Uninhibited (Unlikely Lovers) (41 page)

Chapter 29

Ned and Todd both yelled, “Whoo hoo!” Janice dropped the green bean casserole, and Emily nearly choked on her own spit.

Alan
turned completely white.

Vivian held out her arms.
“Ho! Ho! Ho!”

Todd was the first to move, racing to give his parents a hug. Emily
was just glad she was standing close enough to Alan to catch him.

She didn’t need to.

He took a death grip on her wrist and whispered, “Who
are
they? The neighbors?”

If there had ever been a time in her life when Emily would’ve liked to deny her parents’ existence, this was it. Unfortunately, with Todd hugging them both as hard as he could, it was fairly obvious who they had to be.

“No,” she replied. “They’re my long lost parents, who are
supposed
to be in Jamaica.”

Alan
made no further comment, merely nodding as he braced his other hand on the edge of the counter, never releasing her wrist. Since no brilliant ideas on how to handle the situation popped into her head, Emily did the only thing she could do, which was to pretend she didn’t know a damn thing.

Her mother,
God bless her, apparently decided to take the same approach.

“We
tried, but we couldn’t stay away on Christmas, so we came home early.” Her eyes darted from Janice to the casserole on the floor, which, thankfully, was still intact. “Looks like we’re just in time for dinner.”

“Hi, Mom.” Janice sounded about as faint as Alan looked. “So glad you could make it.”

Ned took the oven mitts from Janice and picked up the dish. “We were just saying that Christmas wouldn’t be the same without you two. Don’t know what we were thinking to even attempt it.”   

“We felt exactly the same way,” Vivian said. She glanced at Alan. “Why,
Emily, aren’t you going to introduce us to your friend? At least, I’m assuming he’s here with you. He is, isn’t he?”

She smil
ed at Alan so encouragingly, he actually smiled back.

“No, wait
,” she said, coming forward to lean across the island. “I already know you, don’t I?”

Emily’s
heart stood absolutely still.
What a choice of words.

Alan opened his mouth and nothing came out.

“Why, of course, I do,” Vivian went on. “You’re Alan from Farmer’s Foods! I shop there all the time.”

A
barely audible whimper drew Emily’s eyes to Janice, who stood like a statue, holding her breath as though waiting for the bomb to drop. If Alan actually fainted, it would all be over.

Vivian
, however, seemed to be handling the situation as perfectly as anyone could, given the circumstances. “I’ve been trying to get Emily to shop there for ages.” She glanced at Emily. “Now do you see what you’ve been missing?”

Emily shrugged.
“Hey, if you’d told me I was supposed to be checking out Alan instead of the soy milk and organic eggplant, I might have gone there a long time ago. Funny thing is, I didn’t meet him at the store. I met him at Bennie’s ice cream parlor—and he lives right across the hall from Todd.”

“No kidding?”
Her mother’s smile was so ingenuous, Emily almost believed it was real. “What a coincidence Todd and I knew him and you didn’t.”

“I knew
of
him,” Janice remarked. “Just hadn’t met him.”

Ned looked as though he was about to comment when Mandy and Jeremy came dashing in from the living room
—an interruption for which Emily was extremely grateful. The less said about any previous acquaintances with Alan, the better.

Emily
held her breath as her father walked over to Alan and held out his hand. “If you haven’t already guessed, I’m Chuck Stewart, Emily’s father. Pleased to meet you.”

Six-foot-four
with sandy blond hair and a physique that was still in great shape, her father, who’d played tight end for IU, could’ve easily intimidated a far less guilty man than Alan. However, if he’d known anything about Alan’s history, it didn’t show.

Alan, on the other hand, was as pale as a sixteen-year-old
about to take daddy’s little angel out on her first date.

Emily did her best to act normally, but she felt so sorry for Alan
. She wanted to kick herself for letting this happen to him. Her parents were beyond her control, but if he’d at least known ahead of time…

Th
at’s what I get for being such a coward.

The likelihood that Alan would never forgive her was
very real. She couldn’t imagine how hard it was for him to shake her father’s hand.

“What do you say we take this into the dining room?” Ned suggested.

“Yeah, yeah, we all know you’re starving,” Todd muttered. “Here, Alan. Let me get that turkey. I don’t trust Janice with it.”

Jan
ice glared at him but didn’t comment as Todd hefted the roaster and carried it into the dining room. After taking a pan of scalloped potatoes out of the oven, she glanced at Emily before following in Todd’s wake. “The dish for the gravy is there on the counter.”

Emily retrieved the bowl and held it while Alan poured the gravy
. “That was quite a surprise, wasn’t it?”

“I’m not sure who was more surprised, you, me, or Janice.”

“At least you didn’t drop anything,” Emily said.

“Thank God for small favors. Wouldn’t want to make a rotten first impression on your parents.”

“Only on Dad, you mean. Mom already seems to know you, whether you remember her or not.”

“Oh, I remember her, all right
.” Drawing in a deep breath, he set down the saucepan and glanced toward the dining room where the others were already gathering around the table. “I never made the connection between the two of you, though, what with your last names being different. Remember that sweet woman I told you about? The last one I was with before I swore off sex?”

Emily couldn’t believe it. He was actually going to
tell her the truth. “Yeah…”

“
Her name is Vivian Stewart.” He raked a hand through his hair. “I’m so sorry, Em. I hate to ruin Christmas for you, but I figured I’d better tell you before you found out the hard way.”

Alan
obviously had more courage than she did. She felt like an absolute worm.

“I’ve never told anyone else,
” he went on. “And if she were anyone but your mother, I wouldn’t have told you now.” His lips thinned into a grim smile. “It’s no use keeping secrets like that. People always find out eventually.” Cocking his head to the side, he studied her face for a moment. “You don’t seem surprised.”

“I wish I were
. Janice—”

“
She knows too? Shit. No wonder she dropped the beans.”

“
Actually, Mom told her about it a long time ago. Janice only told me yesterday. Honest to God, Alan, I was going to tell you tomorrow. I just wanted us to get through Christmas Day before…” She broke off on a sob.

“Before what?”

“Before you told me you never wanted to see me again.”

“I
would’ve thought you’d be the one to tell
me
that.”

She shook her head. “No way. Basically, I told Janice to go suck an egg
when she suggested it. Mom is obviously going to pretend it never happened, and we probably should too. I don’t see any reason to give you up. Your past is just that. Your
past
. I can’t say I didn’t know you had one. You’ve been honest with me from the very beginning, and I know the only reason you didn’t tell me Mom’s name was to protect her. If she’d been anyone else, you wouldn’t have
needed
to tell me. I only wish I’d told you what I knew sooner. I’m so sorry it happened like this.”

“It isn’t your fault, Em.
You couldn’t have predicted they would show up tonight.”

“
I dunno about that,” Emily said. “Mom’s pretty gung ho when it comes to Christmas—although this may have been her way of getting someone else to fix the dinner.”

Alan leaned down and pressed a kiss
to her cheek. “I’ll be happy to bake the turkey next year. And I’ll take care of the dishes tonight.” Taking her in his arms, he held her so close, she could hear his heart beating. “I love you, Em. We can get through this. I know we can. We have to.”

Since those words echoed her own thoughts, she didn’t argue.

* * * *

“So, what’s new at the store?”
Vivian asked as Alan and Emily took their seats at the table. “Any good sales coming up?”

“Probably.” Alan
was still a little shaken. Chatting with Vivian like nothing ever happened was weird, especially with her husband sitting next to her. “I’m having the place painted, so we need to make some room. We hadn’t planned on it, but a guy came in the store a few days ago looking for work. He’s been living at the homeless shelter, doing odd jobs around town. He’s trying to get his life back together—mainly because he’s fallen for one of the women who works at the shelter.”

“
You’ve got to be kidding me!” Janice exclaimed. “I bet that’s the guy Carol’s been telling me about. She’s absolutely crazy about him.”

Alan felt like
yet another bomb was about to go off. “Carol?”

“Yeah, your ex-girlfriend,” Janice
replied with a smirk. “In love with a homeless painter. Strange that you’d be the one to help him out.”

Alan shrugged.
“He didn’t mention her by name, but I probably should’ve guessed it.”

“Not that it
really matters, but why would he ask
you
for work anyway?” Janice asked.

“He said
some lady gave him money and an umbrella a couple weeks ago and told him to eat something healthy, so I guess that’s why he came into our store. He was spending the last of the money she gave him, and it was Christmas Eve.” He shrugged again. “I couldn’t very well say no, could I?”

Smiling, Emily squeezed his hand. “Of course, you couldn’t, you old softie.”

“Well, what do you know?” Mom commented brightly. “Another happy coincidence.”

“Yes, but it’s even stranger than you think,”
Emily said. “I’m the one who gave him the umbrella.”

“Guess that means you’re a
n old softie too, huh?” Alan raised her hand to his lips. “I knew we had something in common.”

“Don’t forget chocolate. We both love that.”

“Then you’re gonna love the chocolate cheesecake I made for dessert,” Janice said. “It’s the same as what they make in that awesome deli in Indianapolis.”

“Sure you didn’t just buy it from there?” Todd teased.

“No, I didn’t. Got the recipe out of a magazine and made it myself,” Janice said with a sniff. “Better save room for it, bro. You’ll need it.”

Alan
winked at Emily. “We have better things than chocolate in common, don’t we?”

“You betcha.”

“If everyone will bow their heads,” Chuck said. “I’ll say grace and we can get this dinner started.”

“Amen to that.” Jeremy sighed. “I’ve been smelling that turkey all day. I’m starving!”

* * * *

Alan was washing the roasting pan when Chuck came into the kitchen with a stack of plates. “Where do you want them?”

“Over there,” Alan replied, nodding toward the dishwasher.

Chuck set the plates on the counter, then leaned against it. Alan could feel the older man’s eyes scanning him in a way that made the hair stand up on his nape.

“How long have you known Emily?”

Considering
all the questions Chuck could’ve asked, this one wasn’t too bad. “About three weeks.”

“Getting along pretty well so far?”

Alan couldn’t help smiling. “Yeah.
Very
well.”

“Think you’ll stay together?”

“I hope so. I certainly don’t plan to call it off.”

Chuck nodded then glanced toward the door before returning his gaze to Alan. “I’ve wanted to shake your hand for a long time.”

Alan had no idea what to say. Did Chuck simply want to meet the man who could make his daughter happy, or was there more to it than that? “How so?”

“
There was a time when I wanted to break you in half, but I’m over that now.”

Oh, shit…

“And for Emily’s sake, I won’t do what most men in my position would be tempted to do—or say.” 

Chuck stared at a spot somewhere in the space between them, as though reluctant to look Alan in the eyes. “Sometimes a man forgets that if he doesn’t take c
are of his wife’s needs, she has the option of finding someone else who will. All I’m going to ask of you is that you make sure Emily never has to go looking.” His gaze shifted upward to lock with Alan’s. “Like her mother did.”