Crumbling Walls (Jack and Emily #1)

by Laura Strandt

  “Well, you know, I’ve never been one for gracefulness when falling is available.”

  “Very true.” Glancing around the corner to where all the kids were, “Are you and Emily doing anything right now?”

  He shook his head, “Sam’s got her coloring. Why?”

  “Well, I was wondering if you’d help me upstairs with a few things. Sam refused to leave me alone today, so I couldn’t get anything done.”

  “Yeah, just let me go tell Em and then I’ll come up.”

  “Thanks, honey.”

  Whispering his intentions to her, she glanced at Sam, who was watching her adoringly, “Me and Sam here’ll be just fine, won’t we?” Sam could only nod, completely happy that his favorite girl in the world was coloring Transformer pictures with him. Looking back to Jack, “I’ll find you if I need anything.”

  ▪▪▪

  After telling the rest of the boys not to kill each other, he headed upstairs.

  “So, what’re we doing?”

  “I mostly need you to climb up into the attic for me and get the gifts out.”

  Knowing his mom’s intense fear of enclosed spaces, “No problem. I’m not gonna see my stuff, am I?”

  She smiled, “No, Santa is out buying your ‘stuff’ as we speak.”

  “Geez, Mom, nothing like waiting until the last minute.”

  “Hey, I can call your dad up and tell him to return everything?”

  “So, where’s that access panel again?”

  ▪▪▪

  Jack was back downstairs long before they were done coloring. He watched both from the archway, much as he had when Emily was drawing Tim, and he marveled at them both. Normally Sam’s version of ‘coloring’ was to color as fast as he could while still trying to stay in the lines. But now, he was methodically and thoughtfully coloring one of a stack of robot images in front of him, emulating Emily’s careful hand.

  All he wanted to do was kiss her.

  But since that wasn’t possible at the moment, he instead stood watching, holding position against the wall until Tim walked in behind him, having just gotten home from work. Looking over his little brother’s shoulder, he spoke low, “So, when are you finally gonna tell her?”

  In an equally low voice, “I don’t know if she’ll let me.”

  ▪▪▪

  Borrowing a car, he drove her home around ten that night and, given that he’d been repeating Tim’s question over and over in his head for the past two hours, he was rather distracted, not hearing Emily until the third time she asked, “Hey, you in there?”

  Jerking his head, he woke up, “Yeah, sorry. What did you say again?”

  “I just wanted to know if you were okay. You didn’t say much after you came back downstairs and you've been quiet the whole way here.”

  Hoping he wouldn’t freak her out with his blunt asking, “Do you think I could hug you?”

  “You’ve hugged me before.”

  Knowing he was stammering, “I … I know but that was before everything. I just … I didn’t … I don't want to scare you or offend you or something.”

  Reaching for his hand, she led him up to her door and, once they were safely inside, she turned, holding her arms out to him, “Hug please.”

  As he hung his head, both from embarrassment and amusement, he slid his arms around her. He loved the feel of her head on his chest and, hugging her close, he wished he never had to leave.

  Chapter 10

  Elizabeth had invited Emily over for both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. After talking to Jack, Emily had opted for Christmas Day. Mostly because she had the chance to work a full shift on Christmas Eve and, in her situation, such an opportunity was not to be turned down.

  So she worked her tail off for nine hours, then went home and collapsed, sleeping soundly for the first time in months.

  And that was her Christmas Eve.

  Meanwhile, at the Callaghan house, chaos reigned as everyone did last minute gift wrapping and dessert making and tree decorating and general baking. Jack, as usual, had the duty of cookie maker. Somehow, he made the best cookies. He had little flairs he’d added to the recipes, which he always swore were secret and highly classified ingredients and would never reveal.

  The one hitch was that Tim had to work as well, closing up the store at six, which still gave him plenty of time to get home and do his own catching up on things. As he drove home, he passed the restaurant where Emily worked and, as usual, he glanced at it and, for a second, swore he saw her through the big glass windows. He was so sure of this he circled the block and came to a stop in front of the building. Sitting idle for a minute, he caught sight of her again and there was no mistaking it this time.

  ▪▪▪

  Once Tim got home and ate dinner, he stole two of his brother’s still warm Christmas cookies and took him by the elbow, “Can I talk to you for a minute?”

  Since he was just starting to wash the dishes and all the cookies were out of the oven, he nodded and dried his hands. Following Tim into the front room, “What’s up?”

  Keeping his voice low, “Did Emily say she was working today?”

  “No. She’s at home with her mom.” The odd look on Tim’s face made Jack inwardly panic, “Why?”

  “I just saw her at Dragon’s on my way home.”

  “Maybe she got called in to cover or something. There’s still plenty of time to be home tonight.”

  Tim studied his brother for a moment, “You’re getting better at lying, you know that?”

  “Who’s lying?”

  “I’m pretty sure you are and by default, that means Emily is, too.” Finally detecting a bit of worry in Jack’s eye, “All right. I won’t say anything, but you better watch it. Lies have a way of coming back to bite you in the ass.”

  Jack nodded, knowing he was beaten, “Thanks.”

  Clapping him on the back, he bit into one of the cookies, “Also, don’t tell Mom, but you make way better cookies than her.”

  He grinned at his big brother, “I guess we all have our secrets, huh?”

  “You can say whatever you like little brother, as long as you keep a steady supply of cookies coming my way.”

  “I’ve been cooking ‘em all day. We have enough to outlast even you.”

  Shoving the second in his mouth, “Then by all means, let’s go get some more.”

  ▪▪▪

  Emily was up bright and early Christmas morning to open her gifts. Granted, she had actually purchased them herself weeks ago, wrapped them, then made herself wait until Christmas morning to open them. She’d given herself a whole stack of used books she had found at the library book sale almost two months earlier and, given she’d been wanting to read them since, she was almost giddy unwrapping them.

  She also knew that it was silly, but given she’d never had her own Christmas morning when she was younger, she felt justified in giving herself one now. And so she sat, happy and content to read her new things and wait until ten o’clock, when Elizabeth had asked her to come over for Christmas breakfast.

  Bundled up against the blowing cold, she left the house a few minutes before arriving on the porch and knocking right on time. Jack pulled the door open and hauling her inside, gave her an enormous hug, “Merry Christmas.”

  Laughing at the greeting, she wiggled out of her coat and scarf, “Merry Christmas back.”

  She could hear the commotion spilling out of the kitchen and walking in kind of shyly, she was confronted with the entire Callaghan clan in full holiday mode, which she’d never experienced before and suddenly, she felt inexplicably small.

  Standing for a moment beside the stove, Jack leaned into her ear, “Intimidating lot aren’t we?”

  “Well, it is my first holiday.”

  “We’ll try to make it as painless as possible.”

  After another round of ‘Merry Christmas’s’, they all settled down to eat through stacks of pancakes that just kept appearing on their plates, along with piles of bacon
and rivers of orange juice.

  Emily finally had to throw in the towel after her second helping of everything, “Okay, I don’t think I’ve ever eaten that much before.”

  With a glimmer in his eye, Dave leaned over towards her, “You ain’t seen nothin’ yet. Wait until dinner; it could very well kill you.”

  In mock horror, “I have to eat again?”

  ▪▪▪

  Sam was antsy all through breakfast and by the time the kitchen was cleaned up, he was positively crazy, “Can we see the tree yet? Please?”

  “Almost, Sam. Promise. Just let your dad get the fire going then we’ll go in.”

  Confused, Emily turned to Jack, “Why hasn’t he seen the tree yet?”

  “Nobody has. We always wait until after church and breakfast.” Shrugging, “I think they started it because we sat better through church if they could threaten that Santa could still take everything away.”

  “Blackmail on Christmas. Nice.”

  Elizabeth overheard this and laughed, “With six boys, you try any and all means of keeping them quiet.”

  Finally, everybody was let into the living room and the Christmas insanity began. The gifts under the tree weren’t wrapped. There were just designated piles that each of the boys seemed to know were theirs. Tim and Jack’s were on either end of the tree and, working inward around the semi-circle, Sam and Tucker’s piles were in the center.

  Emily wasn’t exactly sure what to do at this point, but when Jack motioned for her to sit next to him, she did, only to find a small pile of gifts that no one had yet claimed.

  Jack, just sat grinning at her until she had to ask, “What?”

  “Aren’t you gonna look through your stuff?”

  Confusion flooded her face and she asked again, “What?”

  Picking up the pile, he set in on her lap, “Merry Christmas.”

  Staring down at the gifts, she then looked from Jack to Elizabeth and finally to Will, all of whom were grinning at her. She managed to only let one tear escape down her cheek before she joined in the fun.

  She’d gotten a sweater, a set of new, whole and perfectly toned charcoals, one of the books she’d told Elizabeth about a few weeks ago, a pair of thick wool socks, a hat and a new pair of mittens, wool lined and warm.

  She was honestly at a loss for words at the moment and all she could muster was a near-whispered thank you as she hugged her items close and couldn’t stop smiling.

  Once she came down from her happy fog, she noticed a few gift trends that made her smile. Each boy got a sweater, a pair of wool socks and either a hat or mittens. Those seemed to be the staples of the pile and other things were added to it.

  Jack didn’t notice at first but one of his socks was rigid and Emily leaned over, “What’s in the sock?”

  Puzzled, he finally realized something was hidden in the sock. Pulling it out, he let out a manly, low octave squeal of delight. At least that’s what he claimed it was later on when his brothers began a good two days of merciless teasing about the sound.

  It was an iPod. A glorious, sleek, black, gleaming thing of beauty and it was all his. Stumbling over both Emily and Dave, he dove for his parents, “Thank you, thank you, thank you.”

  Will knocked him gently on the back, “Careful with that now. You can’t imagine the trouble Santa went through to find a black one.”

  Cradling it, “Santa is so awesome, you have no idea.”

  Coming back to sit beside Emily, he showed her his other things, then sat back to watch the rest of the family jumping up, trying things on, causing general Christmassy craziness. He also worked his hand into hers and squeezed gently before giving her a kiss on the cheek, “Merry Christmas.”

  Laying her head on his shoulder, “Merry Christmas.”

  A few minutes later, the gifts everyone had gotten for each other and their parents were opened. Emily took in everything, happy to hang back and watch Christmas continue to unfold before her. These were the homemade gifts, the little toys and the fabulously bad, yet completely thrilled to get, B-grade monster movies from the $5 bins at Wal-Mart. These were what the boys knew their brothers would love and they all did, yelling thanks and tossing wrapping paper at each other. There were also grandparent gifts, one of which seemed to land on Emily's lap, “Um, I think someone threw something at me that's not mine.”

  Jack talked around the lollipop in his mouth, “You ought to read the tags on things tossed at you.”

  His smile made her eyebrows wrinkle in confusion but, turning the soft package over, she did indeed see her name written in neat, even, what could only be grandmother script, “Is this really for me?”

  “Yes!” Poking at the seams of the paper, “Now would you open it, please?” Sliding her finger under the tape, she soon revealed her very own fat scarf, in blues, purples and blacks, double folded, then folded again, which, when she stood and held it up, puddled on the floor at her feet. Even Jack was impressed, “Holy hell, that thing's taller than you are.”

  Immediately wrapping it around her neck, then again, then again, she let the ends dangle to her waist, “And warmer than Florida in July.”

  “Grandma totally outdid herself this time.”

  Elizabeth had to laugh, “Yes, she did. Jack told her you're always cold and the only thing she asked was how tall you were.” Examining the tasseled edges, “She mentioned it was her longest yet. Now I believe her.”

  Hugging her scarf to her, she then hugged Jack, who had stood up beside her, “I thought you were kidding when you said you were gonna ask her to make me one.”

  “Are you glad I did?”

  “Completely.” She then gave him a quick kiss, just grazing the corner of his mouth, “I'll need to tell her thank you.”

  Dazed by her mouth, he stumbled through a, “She'll call … I mean, we'll call in a little while … well, Mom will call and we'll talk to her … all of us, not just me and you … although, we probably could call her tonight or you could email her or … 'cause she emails and --”

  Emily stopped him with a finger to his lips and aiming a lip curl in his direction, “I’ll thank her as soon as I can.”

  He still couldn't stop watching her lips and talking through her finger, “You should totally kiss me again sometime.”

  Turning a vibrant shade of scarlet, she sat back down on the floor, pulling at his hand until he followed. Once settled, she quietly told him, “I just might do that.”

  ▪▪▪

  Once the insanity had calmed down a bit, Will stood up and called for quiet. All six boys turned at once, wondering just what was going on and watched in collective confusion as Elizabeth brought out one more large box and several smaller ones, “This one’s from us as kind of a thank you for not giving us much grief for moving you half-way across the country and for being generally good kids.” Stepping back from the box, “Just be careful with it.”

  They watched the younger boys pounce on the box and the cheering began when finally some of the paper had been pulled off, with Dave's voice carrying over the other, “Are you kidding?”

  Jack peered over somebody’s shoulder and then looked at his dad, “Holy crap.”

  On the floor, finally unwrapped, lay a Playstation3 and several games.

  Emily had never seen a group of boys so quiet, all staring at a box on the floor. Tapping Jack on the back, “Um, what is it, exactly?” And with that, the silence broke and the boys all stood, mobbed their parents and everyone ended up in a heap on the floor, giggling and squirming.

  Jack extricated himself first and sat back down beside her, “It’s a Playstation. We’ve all been hinting for months that we wanted one.”

  Elizabeth leaned forward, "More like begged mercilessly at every opportunity."

  “So this is a good gift then, I take it,” her eyes twinkling at him as he turned to answer her with only a huge grin and a slow nod.

  ▪▪▪

  Clean up took quite awhile, with Emily pitching in until she saw Elizabe
th head into the kitchen. Leaving her precious pile of gifts on the carpet, she followed. “Elizabeth?”

  Turning around from the oven where she was checking the turkey, “Yes?”

  “Thank you. You didn’t have to get me anything. Just being asked over was more than enough.”

  “It wasn’t us, it was Santa.” Tilting her head a little, she studied Emily for a second, “And you're welcome.”