Dive Into You

by Chris Keniston

  On a heavy sigh, Angela pointed at the eggs, and then her eyes popped open like Betty Boop. “He isn’t the…?”

  Emily swallowed hard. She hadn’t wanted to share that Doug was the new man in her life. Or at least she hoped he was. But maybe now was exactly the time. “Yes, he is. Do you want extra cheese?”

  “I think I’d better sit down.” Having dropped in the nearest chair, Angela stared at Doug for a long minute, and then slowly a grin tipped up one side of her mouth followed by the other. “You do have good taste.”

  “I think so.”

  The food doled out, everyone ate and chatted and laughed. Angela’s face grew green every time Emily mentioned how high they’d flown and how scared she was at every step.

  “She did great. Trust me. She didn’t even use her puke bag,” Doug announced with the same pride one would expect if she’d cured cancer.

  “Puke bag?” Angela frowned.

  Doug shrugged. “Some people get airsick.”

  “I am so glad you didn’t tell me that.” Emily picked up Doug’s and Tim’s empty plates. “Would you like some more?”

  “Stuffed, thank you.” Doug patted his stomach.

  Tim shook his head. “No thanks.”

  Jennie smiled sweetly at Tim, then sprang up and grabbed more dishes. When Angela’s phone rang, the helpful teen slipped her arm into the straps of the correct purse and handed Angela the blaring handbag.

  “Hey, handsome.” With her hand over her ear, Angela pushed away from the table and moved to the middle of the living room. From a distance Emily noticed Angela’s face go pale; she nodded and then swiped at her phone, slipping it into a pocket.

  “Something wrong?” Emily asked.

  “That depends on your point of view.”

  “Huh?”

  “Your brother wanted to know where I was. His dive is done, and he’s hungry. He’s also on his way here.” Angela took in a deep breath and blew it out softly. “Well, if you’ll excuse me, as my grandmother used to say, I need to see a man about a horse.”

  Tim and Jennie frowned and turned to Emily.

  “She means she’s going to use the ladies’ room.”

  “Oh.” The two kids nodded.

  “She’s from Wyoming,” Emily explained further. Not that it mattered—her grandmother used to say the same thing, and she was from Hilo.

  When Angela returned to the table, Jennie—with her chin held high amid spurts of giggles—announced her visit to see a man about a horse. Followed by Tim sans the giggles.

  “We may have to expand the stables,” Doug joked.

  A few minutes later the only person who hadn’t visited the stables was Doug, and the kids thought it was great fun to tease him about what great horses Emily had. By the time Billy rang the doorbell, the kids, spouting dumb horse jokes, were crying with laughter, and Angela was happily following along.

  Emily took a step toward the door, and Doug snatched at her hand, giving it a quick squeeze, before rejoining the laughing crew in the living room. What she didn’t know was what exactly the hand-holding thing meant. Was he telling her not to worry, no big deal? Was it his way of saying it’s time to let Billy in on them? And, if so, what exactly were they? Because if she hadn’t known before today that Doug was the man she needed in her life, not just for today but for always, she was damn sure of it now.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Doug may have been joking and laughing with the kids, but he kept a close eye on Emily. When he’d grabbed hold of her hand, he’d almost offered to open the door together. Wanted to throw the thing open wide and shout to Billy that his sister was amazing. But that small voice that always kept him tethered to reality spoke up before he had time to say or do something stupid.

  His buddy, and now boss, came through the door like he owned the place. Of course a man of Billy’s size and background usually did. Back in the navy the chiefs pretty much ran the joint. As was the norm, Billy had scooped up his fiancée and either squeezed the stuffing out of her or planted a lip-smacking kiss on her. Whoever was watching be damned. That was one thing Doug really liked. Finding his friends really happy after the crappy hand life had dealt them. He still remembered how broken up Nick had been when his high school sweetheart had turned him down. The Nick he’d once known had withered away that day, replaced by a shadow of who he’d been. Until now. Finding the happy and carefree Nick of long ago enjoying his world again, Doug could have sung the hallelujah chorus.

  Even more so with Billy. Except for the constant mushy stuff ad nauseam, Doug couldn’t be happier for either of his pals. Nothing had been better than seeing Billy back in the water again or the sparkle in his eyes every time Angela walked into the room. The small part of Doug that envied his friends and the lives they’d made for themselves threatened to rear its ugly head again. With every week that passed since Jim and Lexie’s wedding, he’d found himself wanting what they had more and more. And wanting it with Emily.

  “This a surprise, man.” Billy smacked Doug on the back and, with his chin, pointed to Tim and Jennie locked in a tête-à-tête. “Another school project?”

  Doug nodded. He had no idea what Emily would want him to say, so he kept his mouth shut.

  “Good for you. I want you to know I appreciate all you’ve done for Emily. It means a lot to her the way you stepped in and helped with the sets. And the kids.”

  “No problem.” Doug managed what he hoped looked like a sincere smile and not a guilty grin. There was little doubt in his mind, when Billy heard about the morning’s activity, there’d be little calm left.

  “If you’re hungry,” Emily called from the kitchen while Jennie resumed her job as table setter, “better hurry before the food gets cold.”

  The doorbell rang once more, and all heads except Billy’s looked up. “That will be Nick. He was with me when I got the invite. Hope you don’t mind.”

  “Of course not.” Emily opened the fridge and pulled out another carton of eggs. Doug had noticed on his first morning here that, unlike most single young women, she always kept a fully stocked fridge.

  If he lived with her instead of alone, he could kiss his waistline good-bye. That tether to reality yanked him back to the way things were not letting him dwell on the what ifs. His kind did not belong with the well-adjusted Emilys of this world. Especially this Emily. She didn’t need to be living with the likes of him, and the sooner he reeled in any wayward thoughts steering him in that direction, the better off everyone would be.

  “Excuse me, Mr. H?”

  So absorbed in his own thoughts, Doug hadn’t noticed Tim standing next to him. “Yeah?”

  “Well,”—the kid kneaded his hands together and, taking a deep breath, pinned Doug with his gaze—“as you know, I’m pretty good with computers and the Internet and stuff.”

  Doug nodded.

  Even though his glasses no longer slid down his nose, Tim shoved at the bridge of his glasses nonetheless. “After I left here that night you invited me to stay for dinner, I started poking around a bit on the Internet. Searched a few hard-to-access sites and, well—” Hands moving slowly, he pulled a small white envelope from his pocket. “I hope you don’t mind, but…you may want to read this.”

  Doug stared down at the crumpled envelope lying flat on Tim’s open palm. Unsure of what the young man was being so cryptic about, Doug lifted the envelope into his hand, taking in the clear block writing. “What exactly is this all about?”

  “Ouch.” With a loud clank, Emily dropped the knife on the floor, her finger flying to her mouth. Jennie and Angela bolted across the tiny kitchen space, and, forgetting all about Tim and his missive, Doug flew across the small apartment on their heels.

  Angela turned on the faucet and reached for Emily’s hand. “Let me see.”

  Jennie hovered nearby. Her complexion paled, and her eyes bugged out as though Emily had just sliced off her arm. That look was enough to have Doug and Nick inching closer to the huddled women. Billy let his
fork hit the plate.

  “I don’t think it’s that bad.” Angela held the finger under the water, and all the broad shoulders in the room relaxed. “Let’s put some pressure on it, then a little antibiotic ointment and a bandage, and you’ll be all set.”

  “Thanks, Mom.” Emily offered a cheeky grin.

  “First aid in here or the bathroom?” Angela asked, still squeezing the finger.

  “Bathroom. Under the sink.”

  “I’ll get it.” Doug spun on his heels and trotted down the hall. In the navy, working EOD, he’d seen enough blood and guts to make a lifetime of horror films, but one sliced finger on Emily had him as jittery as a virgin in a whorehouse.

  Shoving the bathroom door open a little too hard, it bounced back off the wall and slapped him in the hip. Bending over, he pulled open the two cabinet doors. There was enough stuff under the sink to stock her own corner drugstore. Digging behind the toilet paper, hair curlers, bag of nail polishes and multitude of personal hygiene products that had him feeling like a Peeping Tom, Doug finally spotted the plastic shoe box overflowing with household medical supplies. Pulling out the unnecessary calamine lotion, toothache gel and anti-itch cream, he spun around to reach for the door and kicked over the wastebasket.

  Shit. He didn’t have time to clean up the mess, but, setting down the box, he grabbed the basket with one hand and, with his foot, loosely swept the spilled contents back into the receptacle. All set to rush to the kitchen, one piece of trash caught his eye. A long plastic thing with a narrow tip, wide base and big old blue plus sign in the middle. Pregnant.

  Frozen in place, the word rebounded in his brain. Emily was pregnant. How? They’d been careful. He was always very careful. There was no way he wanted some bimbo raising another generation of juvenile delinquents with his gene pool. But Emily wasn’t a bimbo. Far from it.

  And what the hell was she doing jumping out of airplanes if she was pregnant? Indignation and fear and unexpected joy tumbled over each other. What the hell was he going to do?

  * * *

  “What is he doing, tearing sheets and rolling bandages?” Billy huffed under his breath.

  “It’s just a little cut.” That hurt like a son of a bitch. Emily didn’t even want to ponder what it would feel like had the knife cut all the way through.

  His face pinched with worry, Billy shoved to his feet just as Doug came back down the hall. “’Bout time.”

  “There was a lot of stuff under that cabinet.” Doug shot her brother a give-me-a-break glare and handed the supplies to Angela.

  Heat flooded Emily’s cheeks as she realized all that Doug would have had to sift through to get to the bandages and ointments. But when his gaze lifted from her cut finger to her eyes, she saw so much turmoil there that any thoughts of embarrassment slid away. Surely he’d seen a bloody finger before. “It’s just a small cut,” she tried to reassure him. “Won’t need stitches.”

  “Good,” he mumbled and then cast the same serious gaze on Billy.

  What was running through his mind?

  “There you go.” Angela patted Emily’s hand, tossed the bandage strips in the trash and turned to her. “A sliver farther and you would have needed stitches. Hold your hand upright a while to help stem the bleeding and take a couple of aspirin for the pain.”

  “Good idea.” Emily grabbed the pseudo first aid box with her free hand and, feeling a bit like the Statue of Liberty keeping one arm in the air, turned to walk past the gathered crowd. “I’ll put this away and grab a couple of ibuprofen.”

  “No,” Doug snapped. “I mean, ibuprofen isn’t good for…your stomach.”

  “Two won’t kill her,” Angela offered, neatening up the countertop.

  “It’s just…” Pleading eyes turned toward her. “You know.”

  She shook her head. Emily had no idea what was bothering him, but if it made him feel better. “I have some Tylenol too. I can take that instead.”

  An uneasy smile appeared, and he bobbed his head. “Good.”

  “Be right back.” In the bathroom, Emily set the box on the counter, poured two Tylenols. Since her finger was still throbbing painfully, she added a third. Three wouldn’t kill her either. Scooping water with her free hand, she swallowed the three pills before opening the cabinet under the sink and shoving the box inside. Again she could feel her cheeks heating at the idea of Doug sifting through boxes of tampons and minipads.

  How silly was that. The man had seen pretty much every inch of her, and she was embarrassed by a box of tampons. Closing the toilet lid, she spun about and dropped down to sit. A few seconds to regroup and let the pills kick in was all she needed. Then she’d get back to her kitchen and finish cooking, though chopped onions were no longer on the omelet menu. One more deep breath and one hand on her knee, she pushed to her feet, her eyes glancing downward as she rose and stopped midstance. Leaning forward she reached into the small trash can and pulled up a piece of white plastic. A pregnancy test. A positive pregnancy test.

  Lifting her eyes to the closed bathroom door, her brain raced, adding up the information at hand, and, no matter how she turned it over in her mind, she kept coming to the same conclusion. She’d foolishly turned a blind eye to the reality of today’s world. Jennie was pregnant.

  * * *

  Doug couldn’t wait for all these people to go home so he and Emily could talk. Though what he was going to say, he had no idea. When Emily finally came out of the bathroom, she looked tired and a little pale. He hadn’t made any effort to hide the positive pregnancy test under the other trash in the wastebasket. She’d probably figured out he knew. The jig was up.

  “You shouldn’t be cooking with that hand.” Doug came up behind her and reached for the spatula. “Let me help.”

  “Oh, no you don’t.” Nick shook his head. “I’ve had your cooking. I’d rather make a sandwich.”

  “It’s a cut finger. And it feels better already.” Emily waved the bandaged finger back and forth. “See? Not maimed for life.” Her eyes squeezed shut for short second, and Doug knew exactly where her mind had gone. To her brother.

  But if Billy noticed, he didn’t react. He just shoved a forkful of stuffed toast into his mouth. “Even cold these are fabulous. Better than Mom’s. And if you tell her I said that, I’ll swear you’re lying.”

  “Doesn’t matter.” Emily slid past Doug to scoop a warm piece of stuffed French toast onto Billy’s and another onto Nick’s plates. “Mom already knows.” Then she stuck her tongue out at him.

  “Here.” Doug took the heavy cast iron skillet from her hands. “Let me take that. You go sit down and rest. I’ll do KP.”

  “Thanks, but I can manage.”

  Over her shoulder, Doug spotted Billy eyeing them. Keeping their relationship any kind of secret was now a moot point. And soon enough Billy would know that Doug had slept with his sister the first night they’d met. He waited for her to put the pan in the sink to soak and then tried again. “At least go sit. Sailors are good at doing dishes.”

  “Okay.” Billy tossed his napkin onto the table. “What is going on here?”

  “Nothing is going on.” Emily took a seat between her brother and Nick. Her gaze on the kids in the living room.

  Doug had almost forgotten they were here. Focused on the computer screen, Tim clacked away at the keyboard. Except for the few minutes he’d taken to discuss the envelope with Doug and reassure himself that Emily was not seriously injured in the finger-slicing incident, he’d been working on the computer for the better part of the last hour. And Jennie stood behind him, one arm over his shoulder, pretending to be as engrossed with the screen as Tim was. Young love. Doug wouldn’t want to live through that age again for all the gold in Fort Knox.

  Which brought him back to Emily. Every time he looked at her, his mind pictured her belly rounded with his baby. Or her cradling a baby in her arms. Or reading a bedtime story to their toddler. With every picture his heart swelled a little more until he was sure it would burst t
hrough his rib cage. He hadn’t realized he was smiling until he heard Billy’s voice.

  “Something is definitely up.” He pointed his thumb over his shoulder at Doug. “This one keeps smiling like the cat that swallowed the canary and you”—he pointed to Emily—“you look like someone just popped your new balloon.”

  Nick shook his head. “I swear you could give a pit bull lessons on being tenacious. So he’s smiling. So she’s got a lot on her mind.”

  “It’s all fixed.” Tim approached the kitchen. “I downloaded a malware program. That should help. And cleaned out some of your registries.”

  “Thank you, Tim.”

  “And he used the DVD you gave him to test something. Way cool, Ms. Everrett!” Jennie practically bounced in place.

  “What’s way cool?” Billy asked.

  “The skydiving video,” Jennie answered.

  On a sigh, Emily stood up. “We might as well all watch.”

  Tim spun around to look at Emily. “I can connect it to your TV if you’d like.”

  “Really?” Emily’s face lit up. “That would be awesome. In the meantime”—she turned to her brother—“you may want to grab a beer for this.”

  By the time Tim had the computer hooked up to the TV, everyone was comfortably seated in the living room. Billy kept blustering, “What was the big deal about Doug skydiving?” and Emily repeated, “Wait and see.”

  The opening credits rolled on the film, and Billy turned to Doug with a smile on his face. “Looks good.”

  Doug nodded.

  “Been meaning to check out Dan’s operation. What did you think?”

  “Good. He’ll do well. Straightforward. Safe. He seems on top of things.”

  Billy turned back to the TV in time to see Emily suited up and slapping a shaky high five at her videographer. “What the hell?”

  “Don’t get upset now.” Angela slid a hand down his arm and linked fingers with his. “She’s perfectly all right. Nothing happened to her.”

  “You went skydiving?” Billy roared at his sister.

  Angela spoke in a slow, soothing tone. “Billy.”