She took a deep breath and stepped away from him. “Mom, Dad,” she began, “this is Dao and Duc Nguyen. They’re visiting from Ohio,” she said as she made the proper introductions. She smiled as she realized David’s hand never once left hers. He tightened it in solidarity.
“How is your son?” Dao asked, concern in every line of her body.
“We don’t know anything yet,” Brenda said, holding onto herself for comfort. “Nothing like this has ever happened to us.”
Dao gave Brenda a brief hug. “It is scary, I know. I saw so many shot when the VC invaded our village.” She shuddered. “I still don’t like thinking about it. Now, come,” she continued, directing Brenda to the stiff plastic chairs. “Come and tell me about your son. What is his name?”
Duc pulled his son aside with a frown. David tightened his hand on Emma’s as a small gesture of comfort before joining his father near a large window overlooking the parking lot. Emma frowned as she realized Duc appeared to be scolding his son for something.
David looked up, saw her and his face took on that slightly haunted, afraid to be happy look he wore when he first arrived in Harper’s Mill.
“Just do it,” Brooke whispered.
“What?”
“It’s obvious he needs you. He needs something. And it’s obvious you want to go to him. So, just go.”
“But what if I do something wrong?”
“I swear, it’s a miracle you two even got together. What wrong can you do? For you? Him? Us? His folks? What would you do if he looked at you like that and you were alone together.”
“You’re right,” Emma said and straightened her shoulders. “You’re not half bad for just a kid.”
Brooke rolled her eyes. “Yeah, whatever. This family couldn’t live without me.”
Emma turned serious. “We love you, Brooke. And no. We wouldn’t want to live without you.”
“Stop being so serious. Just go to your man.” Brooke shooed her sister away. “I’m going to check on Mom. She and Dao seem to have a little too much in common.”
Emma nodded and turned to look at the man she loved. She vowed then and there that until her dying breath, David would never have that haunted look on his face ever again.
“I read somewhere that most Asian cultures don’t like public displays of affection,” Brooke commented. “But you have to decide. Are you marrying them? Or him?”
Emma rolled her eyes. “You’re getting a little ahead of yourself. He hasn’t asked me, yet.”
Brooke scoffed. “Please, like you’re the only one who can see the future?”
Emma’s head turned sharply and she saw her sister. Saw through her from the girl she had once been to the woman standing before her. “You’ve seen David and me?”
Brooke’s smile was little sister smug. “Enough to know you two need to stop wasting time already.”
Emma touched her sister’s shoulder in thanks before walking toward a stern looking Duc and a chagrined David. “I’m sorry,” she said, using her eyes to beg Duc to understand her interruption. “I needed you,” she said, looking into David’s dark chocolate eyes and hoping he understood all she couldn’t say as they stood in the waiting room of Harper General Hospital.
Duc and David exchanged a look before nodding to each other in tacit understanding.
Brenda walked over to them. “It looks like we’ll be here for a while. They don’t know how long surgery is going to take. Emma, honey, why don’t you go home?”
Without looking up, Emma shook her head. “I need to be here, too, Mom. I can’t have another vision like that again. I saw it, Mom. I saw Thorne shot and felt his pain and it was worse than anything I’ve ever felt in my life. Like I had been shot myself. I need to be here.”
“Let me get my parents back to my house,” David said. “I’ll give Spence a call. Since he’s still with Homeland, he may have some connections. We’ll try to get to the bottom of this. I’ll be back in an hour or so.”
“You’ll come back?” Emma asked, hating the whine in her voice.
“I will come right back. I promise,” David said.
“How long will you be in town visiting, Mrs. Nguyen,” Brenda asked. “Hopefully, when Thorne is home we can have a nice family get together.”
“We are only here for a few days,” Dao explained. “But Emma asked if I would make some of Danh’s favorite recipes. I would like to invite you so I can make pho for everyone.”
“That sounds lovely,” Brenda agreed. “And hopefully, we’ll have some good news to celebrate.”
“Oh, you don’t need to go to any trouble. I thought maybe we could cook together,” Emma said.
Dao shook her head. “It is my gift to your family.”
“Thank you,” Brenda reiterated. “Once we know how Thorne is, it will be nice to have a family dinner. Right, Em?”
Emma could only smile and nod and hope her Dao’s dinner plans went off smoother than her own.
“Dad,” David called, his voice rising only slightly. “Let me take you two home. I’ll come back and stay with Emma and her family.”
Emma held on to Brooke as she watched David walk away from her. She knew it was only for a little while. Knew he would be right back. But somehow, even this short separation to take his parents back to his place, felt unbearable.
“Facing a loss makes you realize you need to hold on to the people you love,” Emma said with a wistful smile.
“Finally,” Brenda exclaimed.
“What do you mean, Mom?”
“You finally admitted you were in love with the man,” Clayton said, putting both of his arms around his daughters. “Come on, let’s go see if we can find some out of date magazines to keep us bored while we wait for your brother.”
~~~~~~
It was close to midnight when David returned to the hospital room with a carafe of coffee and two cups of hot chamomile tea.
“Hey, sorry it took so long. I wanted to get info from Spence before I came back,” he said as he greeted everyone. “I brought coffee and a couple of cups of tea.”
“You made me tea,” Emma said, her voice clogging with emotion.
Brenda accepted the second cup of tea and brushed a motherly kiss on David’s cheek. “Thank you, sweetheart. I needed this.”
“How’s Amy? Should we go get her?”
“We’ve been texting,” Emma said. “Tabitha is still asleep and she’d only be tired and cranky here, anyway. As soon as we hear something from the doctor, I’ll go to Mom and Dad’s house to be there for Tabby and Amy will come back here.”
She took a sip of the tea, inhaling the delicate aroma and feeling the love that went into the brew. There was something magical about having someone make you a cup of tea, she decided.
Just then Dr. Guinto approached the small group. “Surgery went off fine,” he said and smiled slightly when everyone took a giant sigh of relief. He gratefully accepted the cup of coffee David offered him. “Let me take you to the recovery area,” he said, guiding them through the maze of hallways and corridors. “The bullet nicked a few things but luckily avoided anything major. He should be cranky by tomorrow.”
“That’s not new for my brother,” Brooke said with a smile.
“As you say,” Dr. Guinto said, the corners of his grey eyes crinkling with humor. “We will keep him a few days and then send him home to rest.”
“I’ll wait in the hallway,” David said, brushing a small kiss across Emma’s forehead. “You go make sure your brother is okay and then we’ll get you to your mom and dad’s house.”
Emma cradled her brother’s face in her hands and took the time to see her brother. She didn’t often look deeply into other people. Their secrets were for their eyes and mind only. But this was an exception. This was important.
Something had changed in her brother and she didn’t know, exactly, what it meant. But she’d find out that’s for sure.
She kissed his cheeks before saying goodnight to her parents. “We�
�ll try and be home before Tabby wakes up,” her mom said.
“No rush, Mom.”
She returned to David in the waiting room. “Let me take my car so we don’t leave it here.” He nodded and walked with her, one hand resting gently against her low back. “You won’t leave me, will you?”
“Of course not, love,” David said. “We’re a team. Remember?”
“We can’t. You know. Sleep together.”
David’s lips twitched with tired humor. “Even if either of us had the energy for that, it wouldn’t be right,” he agreed.
Emma nodded. Old lessons ran long and there were just somethings she couldn’t do in her parent’s house. Sharing a bed with David was one of them.
“Good thing the couch is comfortable,” she said.
Chapter Eight
Emma stood at the picture window of David’s house and watched as he and Duc left to try and find an ingredient Dao needed to make Pho. His kitchen was full of the brilliant aromatics of Vietnam – fresh herbs like mint, cilantro, and lemongrass combined with and a deep pungent fish sauce.
“I’m glad you were able to extend your stay,” Emma said.
“Your brother is doing better now?” Dao asked.
Emma nodded. “He’s still staying at our parent’s house.
Dao’s competent hands sorted through a small pile of sweet basil and laid them flat before rolling them into a tight bundle. Her French knife gleamed in the light from the kitchen as she deftly chiffed the pungent herb. “Danh told me you receive visions.”
Emma nodded, beginning to suspect the idea to send David and his father out for a forgotten ingredient was more ruse than strictly necessary. Small bowls of sliced, chopped, and chiffonaded vegetables and herbs began to fill up on the tray.
“Tell me about them.” It was definitely an order.
Emma swallowed, and wondered how to explain them to David’s mother. “I’ve had them since I was a child. The women born to my family have them. They aren’t something I can control, even if I wanted to. They come when they come, but they do tend to shadow dangerous or important events.”
Dao grunted checked on the water simmering on the stove. “The broth,” Dao said after a brief taste. “If the broth isn’t perfect the pho will not taste good. You must coax the flavors out.”
Emma nodded as she paid attention.
“I have always been a little hard on Danh. He was a good boy but he lacked purpose. Drive.”
“I’m sure you were proud when he joined the Navy.”
Dao ignored her comment and for a while, Emma wasn’t sure she’d respond at all.
“We were refugees, you know,” Dao said eventually. “War was not something I was comfortable with. But I understood his need to see more than just Ohio. To know more of the world.”
“Understandable,” Emma said.
“I worried about him for many years. He was so alone. We took him to Vietnamese School so he could learn our language. Learn some of our history and customs, but still. He was alone.
“Duc and I met as teenagers during the war. My father-in-law got us to the United States, but I insisted on waiting to have a child until we were settled. I wanted my son to be born an American citizen. In a place where there weren’t bombs going off near our village. Where you didn’t live in fear of your lives.”
Dao washed her hands as her ingredients continued to simmer away on the burner. She sat in one of the straight-back chairs and indicated Emma should take the one next to her.
“Let me tell you our story,” Dao began. And then she did.
Fresh, fat tears fell in silvery tracks down Emma’s cheeks as she listened to Dao talk about the fear and terror during the war. “We lived in the village of Ben Da, south of Saigon,” Dao said, her dark eyes, so like her son’s, growing distant with memories. “Duc’s father was a fisherman. He and his cousins vowed to get everyone to safety if the VC ever invaded our village.” She stared at her hands as long ago memories washed over her.Swamped her. Memories she was finally releasing into the hushed air between them. “Which they did on April 25, 1975. At midnight.”
Emma slid Dao’s tanned fingers into her own and simply held them. Communicated compassion and love and above all thankfulness that this one woman had braved so much. This was a sacred bonding ceremony. Generation to generation. Woman to woman.
“We scrambled to safety through the woods until we got to the boats. Bombs went off around us and I vowed as much as I loved my home, I would give my future children a life of peace. No matter the cost.”
And so, Emma listened. About the stories of the refugee camps in Arkansas. About her fear of white people as they settled into Ohio as they went to live near one of Duc’s cousins. Of her desire that her son achieve a higher level of success. Emma listened as Dao talked about the lack of opportunities available for young men in Vietnam. About how the extended families left and scattered to America and Australia and how they had lost contact with so many.
Of her iron-clad determination that her son would have a better life. Better opportunities.
“How did your husband get a business in Akron?”
“From son of a shrimp fisherman to funeral director,” Dao said with a ghost of a smile. “Duc found a need and fulfilled it. I am most proud of him.”
Emma tightened her grip on Dao’s slim fingers. “It shows. And I’m sure you were proud of David, too. Of Danh,” she corrected, using his mother’s pet name for him.
Dao waved her free hand. “I was hard on him. I know it cut him. Maybe sometimes made him feel his best wasn’t always good enough.”
Emma opened her mouth to protest, but Dao held her hand up to stall her words. “A mother knows these things. He was a good boy and I worried for his future. I wanted him to do well in school. I wanted him to speak both languages. I wanted him to play piano.”
“He still remembers some of the poems,” Emma said, blushing slightly as she belatedly remembered where they were when he whispered those heated poetic words.
Dao snorted with laughter and indicated Emma’s pink cheeks. “Probably some of the silly romantic ones. He always did like those best.”
Emma laughed then, as though a weight had lifted from her shoulders. “He does have a deeply romantic soul.”
Dao grasped Emma’s cheeks with determined intent and looked deep into Emma’s eyes, into her soul. “I see you, Emma Evans. You will help my son be the man he was destined to be.”
Emma nodded, a smile lighting her face like the dawn after a storm. “I love him.”
“I know. A mother knows these things and I can see it in your eyes. You give him a sense of peace he’s never had before. A relaxed look in his eyes.” Dao grinned at her. “And you keep him on his toes. I like that. A woman should never give too much. You are good for him.”
“Thank you. That means the world to me,” Emma said, unable to resist embracing Dao. “David told me over and over you wanted him to find a nice Vietnamese girl. To marry and make babies. Your approval means the world to me.”
Dao pulled back and patted Emma’s cheeks again and returned to the kitchen. “Maybe at one time. But he is older. I am older. Now? I am happy he has found someone to love him as he deserves.”
Relief was a constant as Emma danced around the dining room table and set out plates. She smiled at the mismatched whimsy of David’s dishes. “I’m not sure David has ever had this many people in his house before,” Emma commented as she counted out silverware.
She paused to watch the precise rhythmic speed as Dao folded spring rolls. “You do that so effortlessly,” Emma said. “Maybe someday we will visit you in Ohio and you can teach me to cook all of David’s favorite dishes. He told me about your banh bo nuong,” she said, carefully over pronouncing the foreign words.
“Did he?” Dao grinned. “Then perhaps it’s a good thing I made him one earlier.”
Emma laughed at the discovery of Dao’s sly humor. “Did you send them out so we can talk?”
~~~~~~
Clayton and Brenda were the first to arrive with Thorne trailing behind them. Emma settled Thorne into a comfortable recliner before getting everyone a drink.
“Talk,” Emma said to her brother after making sure their parents were safely talking with Dao. “I haven’t seen you since you came out of recovery. What happened?”
Thorne ran a hand over his scruffy cheeks and avoided his sister’s penetrating blue eyes. “There were some guys hassling the waitress. She’s a nice girl. Graduated a year or two behind you, I think. Piper McAvoy. She has a daughter she takes care of or a niece or something so she needs the money. But they were trying to get her to strip. Maybe more than that. The back rooms at those kinds of places aren’t always on the up and up.”
“I remember Piper. She used to make the costumes for all the school plays. She was a pretty girl. Used to make all her own clothes. I always pictured her on Broadway or something as a costume designer. How’d she wind up working in a dump like Freddy’s?”
Thorne shrugged. “Didn’t really get that far in the conversation,” he said with a wry grin. “Some asshole was giving her a hard time. Touching her. Giving her shit. I stood up for her and then things went sideways.”
“But I thought she called you? Asked you for help.”
Thorne looked away and Emma knew with absolute certainty he was lying. She arched an eyebrow at him. “You can’t lie to an Evans, you know,” she said.
“No, but some things I’d rather keep close to the vest,” he said.
“As long as those things don’t get you shot again,” Emma scolded. “I think you aged us all ten years.”
“I’ll do my best.”
Emma hugged her brother, careful of the wound near his collarbone. “I am so glad you’re okay. If Piper needs a job, tell her to call me. If she doesn’t want to work at The Breakfast Club, I’m sure we have the contacts to find her a much better job.”
Thorne’s blue eyes lightened and the tension left his shoulders. “You never cease to amaze me, Ems. Always looking out for everyone. The town mother hen.”
Honeysuckle and Roses (Harper's Mill Book 5) Page 7