Ethan knew exactly the sort of
effect he had on me.  His playful eyes left no secrets. 
Distracted, my gaze settled on the cleft in his chin and I felt a
small flush grow when he chuckled at my confusion. 
The
scoundrel.
  Carson saved me.

           
“Hannah, I don’t think you’ve met my little brother
either.”

           
I watched Ethan use his charm on Hannah for a moment as he answered
her greeting. “Hi.  You’re Emma’s friend,
right?”  His profile showed hints of a five o’clock
shadow.  I tried hard not to stare at his firm jaw that was,
even now, wrapped in a smile for Hannah.  Our eyes collided
again, and before I could look away Ethan had the audacity to wink.

           
He is way too flirtatious for his own good.  Guys like that
should not be allowed out in public. 
I decided to give him
a run for his money.
 Obviously, this guy thinks I will fall
at his feet.
   I picked a couple of boxes of crackers
at random and tossed them lightly in the cart.  “Well, it
was nice meeting you—uh—what was your name, again? 
Ian?”

           
“Ethan.”  That devilish grin grew to a full out
smirk.  His perfect teeth flawless against his tan skin.

           
“Ethan, that’s right.  Sorry.  It was really
nice to meet you.  I hope you enjoy Thanksgiving in a couple of
days.”  I turned to Carson and beamed my Bradford smile
right at him.  Neither of the Franklin boys were immune.  I
caught Ethan stepping back in shock through my peripheral vision and
Carson’s jaw dropped right in front of me.  “Excuse
us.”  And then as a parting shot, I added as I walked
past, “Don’t forget to have Madison call me, Carson. 
I would love to get together with her and do something.  Bye.”

           
“She knows Madison too?”  I heard Ethan utter as I
turned the corner toward the dairy aisle.  Hannah was clearly
baffled.

           
“Why did you leave?” she asked jogging up to the cart. 
“Ethan was totally hitting on you.  I thought you’ve
wanted to meet him for forever?  And now you just leave?  I
don’t get it.”

           
I laughed and shook my head.  “Hannah, he’ll be
back, I promise.” 

           
He was back a lot sooner than I thought.  The next
day—Wednesday—afterschool Ethan and Carson showed up at
my house with Madison in tow.

           
“Hey, we were wondering if you wanted to hit the trails for a
bit before dinner?”  Carson asked.

“Hit the trails?” 
I was lost.

           
Ethan dangled his keys in front of me and answered, “Yeah, you
know, four wheelin’?” 

           
Wow! 
“Are you for real?”

           
Madison laughed. “Sure why not?  There’s room for
four in Ethan’s Jeep.”

           
I had to think fast.  “Um, sure, yeah.  Hang on. 
Let me run and tell my mom.  You guys are welcome to come on in
for a bit.”  I opened the door wider but they all
protested.  “Give me a minute and I’ll be back.”  
I left the door slightly ajar and walked into the kitchen where I had
been helping my mom cook for tomorrow’s Thanksgiving dinner. 
“Hey, mom?”

           
“Yeah?”

           
“Carson and Ethan Franklin are at the door with Madison
Coolidge.  They were wondering if I could go four wheeling with
them for a bit before dinner.”

           
“Is Chase going too?”

           
Uh?
  I still didn’t have the heart to tell my mom
I hadn’t heard from Chase since the Halloween party.  “No,
I don’t think so.”

           
“Well, why don’t you invite him?”

           
What?
  “But, Mom, I’m sure there are a
hundred other things Chase would rather be doing than hanging out
with me and my friends.”

           
Mom set the bowl down she was beating into and walked over to the
counter.  “Emma, theFranklin brothers are older than you.”

           
“So?”

           
“So, I would feel better about it if you invited Chase along
too.”

           
Holy cow.  Are you kidding me?  How humiliating. 
 “But Mom, there’s not room for Chase anyway. 
Besides, this is Ethan Franklin we’re talking about.  The
best four wheel driver in all of New Mexico.  I’m
perfectly safe with him.”

           
“She’s right, ma’am.”  I was caught off
guard by Ethan’s deep voice behind me.  I whipped my head
around.  He was alone and standing in the doorway.  “I
would never do anything to put your daughter’s life at risk. 
Believe me.  When she’s with me, she’ll always be
perfectly safe.”

           
I turned around to see if Ethan’s charm had worked on my mom. 
I could tell she was appeased, but not willing to give up the fight. 
Ethan walked up next to me ready to offer more help if I needed it. 
Mom looked from Ethan to me and then back again, before she burst
out, “Were you there in Moab, last summer, when Kylie Russell
had her accident that now has her in a wheelchair?”

           
Ethan visibly flinched.  I watched a shadow play over his
features as he lowered his eyes and muttered, “Yes.”

           
“Were you in charge then?  Were you around when she broke
her neck and nearly died?!” my mother spat. 

           
Oh my gosh!
  I had never seen my mom so freaked out
before.

           
“I—”  He glanced at my mom and then over at
me.  I watched his eyes cloud with emotion as he stared right
into mine and answered, “Yes.  I was in charge.” 
He looked over at my mother and firmly answered, “Believe me,
it will
never
happen again.”

My Mom searched Ethan’s proud
face a moment, before stating decisively, “No.  It won’t. 
Emma, you’re not going.”

           
“What?!”

           
“You can stay here and help me with tomorrow’s dinner.”

           
“But I—”  Mom’s look stopped me. 
She was serious.  Dead serious.  And I was mortified. 
Can I just shrivel up and die, please?  Really, any time now
is good.  Why are mothers so embarrassing?

           
To Ethan’s credit he handled it better than I thought he
would—better than I’m sure, my mom thought he would. 
In fact all he did was clear his throat a bit and nod twice before
saying,

           
“O-kay.  That settles that.  I guess I’ll be
off then.  I’ll let you know if we plan things that are
less dangerous.  It was nice meeting you, Mrs. Bradford.”

           
“I’ll walk you to the door,” I offered.  When
we were out of earshot I added, “Thanks for thinking of me,
really.  I would’ve liked to have gone.  Sorry my mom
was so—well, protective.”

           
“Hey, no worries.  Just be grateful she loves you as much
as she does.”

           
I let out a short bark of laughter and rolled my eyes.  “Yeah,
a little too much!  I’m the baby of the family.  I
get babied a lot.”

           
 Ethan looked at me surprised for a moment then said, “Well,
Carson won’t be too happy.  He was looking forward to us
all hitting the hills.  I guess that’s what we get for
planning stuff so last minute…” Ethan trailed off as we
approached the door.

           
“So are we all ready to go?”  Carson’s smile
beamed right at me.

           
“I…”  I looked over toward Ethan. 

He quickly covered for me. “Emma
can’t make it.  She’s promised her mom she’d
help cook Thanksgiving dinner.”

           
Madison and Carson both looked disappointed.  “Really? 
You can’t get out of it?”

           
I smiled weakly.  “I tried.”  I watched a look
of ‘I’ll tell you later’ pass between the brothers
and wished I hadn’t.  “Well, thanks for coming by. 
Maybe we can do something another time?  Do you need my cell
number?”

           
“Ethan, why don’t you put Emma’s digits in your
phone?” Carson asked, and then added, “Hey!  I just
met a real cool guy and his girlfriend.  He’s a senior
this year at Farmington High, but his girlfriend goes to Pedra Vista,
maybe you know him.  Does the name Elton Bloomfield ring a
bell?”

           
Elton Bloomfield?  He has a girlfriend?  What in the
world is Hannah going to think
?  “Yeah, I know him.”

           
“Cool! I was thinking we might all head to the movies one
night—like a whole group of us, while Ethan’s in town. 
What do ya say?”

           
“With Elton?” 
No way. 
“Sure. 
Ethan can text or call me when ya’ll come up with definite
plans.” 
Hopefully they’ll forget all about it
. 

           
After a couple more minutes of dithering with Ethan’s cell
phone, they finally left and I was able to shut the door in peace. 

The peace only lasted a few minutes
before Hannah pounded on the door.

           
“Oh my gosh!  Oh my gosh!  Oh my GOSH!” 
Hannah panicked and paced in the foyer before zooming into the front
room.

           
Dang.
 
She knows about Elton.
  “What? 
What is it?  Did you hear?”

           
She sighed and sat down for a moment before bolting out of her chair
again and walking over to the fireplace. 

           
“Hannah?  Did something happen?”

           
Her hands nervously picked at the porcelain figurine resting on the
mantel.  She turned toward me and gasped. “I saw him!”

           
“E-Elton?”

           
“Elton?” Hannah looked completely baffled.  “No,
not Elton.  I saw Martin.  Just now!”

           
“Oh?” 
O-oh!  Dang it. 
“Where
were you?  Was he rude or something?”

           
She fidgeted with her hands and then ran her fingers through her hair
before she walked up to the couch I was next to.  “No,
no.  He wasn’t rude.  Not at all!  That’s
what I don’t get.  I know he hates me.  Why doesn’t
he just treat me like dirt and get on with it?”  She
slumped down on the sofa and put her head in her hands.

           
Cautiously, I lowered myself into the cushion next to her.  “So
what happened?”

           
Hannah mumbled something I couldn’t quite make out before she
sat back up and looked right at me.  “Okay, here goes.” 
She took a deep breath and began,

           
“So my mom made me take her car and run to the store for her,
because she forgot rolls and cranberry sauce for tomorrow.  So
while I was there, I saw Martin shopping with his mom.  I
totally freaked out you have no idea.  Anyway, I ducked behind a
huge tower of cereal so he wouldn’t see me.  I would’ve
totally taken off, except I panicked and left the stupid shopping
cart in the middle of the aisle—and it had my purse in it. 
So I couldn’t leave it, you know?”

           
I grinned. “No, definitely not.”

           
“Well, Martin walked right up to the cart and noticed my
purse.  Why do I carry yellow purses?  Honestly! 
You’d think I’d learn better!  He must’ve
noticed it was mine, because I saw him looking around the area. 
That’s when he spotted me.  Talk about give me a heart
attack.  I quickly pretended to be considering the cereal I was
hiding behind—but truthfully I can’t even tell you what
brand it was.  Anyway, he walked right up to me.  Oh my
gosh.  I thought I would die.  My head was down—as I
tried to look cool reading the info on the boxes, but when he said,
‘Hi’—so near me—I lost it.  Seriously. I
jerked up and like an idiot I knocked over like half of the
tower—right on the guy, too!  Boxes of cereal went
everywhere and people had to stop their carts and everything to watch
me pick it up.”

           
“Oh no!”

           
“Why does stuff like this happen to me?  Why?!  I
mean, like couldn’t I have just gone into the store and bought
the two things my mom asked me to without acting like a complete
idiot?!”

“So what happened?”

           
“Well, I spent most of the time just picking up as many boxes
as I could and as fast as I could, without causing even more of a
scene.”

           
“No, I mean with Martin?”

           
“Oh, he was the perfect gentleman—like always.  He
stayed and helped me pick them up and then when we were done he acted
like he was going to say something.  But I was so embarrassed my
only thought was to get out of there as soon as possible.  So I
quickly shoved a bunch of the boxes in my cart, said thank you, and
then I hightailed it out of the store.  I drove straight here. 
I had to talk to you!”

           
“Wait.  Did you finish your shopping for your mom?”

           
“No!  With him there, are you kidding?”  Hannah
looked at me like I had grown horns.  “No, I just bought
the cereal.  I figured I’ll wait a few more minutes and
then shop once the coast is clear.”

           
Duh.
  “Well, that makes sense.” 

           
“So tell me something—anything—to make me forget
what a total dork I was just now.”

           
“
Anything?”

“Yeah, I don’t care what
it is, just distract me please.”

  “Well, uh, Elton’s
got a new girlfriend.  And she’s from Pedra Vista High.”

           
“What?!”

Chapter 15

“I hope you know CPR, cuz you
take my breath away!”

           
Okay, so maybe that wasn’t the perfect time to bring up
Elton Bloomfield.  But honestly, desperate times call for
desperate measures.  She needed a distraction, the poor
girl—what else was I supposed to do? 
I’m sure
I could’ve thought of a million other things, but I didn’t. 
As it was Hannah left more in a mess than when she came.  I had
no idea she was still crushing on Elton that hard. 
Sheez,
the guy totally burned her.
  I guess it’s tough when
you’ve liked someone as long as she liked him. 
Good
grief.