Chapter 29

 I was only a couple of steps in the house before a girl had her arms around my neck. Trying not to be rude, I put my hands around her waist. An awkward bump was between us. From the way that Jimmy was laughing, I could tell that I must have looked shocked. How else was I supposed to act?

When the girl pulled away from me, I could see that she had short auburn curls that ended at her shoulders. Her thin lips were spread into a gigantic smile. Her torso was swollen, and it was easy to tell she was pregnant. Seven months was my guess.

She tucked a piece of my hair behind my ear. Her touch was soft, and I could not stop myself from smiling. It had been so long since I had seen another feminine face.

“You’re so beautiful,” she said.

“Emmie, get back here,” a male voice said while snapping his fingers.

She turned around and went back to him; almost hiding behind his shoulder.

This must be Taylor. It was easy to see the resemblance between him and Jimmy. The main difference was that his hair was shorter and he had freckles splattered across his face. Jimmy pushed me in front of him and laced his fingers through mine.

“She’s right,” Taylor said. “You got a pretty one.”

“I know,” Jimmy said, kissing the top of my head. “I’m lucky.”

“Welcome to the family, Juliet,” Taylor said.

“Thank you,” I said.

Jimmy and Taylor both went out to the truck to get our bags. Emme went into the kitchen, so I followed her.

“Would you like something to drink?” she asked.

“No, thank you,” I said.

She opened the fridge and pulled out a large blue plastic water bottle. It was only a quarter full. She unscrewed the cap and took a drink.

“Taylor makes me drink a couple of these a day,” she said. “He told me that it makes the baby healthy. It makes it a boy.”

She ran her hand down her belly, and I bit down on my lip. What if it was a girl? Or worse, what if she died giving birth?

I tried to shake these thoughts from my head. I had to believe that it was a healthy boy or I would never be able to look at Emme again.

Jimmy and Taylor came back inside, and Jimmy had our bag over his shoulder. They walked by us and up the stairs. I stayed in the kitchen because Jimmy did not tell me where to go. They came back down the stairs and went into another room. Emme was leaning against the kitchen counter, so I did the same thing.

“How old are you, Juliet?” Emme asked.

She asked me a question. Girls must be able to ask other girls questions. Jimmy never told me that, so maybe she is just doing it because the boys can’t hear us. I could hear their murmured voices in the next room. This was the second time today I could ask questions.

“I’m almost twenty,” I said. “And you can call me Julie.”

“Well, Julie,” she said like she was exercising the new word on her tongue. “I’m twenty, so we don’t have an age difference.”

“Yeah, I guess.”

“My sister, Gabe’s wife Lindsay, is seven years older than me. It’s nice to have another girl my age here.”

I noticed that there was something weird about her nose. It would wiggle, almost representing a bunny rabbit. I had to control myself so that I did not copy her. I would not want to insult her.

“Do you ever get lonely during the day?” she asked. “I find that the day seems to drag on and on. I tend to talk to myself until Taylor comes inside. I love the days when we go to Noah’s.”

“Yes,” I said. “It does tend to get a little annoying.”

“Well, it’s what? Less than two years until Tommy gets his girl? Just be happy that they were born close together. I could not imagine how long the days must have been for Lindsay. She at least had Jenny though. You’ll love both of them. They’re like a mother and sister that I never had.”

I smiled. I had not put much thought into what it would be like when Tommy got his wife. It would be nice to have somebody in the house during the day with me, but would I have to mentor her in some way?

I was already sorry for Tommy’s girl. She would be protected from the outside world, but she would be stuck with Tommy. I cringed to think of the way he touched me, and what he may do to his girl.

Jimmy and Taylor came back into the kitchen. Jimmy put his arm around my waist, and Taylor put his hand on Emme’s shoulder. She gulped down the rest of the water.

“Is dinner ready yet?” Taylor asked.

“It’ll be done in a couple of minutes,” she said. “I’m sorry. I wasn’t sure when they’d be here, so I did not know when to put it in the oven.”

“Okay. Jimmy and I will be outside for a bit.”

“I’ll try to keep it warm.”

Taylor leaned in and kissed her. Jimmy kissed my cheek and patted my hip before letting me go.

Emme opened up the oven to check on the food inside. She cradled her belly as she bent down to see. It must be difficult to do all of this work at that size.

“Can I help you with anything?” I asked.

“The plates are in that cupboard over there and the cutlery is in the drawer, if you want,” she said. “It’s always nice to have a bit of help. Noah and Jenny come over a lot for dinner. I always love having another girl’s help in the kitchen.”

“Yeah, that must be nice,” I said as I took the plates out of the cupboard.

I walked over to the dining room and began placing the plates down around the table. The only thing separating the two rooms was a counter and a glass cupboard full of mugs. Emme leaned forward, with her elbows on the counter, so that she could see me as she spoke.

“It sucks that you don’t have Marilyn,” she said. “You’re alone in the house all day.”

“Marilyn?” I asked, setting down the last plate.

“Yeah, Charles’ wife,” she said. “I guess they don’t talk about her too much. People deal with that kind of thing differently, you know?”

“Yeah.”

I walked back into the kitchen and went to the drawer that she had pointed to earlier. I pulled out a handful of knives and forks and brought them over to the table.

“What did you do before you got here?” she asked. “And I don’t mean like the car ride over. I mean before Charles brought you home.”

I did not know what I was supposed to say to Emme. Jimmy never told me what to say. I did not want to start saying a bunch of stuff that he was trying to hide. I did not want him to be embarrassed by me.

“Don’t be afraid,” Emme said. It was like she was reading my mind. “This is just girl talk. I won’t tell Taylor any of it. You can’t tell Jimmy either though.”

“Sounds good.” I looked up to flash her a smile. “I was a stripper.”

“Really?” she asked. “I can’t see you as one. You seem so shy. Well, so shy to me, but that does not mean too much. People think that I talk too much, but I don’t think so. I wasn’t always this way though.”

“Why are you now?” I asked.

I looked over at Emme to see her twirling one of her curls around her finger. She shrugged her shoulders.

“People would say that I fried my brain,” she said, “but I don’t believe so.”

“Fried it?” I arched an eyebrow. “What? Were you sitting in the sun too long?”

She started to laugh and I giggled along with her.

“It’s a brain, not an egg,” she said. “I used to like to go out and have a lot of fun. I drank quite a bit, but that is not what they were talking about. I was taking every drug that I could get my hand on. I mostly did LSD, and that is what destroyed me. My parents even forced me to go to the hospital when they heard me talking to the voices.”

“The voices?” I asked her, not trying to sound too shocked.

“You’ve never heard any?” she asked. “They forced me into the hospital and wanted to lock me away forever. When I got released, I ran away from my parents. A couple of days later Noah found me and brought me into the family. Taylor cares for me and does not care about the voices. Now, that is what love is.”

The door opened, and Emme stepped back to pull the roast out of the oven. I finished putting the cutlery on the table.

They sat down and we began to eat.