After I Fall (12 page)

Clara’s face puckered into a look of distaste. “I think he likes you. He’s putting way too much effort into this to simply want to annoy you.”

I shook my head. I could’ve spouted out a half dozen arguments but I didn’t think anything would change Clara’s mind. She looked pretty determined.

And did it matter?

“Whatever,” I said with a wave of my hand.

To my surprise she was ready to let it drop.

I realized it was because she had other things she wanted to discuss.

“So back to Eric, and last night. You said he knew you were upset so he came over. Why were you upset?” Her teasing had faded away completely and now she simply looked concerned.

I reiterated the conversation Mom and I had.

She bit the corner of her bottom lip, the way she did when she had something to say but wanted to think it over first.

“What?” I asked.

“You do realize that it really
was
a nice gesture.”

I nodded, a slow, hesitant agreement. “My head knows that. I mean, logically I do. But my heart just doesn’t want to agree.”

“Maybe, just maybe, you’re afraid to be grateful to Phillip. Or to let him in at all,” she suggested.

“Afraid?” I echoed.

“Are you worried that it would be an insult to your dad?”

“Yes.” I cringed as soon as the word was out. In the back of my mind, I’d realized that for a while. I just didn’t want to think about it, let alone admit it.

“I don’t want to sound insensitive…but your dad is gone. Phillip and the rest of your family are here. You’ve got your entire future in front of you. Do you really want to spend it hating on Phillip?”

“I don’t
hate
him,” I clarified.

“I think you’re warming up to him,” she said.

I nodded. “I am. He’s really not so bad. After Eric and I talked about it last night, I’ve done some thinking. What Phillip did was nice. It’s not his fault Mom is using it to try to guilt me into something. I’ve been thinking about it, if she wasn’t so pushy, and always trying to manipulate me into liking him, I’d probably be over my Phillip issues by now. But she sits me down, has these talks with me, and they always rub me the wrong way. Like when she told me I should be so very grateful to Phillip for letting me stay in the pool house. But the way I saw it, I would’ve rather stayed with my grandparents. Or when she told me I was going to owe my entire college education to Phillip since my dad hadn’t been able to put any money aside. As if that was Dad’s fault? He was
sick
! It makes me not even want to go to college. She told me I should thank Phillip for getting Eric and I together. Which he didn’t. And now, I’m supposed to be forever grateful because of the car. I just hate how she goes about things!”

Clara nodded thoughtfully after listening to my verbal rampage. “You should tell her that.”

I nodded. “You’re right. I should.”

I just wasn’t sure if I would. Because if I told her, and she didn’t listen, then I’d be upset all over again.

“Look who decided to grace us with her presence today,” Jace said. He was sprawled out on a lounge chair, sipping a soda, surrounded by his usual entourage.

“Don’t have time for you today, Jace,” I cheerily called out. I had made the mistake of walking through the pool area. It was a shortcut to the parking lot. Silly mistake.

“What’s wrong, Em? Did you get tired of slumming it?”

“Excuse me?” I immediately mentally berated myself for letting the words slip out. Jace’s smug smile made it clear he wanted a reason to continue to ramble on.

“You and Eric,” his expression was smug as he slid off the lounge chair. He moved over to me, hovering. “I heard you two are dating.”

I really didn’t know
how
he knew that.

I hadn’t seen Eric at all this week. He’d managed to sneak in a few phone calls. His grounding was almost over. In fact, Lisa and Tim had decided to make a concession and let us get together later today, as long as Eric didn’t leave the house.

Not that any of that was relevant to the conversation at hand. It didn’t explain how Jace knew we were dating. I sure wasn’t going to ask. I decided somebody must’ve seen us out last weekend.

Then again, maybe he didn’t know anything. Maybe he was just guessing.

Either way, it was none of his business.

“Or did slumming it get old? You back with us for good?” Jace asked me with an obnoxious wink.

“Eww!” Madison squealed from beside me.

The sound was so sharp it seemed to make Jace lose his train of thought.

She scrunched up her face in disgust as she looked up at him. “You have a booger in your nose!” she said.

A look of utter confusion settled onto Jace’s face. He took a step back, as if he might become contaminated by her candor.

“You do,” Natalie agreed. Her delicate hand lifted in the air as she pointed at his face. “It’s kind of a big one,” she whispered helpfully.

“Right there,” Madison said, pointing along with our sister.

He looked at me as his face reddened.

I wasn’t about to test their accusation. I assumed from their vantage point, looking up at us, they were probably right.

“What is wrong with those two?” he hissed.

I shrugged and didn’t bother to cover up my giggle. “It’s not their fault you need a tissue.”

His cronies, Mike, Marci, and a handful of other kids who were scattered around began to snicker. Some did it quietly. Others, like Mike, not so much. He hooted in laughter.

Jace’s face was turning red…almost purple. I wasn’t sure if he was embarrassed or just plain mad. I didn’t much care.

“Come on girls,” I said as I put a hand on each of their scrawny little shoulders. I applied some pressure to steer them away. It was no surprise that Madison needed a much bigger push than Natalie.

“That’s just
icky
,” Madison, who always had to have the last word, said over her shoulder while scrunching up her face.

I cringed as the rest of the guys burst into more jeering.

“Let’s get ice cream!” I cheerily suggested. I knew it was possibly the one thing that would quickly and effectively take their little minds off of the current topic of conversation.

“Ice cream!” They both screamed. Their little feet got moving and I had to hustle to keep up.

“I want sprinkles!” Natalie said.

“I want chocolate
and
sprinkles
and
whipped cream,” Madison demanded. “And two cherries on top.”

“You can have
one
scoop of any flavor. No sprinkles, no whipped cream and no cherries. Mom will be mad at all of us if I ruin your lunches.”

Madison’s lips popped out in her obnoxious little pout.

I shrugged. “Or we can have nothing. I’m okay with nothing. I’m good with going straight home. I think Maggie left a veggie tray in the fridge for you. This morning I saw her scrubbing up some radishes and cleaning carrots. There might have been celery,” I said as we reached my car.

“One scoop is good,” Natalie agreed.

Madison growled at me but she didn’t protest so I took that as a win.

I wasn’t about to admit to them that a little more begging on their part and I would’ve caved. As far as I was concerned, the two of them deserved double scoops of ice cream for putting Jace in his place. Not many people had the audacity to do that.

I opened the car door and let the two of them tumble into the backseat.

*   *   *

“I hope this is okay,” Eric said. “I think it’s kind of lame that I can’t leave. But I really wanted to see you.”

“This is perfect,” I told him as I leaned against the kitchen counter. It was Friday afternoon. His weeklong grounding was almost over.

Eric pulled the fridge open. “I’m just going to get some drinks to bring down to the lake with us.”

The front door clicked opened…We both looked at each other with raised eyebrows…Then it clicked closed again.

“Hello?” A woman’s voice called.

“In the kitchen!” Eric called back. He closed the door, the drinks forgotten.

Seconds later a well dressed woman appeared. She had her dark hair pinned back. She wore a lightweight gray pantsuit, dainty pearls in her ears, and a strand around her neck. The smile she wore was brilliant.

“You must be EmLynn,” she said.

“It would be kind of embarrassing if it wasn’t,” Eric muttered with a smile.

“Oh stop,” she said as she lightly smacked his shoulder.

She held her hand out to me and I shook it.

“So, EmLynn, Eric said you just moved here, too?”

“I did, last fall.”

“He said that you met at the country club.”

Eric stood behind her shaking his head, though judging by his expression he wasn’t nearly as irritated as he pretended to be.

“Yes. My little sisters take lessons. I drive them there and I usually stay so I can watch them.”

“How nice!” Her high voltage smile brightened even more. “Do you have any other siblings?”

“Just the twins.”

“I see. So, EmLynn, do you have a last name?”

It was obvious she was going into “parent mode”. I didn’t mind. Too much. I just wished she would’ve steered clear of my family. I supposed that was a bit much to ask.

“Hamilton,” I answered.

Her eyebrows drew together. “Being in the business I’m in, I know a lot of people in town. You’re not Melissa and Jim Hamilton’s daughter are you?”

“No,” I said with a little laugh. “I don’t know them. My dad was the Hamilton. He passed away.”

Her smile instantly faded. She glanced at Eric. “I’m sorry. I didn’t realize.”

“It’s fine,” I assured her. I realized she was still watching me, patiently waiting for me to elaborate. I knew what information she was waiting for. “My mom is Victoria Calhoun. She’s married to Phillip Calhoun.”

I wasn’t prepared for her high voltage smile to flicker back into place.

“Oh, yes! Phillip! I’ve closed a few business deals with him. He’s always a pleasure to work with! He’s such a charming man.”

I nodded and forced a smile. “So I’ve heard.”

She spun around to face Eric. “I suppose you’re wondering why I’m home this time of day.”

“What? You mean it’s not because you wanted to check out the girl I’m dating?” he asked. His teasing tone took out any bite the sarcastic remark might have had.

“He’s such a stinker!” she said to me.

Eric’s expression went blank and the tips of his ears turned pink.

I was pretty sure no one had ever called him a stinker before. I tried not to laugh but a giggle slipped out. Eric sent me a mock-death glare.

“Anyhooo!” she trilled. “I came home to tell you that there’s plenty of pasta salad in the fridge. There’s also some cut up fruit. Croissants are in the cupboard and cold cuts are in the crisper. Help yourself to a picnic if you’d like.”

“That sounds wonderful,” I said.

Eric nodded. I was pretty sure he was thinking the same thing that I was: All of this could’ve been relayed via a phone call.

“Thanks, Lisa.”

“No problem, sweetie.”

“Oh!” I said, “Thank you for the tickets to the play. We had a great time.”

She patted my cheek. “I’m glad to hear it.” Then she glanced at her watch. “Oh, for heaven’s sake! Where did the time go? I have to run! It was nice meeting you, EmLynn,” she called over her shoulder as she headed for the door.

“You too!” I called back.

We waited a moment as she let herself out.

“So, yeah, that was Lisa,” Eric said with a shake of his head.

“I like her!” I said with a grin.

“I know,” he agreed. “She’s just one of those people that’s really hard not to like.” He glanced around the kitchen. “So, what do you want to do? Eat? Swim? Neither of the above? Options are pretty limited since I can’t leave the yard.”

“I don’t mind. I think it’s kind of nice. It was really nice that they cut two days off of your grounding.”

“I guess. That was Tim’s idea. He was the one who came up with the compromise of letting you come over. Probably because I’ve been moping all week,” he said with a smile.

“Have you?” I asked with a laugh.

“I missed you. Haven’t you missed me?” A hint of a playful pout colored his words.

“Oh, absolutely.”

He closed the distance between us and I stepped into his arms. He pressed a quick kiss to my lips then backed up a bit to give me a questioning look.

“Are you sure you don’t mind swimming in the lake? I mean, I saw the pool at your house.”

“I told you I like being at the lake,” I reminded him.

“No, you said you like to fish,” he corrected me. “You said you like to catch them. You never said anything about getting in the water with them.”

“I don’t mind swimming in the lake,” I assured him.

“Let’s go do that now,” he suggested. “Then we’ll come back up here in awhile and I’ll make you lunch.”

I grabbed my beach bag and he grabbed his towel. I followed him through the house to a sliding back door. The lawn was sprawling, edged by a narrow sandy beach, and then the lake beyond.

We traipsed across the grass and dropped our things onto a lawn chair. I glanced over my shoulder to get a look at the house. From here, I realized the backside was almost all windows overlooking the lake. There were decks on both the first and second levels. I had to assume the second level deck had an amazing view of the sunset.

“I really love this house,” I said. “It’s nice, but it’s not too ostentatious. The view of the lake is incredible. I would love to live in a place like this someday.”

I turned to Eric, surprised to see him frowning.

“What’s wrong?”

He shook his head and forced away the frown. “Nothing. But yeah, this is a nice house.”

“What was your house like? Where you lived with your parents?” I asked.

The frown returned and I instantly realized the source of his sour mood.

“You don’t even want to know, trust me.”

“Yes, I do,” I said quietly.

He shook his head. “It was nothing like this. I only ever dreamed about living in a place like this. To be honest, I’m not really looking forward to going back to Piedmont when I turn eighteen.”

“So,” I said, dragging out the word, “don’t go back.”

He shrugged. “Yeah, I guess I wouldn’t have to.”

He glanced at the house again. This time his expression turned to one of…longing, maybe? I wondered how bad the place was where he’d come from. Clearly, he didn’t want to talk about it. I wasn’t sure if the ‘not talking about it’ was a guy thing, or just an Eric thing. I didn’t have enough relationship experience to really know.

With a sharp shake of his head, he pulled himself back to the present.

“It’s a great day for swimming,” he decided.

He quickly peeled off his tee shirt. My eyes traveled down his chest. It was a nice chest…with an even nicer abdomen. It might be a nice day for swimming but suddenly swimming was the last thing on my mind. I found myself wanting to run my hands over him. That thought was new to me. I’d had crushes on boys before. But I’d never been so physically attracted to a guy before.

Eric quirked and eyebrow at me. “Coming?”

I blinked myself out of my stupor. “Yeah. Sure.”

I was suddenly second guessing myself. A skimpy bikini had seemed like a good idea while I was surrounded by the privacy of my bedroom. Now? Now I felt as though it would look like I was trying too hard. Like the girls at the country club. Unless it looked awful on me. Then I’d just look ridiculous.

When I was beside him his eyes scanned over me. “You’re not going to wear that in the water, are you?”