The Boxer: A Stepbrother Romance (4 page)

Chapter Four

              That had been the most unpleasant plane ride Emery had ever had. There wasn’t a single crying baby on board, although she had seen several. No, it was the man she had been seated next to. He didn’t smell or anything, in fact he was actually kind of attractive to Emery. The strange man hadn’t said his name the entire hour and a half plane trip there. He spoke the entire time, yet even still it wasn’t that that bothered her. Emery was a people person, within reason, and liked to hear about other people’s lives. It was what the guy had talked about the whole time; percentages of crashes, chances of lightning strikes to their plane and soap. At first he had just come off as creepy but throughout the one-way conversation with the man Emery had grown a sense that the man was mentally unstable and it made her somewhat fearful to tell the man she’d like some peace.

              “I’ll never complain about a crying baby again.” Emery thought to herself as she walked through the airport.

              One thing that bothered Emery while the guy was talking was that he kept saying ‘
chances
’ repeatedly and it kept reminding her of Vegas. Emery headed into the parking lot and went to wave down a cab but saw her father. Through wide eyes and a happy heart, she started running towards her dad, pulling her luggage behind her as she went.

              “Dad!” Emery said before she dropped her luggage and hugged him tightly, “Oh, I missed you! How are you?”

              “I’m great dear, how are you?” Her father said as he looked down at her luggage and slowly started trying to kneel down and pick it up for her.

              “I’ve got that dad.” Emery said, bending down and picking up the handle to her luggage quicker than her father had even bent his knees to ninety degrees, “So, a new wife huh?”

              “I know what you’re thinking hun and no, she’s not a bitch.” He replied with a chuckle as he led her to his car.

              “Wow, you still have this old thing?” Emery said as she opened the back door and tossed her luggage in.

              “Ha, I’m older than this Caddy, so if it’s old what am I?” He replied with a grin as he started up the same Cadillac he drove when Emery was born. She remembered being taken to school in it and being taught how to drive with it as well, “I love this thing. I’ve put so much blood, sweat and money into this beauty.”

              “Men and their cars.” Emery said, shaking her head to the sides as she smiled; her dad drove off and turned on the radio lowly like he always had, just enough to have background noise but not loud enough to block out talking, “And you’re still listening to that same radio station. You should listen to some new music dad.”

              “This crap that they play nowadays isn’t music.” He chuckled, “Screechy noises and screaming. Where are the melodies?”

              “Touché dad.” Emery said, her eyebrows raising a little as she realized he was right, or at least to both of them but their tastes in music were nearly identical but she listened to newer music than what was called
classics
to her, “So, you got married? Huh?”

              “Yeah, her name is Beverly Fowler. She’s great. She’s my age and has her own career even so don’t think she’s after my money because she has much more than I have.” Roger, Emery’s father, said as they drove down the road. Emery looked around, feeling like they were going down memory lane, “Her son’s got a steady career too. He should be showing up soon too, but his flight got delayed.”

              “So you’ve got a new
family?
” Emery said in a joking tone but was semi serious.

              “Oh, hun don’t think like that.” Roger said, glancing over at his daughter as he drove but quickly looked back at the road, “It’s not like that. That’s what this get together is all about.”

              “I know, I was just kidding dad.” Emery said with a smile on her face, poking him in his side, “Have you met her son?”

              “Yeah, he’s a nice guy. He’s got a good head on his shoulders but honestly he drinks a bit too much for my liking.” Roger said as he pulled onto the road they lived on. Emery looked out at all her old friends’ houses and wondered who lived in them now or if some of her old friends still lived there, “He’s got a weird name but I can’t remember it for the life of me.”

              “Nothing’s worth your life, daddy.” Emery said, looking over at him with a twinkle in her eyes, “We’ll figure it out when he shows up.”

              “That’s a good plan.” Roger replied as he pulled into his driveway, “He’s a good guy though, I know that but Bev says that he’s been acting weird.”

              “I really don’t know what to say. I don’t know the guy, so what
can
I say? I hope he gets better?” Emery replied in a joking tone as they got out of the car. It was actually her getting rid of the anxiety in her that skyrocketed when she realized she was only feet away from meeting her new mother, “Ugh… Whew… Here we go.”

              “Don’t be nervous dear, she doesn’t bite.” Roger said, leading the way into the house Emery had grown up in. It felt strange to Emery with another woman living with his father there but again she remembered that her mother wouldn’t want him to be lonely, “She’s a great cook too.”

              “That comes in handy since it’ll be Thanksgiving tomorrow.” Emery said as they got to the door; she took a deep breath in as they walked inside.

              “Hello.” The older woman said as they walked in. Emery instantly scanned her to see how fake she was but found that she was pretty, had a sincere smile on her face and the look in her eyes, the thing that nearly always told the truth, was happy, “It’s nice to meet you. I’m Beverly.”

              “I’m Emery.” She replied with an uncontrollable smile; she didn’t know why but she liked the woman and already felt relieved about the situation, “It’s good to finally meet you too. I’m glad you make my dad happy.”

              “He makes me happy too.” Beverly said with a smile. Beverly gave off just such an innocent vibe to Emery and made her feel happy that the woman might really just be a good person, “My son will be here in a few hours. His flight got delayed
again
.”

              “I hope he’s here by tomorrow.” Roger said before he lead them all into the living room and sat on his couch.

              “I’m surprised he’s not in a fight.” Beverly said, looking up at Roger. Emery’s face scowled a little as she wondered what she meant and envisioned some punk guy fighting in the alleyways but Beverly looked over at her and Emery’s face brightened back up, but this time it was half-forced, “My son’s a boxer. He
had
been engaged and was supposed to get married soon but he called it off. I really don’t know what’s gotten into that boy. His ex-fiancé was pretty well-off.”

              “Maybe he’s taken a few too many shots to the head.” Roger suggested, getting smacked playfully in his chest by Beverly and then by Emery.

              “Dad!” Emery said with a smile.

              “I’m being serious though. Boxers get head injuries, it’s a known fact. I worry about the boy.” Roger said, looking over at both the women in his life with a serious look, “I didn’t mean to make it a serious moment. Let me just lighten the mood…”

              Roger turned on the television in an attempt to divert the awkwardness he felt but boxing was on. He clinched his teeth together but hid it as he tried to appear nonchalant as he checked the guide for something else to watch. Beverly looked over at Roger with a half-smile on her face and looked back at the TV before saying anything.

              “You usually love watching boxing.” Beverly said, teasing Roger a little bit. Emery laughed, somewhat joining the bandwagon before Beverly poked Roger in his side playfully, “I’m just kidding honey, but that was pretty funny, you’ve gotta admit that.”

              “It
did
add that extra little effect dad.” Emery said with a chuckle, “That’s what made me laugh anyway.”

              “I’ve gotta get back to cooking anyway. I’ve got a feast in mind for tomorrow.” Beverly said, getting up from the couch and heading for the kitchen.

              “I’ll help.” Emery said, hopping up and walking up to Beverly before she made it to the kitchen, “It’ll be fun.”

              Emery spent the time with Beverly half to get to know her and half to see how well she really could cook. She was surprised to find that Beverly was actually quite a decent cook, she had
talent
. Emery smiled as they cooked together, feeling like she wasn’t teaching some undercook but working side by side with another chef. Emery didn’t feel a bit like Beverly was intruding and actually started feeling happy to have a maternal figure around again. She had missed her mother and knew that nobody could ever replace her but Beverly seemed like she was a great mother anyway.

              As it got later into the night they stopped cooking so they could relax and spend some time watching television with Roger before they all went to bed. They watched Dr. Who on Netflix where Roger and Beverly had apparently left off. She felt her nerdy excitement for the show shoot up and she smiled, loving watching it with her father again. She noticed that Beverly was sitting at the edge of her seat just like her and chuckled; she was a fan too.

              “Do you still have your Sonic Screwdriver?” Roger asked, looking over at Emery.

              “Yeah; I still have the original batteries too. Sometimes I think it’s not a replica.” Emery said jokingly as she dug it out of her purse. She pulled it out and tapped the button a few times on it, lighting it up and making it sound before she handed it to Beverly, “Wanna play around with it?”

              “No, it’ll make me want one.” Beverly said looking at the Sonic Screwdriver with a chuckle.

              “It wasn’t cheap if I recall. I bought the thing.” Roger said with a laugh, “Wasn’t it like a hundred or two?”

              “Yeah.” Emery said, looking down at the Sonic Screwdriver replica and smiled, filled with joy that her father had spent so much money on her so long ago when they barely had any, “I still love it as much as I did when you got it for me.”

              “Aww, well that’s one of the many reasons I married him.” Beverly said with a smile on her face before she leaned over. Beverly and Roger kissed and smiled and it made Emery smile seeing her dad and Beverly happy, “Such a nice and thoughtful man.”

              “The show’s on.” Roger replied, unable to show his emotions as he was raised in a time where men didn’t show emotion, but both Beverly and Emery knew he meant to say, “I love you too.”

Chapter Five

              They had watched Dr. Who for a couple of hours, longer than expected before they went to bed. As soon as Emery’s head hit her old pillow she was asleep. She couldn’t believe that her dad hadn’t changed a thing about her room and had even kept it clean. She expected it would be some sort of man cave when she came back. She dreamt about being on the beach in a bikini just working on her tan and drinking Captain and Cokes with no worries. In her dream she was a billionaire and had no money worries, working on her tan was what she did.

              A loud banging sound awakened her from her pleasant dream and Emery listened for a moment but heard that old sound of the front door smacking closed. She chuckled, having missed that even though it had been so annoying to her growing up. She drifted back off to sleep but this time she dreamt of a boxing match. The boxers wearing their normal boxing gear but as one boxer punched at another the second boxer was suddenly wearing a black tuxedo and was aiming a Sonic Screwdriver at the boxer. The man in a tuxedo shot a beam out of the Sonic Screwdriver, starting to cut through the ground around the boxer’s feet somehow without cutting the boxers legs off. The boxer punched and everything went white, but as it faded back into colors she could smell a sweet smell. It lulled her into a dream of sitting in a nice kitchen and across the table sat the Doctor. He took a sip of what appeared to be tea, explaining the smell.

              “Doctor?” Emery heard herself ask, but also heard her voice echo.

              “Wake up, my dear.” He replied.

              Emery opened her eyes and could smell coffee brewing and sighed. She had just missed out on tea time with the Doctor. She sat up and grabbed her robe off of her dresser as she headed for the door. She wrapped it around herself and headed downstairs, thinking her father was probably already awake by that time. She hadn’t looked at the clock and headed downstairs, figuring she would just check the clock in the kitchen. Emery walked into the kitchen and screamed. Chance was there.

              “What are you doing here?!
How
are you here?!” Emery yelled in a whispered tone of voice.

              “Oh shit, it's you! We’ve gotta talk.” He said but they both shut up as they heard footsteps quickly coming down the steps.

              “What’s going on?” Roger asked, walking into the kitchen and right passed Chance as he looked for some intruder before he turned back around and walked back into the kitchen.

              “He just startled me was all. I take it this is the son I never got the name of?” Emery said, realizing she had forgotten to ask Beverly what her son's name was the night before.  She gave Chance a look that told him to play along with it.

              “My name’s Chance Fowler. It’s good to meet you. I didn’t mean to startle you.” He replied, extending his hand as if it were the first time they’d met. Emery awkwardly shook his hand, trying her best to act like she didn’t know him and felt like she was doing a good job but still feared they would find out about Vegas.

              “What time did you get in dear?” Beverly asked as she sat down at the kitchen table across from Chance.

              “Oh, like three in the morning. I hope I didn’t wake anybody up. I didn’t know that door slammed shut.” Chance said, glancing over at the front door before he looked back at his mom, then everyone else. As he looked at Emery her stomach tightened up and she looked away, faking like she was trying to find something for breakfast even though she wasn’t hungry anymore, “Looking for something?”

              “Uhh…” Emery replied, trying to think up a reason why she was just going through the cabinets now, “Where are the coffee mugs again dad?”

              “They’re over here hun.” Roger said, opening up a cupboard across the room, “How could you forget that? They’ve been put in this cupboard for forty years. Years before you were even thought of.”

              “Haven’t had my cup of coffee this morning yet.” Emery replied as her reason for acting strangely. She walked over and grabbed a coffee cup her father was holding out for her and poured herself a straight black cup of coffee, “I remember when I used to tell you that this stuff was bad for you because it smelled gross.”

              “Yeah, and now you love that smell don’t you?” Roger said with a chuckle before he took a drink of his own coffee, “Well, I’m gonna go back upstairs, watch some TV and rest in bed for another couple of hours.”

              “Alright dad, see ya later. You two youngin’s be good.” Emery said with a grin, making Beverly laugh as she headed off with Roger. Emery waited until their footsteps reached the top of the stairs to start whispering again, “What the fuck?!”

              “Yeah, this isn’t good.” Chance said before he took a drink of water; he sighed and dug something out from his pocket, revealing a marriage certificate, “We uh…”

              “No…” Emery said, her eyes widening as she realized where Chance was going with it, “No, no, no, no,
no!!
”

             
What the actual fuck did we do that night? I remember the bar and later that night, but there is some fuzziness to what happened between the bar and the hotel room.

              “Yeah; we’ve gotta do something about this and we gotta keep it on the down low…” Chance said, shaking his head to the side for a moment before he grinned a little, “It
was
a great night though.”

              “I can’t be married to my dad’s stepson.” Emery said in a whispered tone as she sat back in her chair, feeling the stress winding her right up. She took a drink of her coffee and sighed, using a breathing technique she knew that helped calm her down, “We have to go get it annulled and we’ve gotta do it like
now
. Is that why you called off your engagement? Your mom said you had called it off just before you got married.”

              “Well yeah, it is. You can’t get married twice. I went in to get our marriage certificate and found out that I was already married, to
you
.” Chance said, thinking about that night in Vegas. He couldn’t believe the odds that he had had sex with who would become his stepsister, “Look, we’ll just keep acting like we just met, but
you’ve
gotta stop acting so nervous.”

              “
You
didn’t help.” Emery asked, “I didn’t know what I was doing at the cabinets and you put me in the spotlight.”

              “I didn’t know; this
is
your childhood home.” Chance replied, “But already being married to you wasn’t really the reason why I called off my marriage to Lizbeth… That night…”

              “Enough Chance.” Emery said with a glare, “It didn’t happen.”

              “No, it
did
and… it made me realize that I didn’t love her.” Chance said, looking over at Emery with hungry soulful eyes.

              “Look, Chance, it was a wild night and it was a lot of fun but we
can’t
do this. It doesn’t matter how we feel our parents are together. We’re step siblings.” Emery said, shaking her head as she thought about how messed up of a situation she was in from the one time she allowed herself to have a one-night stand, what luck, “We just need to focus on dealing with being in the same family together. We’re going to have to get along and act like nothing happened. You’re going to have to suppress your real feelings for me. I don’t believe that you really love me either. I think that you want that mysterious girl you met at the bar that night and that’s not me. I mean, I wasn’t lying about anything but still. We can’t do this.”

              Emery stormed out of the kitchen, panicking as she tried to think up what to do to get out of the situation she was in. She walked up to her room and shut her door behind her, not wanting even her dad to follow her in there. She paced back and forth, still trying to figure out what to do. She knew they needed to get it annulled or get a divorce since they might be too late for an annulment. She sighed again and felt herself wanting a drink but shook it off by focusing on getting dressed and keeping her mind thinking about the Thanksgiving dinner her and Beverly still hadn’t completely set up yet.

              “What the Hell…” Emery thought feeling like she was going to have to go into bitch mode to try to ward Chance off and sighed, “I don’t want to do that to him…”

              Later on at dinner they were all sitting around the table. There was a massive feast prepared for the four of them and Emery didn’t think they’d be able to eat it all even over the weekend. There was delicious mashed potatoes, deviled eggs, sliced ham, cottage cheese, bread buns, a veggie platter and of course the turkey. There was several other things scattered all over the table and Emery knew what everything was. They had made so many different kinds of food just for the main course and had various kinds of pies ready for dessert.

              “Let’s go around the table now and say what we’re thankful for.” Beverly said with a smile on her face and looked at Roger, “I’ll start. I’m thankful that Roger came into my life and filled it with joy. He’s the nicest man I’ve ever met and I couldn’t be happier.”

              “Thank you my love.” Roger replied, giving Beverly a kiss after her cute little speech, “I’m thankful of course for my new wife, but not just her, but for getting to see my daughter again for the first time in quite a while. I can’t leave Chance out; He’s the son I never had if I can just get his name right, haha. I’m thankful for you all and thankful you all spent the time here this weekend.”

              “I’m thankful for good memories.” Chance said, looking
right
at Emery. She diverted her eyes to her plate and then started putting other things on there just to do something.

              “Emery, you’re next hun.” Roger said, getting her attention.

              “Uh…” Emery said, stammering for a moment.

              “Why are you so nervous?” Roger asked, tilting his head to the side a bit as he asked.

              “You look pretty nervous. You cheeks are getting red dear. Are you warm?” Beverly asked. Emery was glad she had mistaken her blushing for getting too warm.

              “No, I’m thinking about the restaurant.” Emery bluffed, cleverly coming up with a new realistic topic, “I just got a promotion to chef and I run the whole store now. It’s a bit more stressful than I thought it would be.”

              “Well you cooked stupendously hun, I believe in you.” Beverly said with a warming smile on her face, “I saw you cook and if you can teach people to cook half as good as you did today and yesterday then you’ll be making some decent chefs on your own. Do you even realize how good you are at cooking?”

              “Well, I don’t like to think I’m too
good.” Emery replied, feeling a bit embarrassed but thankful for the compliment. Emery happened to glance over at Chance and he was just eating his meal, attempting to seem casual but there was something sad about him yet Emery looked back at Beverly, holding the smile on her face to make things look normal, “Thanks Beverly. That means a lot to hear that I’m a great cook.”

              “You’re a great chef my dear.” Beverly said, “You’re being modest, and that’s not a bad thing, but you also seem unaware of your
real
talent from your modesty.”

              “Thank you.” Emery said with a huge smile on her face, “I’ve got a huge review coming up from Theo McDowell.”

              “Oh, he’s a toughy and likes to intimidate people with his reputation but he’s actually a nice guy. He’ll put on a tough guy act but just be sweet with him and don’t be afraid, that’s his weakness. Kinda like protective dad’s always feel the safest letting their kid go off with someone that doesn’t back down? He’s just like that, but food's his baby.”

              “Ha!” Emery laughed, envisioning a military general all tough swaddling a well-done steak with a side of minced potatoes on a plate like it was his baby, “Thanks again Beverly, this is a make it or break it moment for me.”