Emmett

by Diana Palmer

  “I do now,” he said, staring quietly at Melody. “Oh, yes, I understand now.”

  “Let me know about Guy?”

  “Of course. Adell, I’m glad for you and Randy, about the baby.”

  “We’re ecstatic,” she said. “I can hardly wait. A baby might be just the thing for the kids.”

  “You can bring it down to meet them when it’s born,” he said.

  “Thanks. I will. But what I meant was if you and Melody had one of your own eventually, it would bring them closer to her.”

  He stared at Melody and flushed as the glory of fathering her child made his knees weak.

  “Emmett?” Adell called.

  “What? Oh. Yes. You can call the kids or write to them if you want,” he said absently. “They can come and visit, too, when it’s convenient. Or you and Randy can come down here. Tell him I won’t hit him.”

  “He knows that. We both felt guilty over what he’d done to you, for a long time. I’m glad it worked out.”

  “So am I. I’ll have Guy call you back.”

  “That would be nice. Tell him I love him, and that I didn’t mean he wasn’t welcome here.”

  “I will.” He hung up, his eyes slow and warm on Melody’s face. “Adell thinks I should make you pregnant,” he mused.

  She caught her breath. “Well!”

  He moved toward her, and paused to frame her face in his big, lean hands. “I think I should, too,” he whispered. “Not right away, not until we’re really a family. But I’d like it very much if we had a child together, Melody.” He bent and drew his lips softly over hers.

  “So would I.” She clung to him, giving him back the kiss. She smiled warmly. “But for now, we’d better tell Guy that he isn’t going to be banished to Siberia.”

  “Good point.”

  They went to his room and knocked. There was no answer. With a rueful smile, Emmett pushed it open, but Guy wasn’t there.

  Emmett looked around. Some of Guy’s favorite possessions were missing, including that whittling knife that Melody had given him. He looked at her with fear in his eyes.

  “He’s run away, hasn’t he?” she asked with faint panic.

  His face was grim. “I’m afraid that’s just what he’s done,” he replied.

  Chapter 11

  Jacobsville seemed to be a long way from anywhere, Guy thought, huddled miserably in his jacket while rain poured down on his bare head and soaked his sneakers. He was cold and getting colder by the minute. He should have taken time to search for the raincoat he could never find, but he’d been afraid someone would try to stop him.

  After a few wet minutes, he managed to flag down a family of Mexicans driving toward Houston. With his meager Spanish, painstakingly taught to him by his bilingual father, he made them understand that he was on his way to his family. They smiled and nodded and gestured him into the crowded car of smiling, welcoming faces. People, he thought, were generally pretty nice. He was pleasantly surprised. Too bad he couldn’t say that for his own family. They’d probably find Melody’s cat dead and nobody would speak to him for the rest of his life. It wasn’t his fault, but he guessed maybe he deserved it for what he’d done in Houston.

  The Mexican family stopped at Victoria to get gas, and Guy had second thoughts about continuing on to Houston. He might as well try to find a place to stay here. Victoria was big enough that he could get lost in it.

  He found a vacant lot where a small building stood with its door ajar. It was still raining. He darted into the shack and came face-to-face with a couple of men who looked as if murder might be their favorite Sunday pastime.

  It took forever just to get the kids into Emmett’s Bronco and strapped in. All the while, the rain was getting worse and Melody was chewing on her fingernails. They’d called the local police and a bolo went out over the air to law enforcement vehicles. Emmett had a CB unit and a scanner in the Bronco, and the scanner was turned on so that they’d hear immediately if Guy was spotted.

  Emmett was actually able to track the boy down the highway at the end of the ranch road, until the footprints abruptly stopped.

  He got back into the vehicle, his hat dripping water. “This is as far as he walked,” he said tersely, turning toward Melody. “Thank God for thick mud and a light drizzling rain. I tracked him to the other side of the road. He’s headed that way, toward Victoria.”

  He wheeled the vehicle around in the road and set off with grim determination toward the city.

  “I hope to God whoever he was riding with needed gas, and that he found some decent person and not a pervert to get into the car with.”

  “He’s a smart boy,” Melody said gently, touching his arm. “He’ll be all right, Emmett. I know he will.” She grimaced. “Oh, it’s my fault!”

  “No, it’s not,” he said tersely. “It takes a little work to turn five people into a family. It doesn’t happen overnight, you know.”

  “I’m learning that. All the same, Guy’s more important to me than Alistair, even if I do love the stupid cat,” she added quietly, staring worriedly through the misty windshield.

  It took forever to get into the city. Then Emmett stopped at the nearest gas station before he proceeded to the next few. They were almost at the far end of town before an attendant remembered a bareheaded boy in a leather bomber jacket and jeans and sneakers.

  “He was pretty wet,” the man said with a grin. “Came in with a family of Mexicans, but he didn’t want to go on to Houston with them. I had to explain. Kid spoke really lousy Spanish,” he murmured sheepishly.

  “Did you see which way he went?”

  “No. I’m sorry, but we got busy and I didn’t notice. Can’t have gotten far, though. It’s only been ten or fifteen minutes, and he didn’t hitch another ride, I’m sure of that.”

  “Thanks. Thanks a lot. Okay if I leave the Bronco here while we look for him?”

  “Sure, it’s okay! Just park it anywhere. I’ll look out for it.”

  “Much obliged.”

  Emmett pulled it out of the way and parked it. He turned to the others. “We’re going to spread out and go over this area of town like tar paper. Amy, you go with Melody. Polk, with me. If you find him, sing out.”

  “All right, Emmett,” Amy said politely. “We’ll find him.”

  “God, I hope so,” he said heavily. It was already dark. The streetlights were a blessing, but any city was dangerous at night. They had to find the boy soon, or they might never find him.

  They piled out of the Bronco and Emmett paused to look hard at Melody. “Don’t go anywhere you don’t feel comfortable. I don’t like having any of us out on these streets at night. Stay where it’s lighted. If you get in trouble, scream. I’ll hear you.”

  She smiled up at him. “Amy and I both will,” she mused.

  “I can scream good, Emmett,” Amy said. “Want to hear me?”

  “Not just yet, thanks,” he murmured, tugging a pigtail. “Get going.”

  Melody and Amy went down one street, Emmett another. They met a policeman cruising by, and Emmett stopped to talk to him. He explained the situation.

  “We got the bolo on the radio,” the patrolman, an elderly man, replied. “We’re watching for him. He’s pretty safe if he’s still in this area. Hope you find him.”

  “So do I,” Emmett said quietly. “He’s got the wrong end of the stick. He thinks we don’t care about him because we have to say no sometimes.”

  “Prisons are full of kids who never got said no to,” the policeman mused. “Might tell him that.”

  “He’ll get an earful, after he gets hugged half to death,” Emmett said with a wry smile.

  “That’s how I raised my four. One’s a lawyer now.” With a twinkle in his eyes he added, “Of course, the others are respectable…”

  Emmett laughed despite his fears and lifted his hand as the patrol car pulled away into the darkness.

  Down the street, Melody was huddled in her coat, drawing Amy closer as the rain began t
o fall again. She looked and looked, and found nothing. Finally, yielding to defeat, she turned and guided Amy back toward the service station.

  The shack in the empty lot had caught her eye earlier, but she hadn’t paid it much mind because she was sure Guy would be trying to make some distance.

  Now, she wasn’t so certain.

  “Let’s take a look in there, just in case,” she told Amy. “Stay close.”

  “Okay, Melody.”

  They moved quickly toward the shack, and as they approached it, loud voices could be heard. There was a violent thumping noise, and the ramshackle door suddenly moved and Guy came tearing out of it. His face was bleeding and his jacket was half off. A thin, dirty man was holding the half that was off, dragging at it.

  “I said, I want the damned jacket!” the surly voice repeated.

  “It’s Guy!” Amy exclaimed.

  “Yes.” Melody’s eyes blazed with anger. She was never so happy for her size. “Stay behind me,” she called as she broke into a run.

  Guy was fighting the man, but the other one had a stick and was raising it.

  “You leave my son alone!” Melody yelled at them.

  The men stopped suddenly and gaped at her. So did a shocked, delighted Guy. While they were gaping, she sailed right into the one who had Guy by the sleeve, performed a jump kick accompanied by a cry that would have made her instructor applaud and landed her foot squarely into the attacker’s gut.

  Guy barely had time for one astonished look at her threatening stance. Loosened by the man’s collapse, Guy turned quickly to place a hard kick in the other man’s groin before he could bring down the stick he was holding up and then planted a hard fist right into his cheek. The second man went down with a little cry of pain and landed unconscious.

  “Are you all right?” Melody asked Guy, dragging him close to hug him. “Oh, you holy terror, if you ever do anything like this again…!” She was barely coherent, crying and mumbling, searching his face for cuts and bruises, brushing back his unruly damp hair. But the whole time she was holding him as his mother once had when he stumbled and fell, when he was hurt or afraid.

  Big boys weren’t supposed to like this sort of thing, of course, much less tolerate it. And he was going to twist away from her any minute now and make some curt remark. But just for a minute or so, it wouldn’t hurt to be hugged and cried over.

  “How did you do that?” he asked, aghast.

  “Oh, that. Well, I have a belt in tae kwon do. Just a brown. I never finished my training.”

  “Just a brown!” He caught his breath. “That was great! Like watching Chuck Norris or Jean-Claude Van Damme,” he added, naming his two idols. “Listen, could you teach me some of that?”

  “You and the other kids, too,” she promised. “Then next time, you’ll be prepared.” She grimaced as she studied him. “Listen, Alistair’s fine, one of the men accidentally let him out,” she said miserably, drawing back. “I’m so sorry. All of us are sorry for blaming you. For heaven’s sake, you’re more important than a cat, even if he was the only friend I had! Your father was frantic, and so were the rest of us!”

  Guy felt strange. He sort of smiled and couldn’t stop. “I’m all right.” He looked down at the squirming, groaning men. “Uh, it might not be a bad idea if we leave,” he suggested, taking her arm. “You and I were pretty much a match for them, but we’ve Amy to think about.”

  “You’re right. I do wish I had a gun,” she muttered, glaring at them.

  “Can you shoot one?” Guy asked on the way down the street.

  “Sure I can shoot,” she said. “I’ve won awards.”

  “Really?”

  “You still can’t go hunting with Bill,” she said curtly, glaring at him. “He’d kill you. He’s not responsible with a gun. If you go hunting, I’ll take you, or your father will. Or we’ll all go. But I’m not shooting anything, even if I do go along, and I couldn’t skin a squirrel if my life depended on it.”

  “We wouldn’t go hunting to kill stuff,” Guy said. “We’d go hunting so that we can grumble about how cold it was and how much big game got away. And so that we can sit and talk away from cars and horns and clocks.”

  “Oh.”

  He shrugged. “It would be all right if you came along, I guess. We could shoot at targets.”

  “I can shoot, too,” Amy said. “I have a bow and arrow that Emmett made me.”

  “Polk can bring his atl-atl,” Guy remarked. “We’d be the most dangerous family in the woods.”

  Melody laughed. She felt exhausted now. They came to the street where the service station sat on the corner, and there were Emmett and Polk coming toward them.

  “Guy!” Emmett shouted.

  The boy ran to him, and Emmett lifted him off the ground in a bear hug. “My God, you are something! I wish I’d hit you harder when you were a little kid!”

  “I guess you should have, all right,” Guy murmured, fighting tears. “I’m sorry, Dad…!”

  “I’m sorry,” Emmett corrected grimly. He put the boy down. “We’re all sorry. If you had any idea how worried we were!” His green eyes began to glitter. “Son, if you ever, ever do anything like this to us again, I’ll…I’ll…!”

  “He’s trying to think up something bad enough to threaten you with,” Melody translated, grinning at him. “It may take a while.”

  “Some men were beating up Guy, Emmett,” Amy said excitedly. “Melody knocked one of them out, and Guy hit the other one. They’re lying in the dirt back there.”

  “You’d better show me those men,” Emmett said. The remark Amy had made about Melody went right over his head. He was incensed that anyone should hit his child. “Why were they beating on you?” Emmett asked slowly.

  “They wanted my jacket,” Guy said, grimacing. “I should have had better sense than to go in there in the first place, but I was wet and miserable and I didn’t think. They were tramps, I think—maybe hitchhikers.”

  “Let’s check this out, just in case,” Emmett said, and he looked pretty dangerous, Guy thought as they walked together toward the shack. But a police car came by before they reached it. Emmett told the officer what had happened, and he was told that there had been some trouble with transients lately. He went to check, but the men were long gone. Which was just as well.

  The fighting Deverells climbed back into their Bronco and went home.

  A little later, with three exhausted kids tucked up in bed before they managed to rehash the exciting incident, Melody lay curled up in Emmett’s hard arms, smiling with pure bliss after the most tender loving she’d ever known.

  “This is what I wanted it to be on our wedding night,” he said drowsily. “But I was too desperate for you.” He bent and brushed his mouth lovingly over her soft lips, smiling warmly.

  “When we get around to making a baby, I want it to be like it was tonight,” she whispered into his warm throat. “We’ve never been closer than this.”

  “I know.” He cradled her body to his and stretched lazily. “Guy’s going to be Alistair’s champion from now on, I imagine,” he murmured.

  “Friends to the end. Alistair’s sleeping with him.”

  “He’s your champion, too. You should have heard him telling Polk what you did to that tramp on his behalf.” He glanced at her. “Polk told him what you said, about his being more important to you than Alistair. He’s been strutting all night.”

  “He’s a very special boy. But he’s much more sensitive than he looks.” She traced his thick eyebrows. “We’ll have to remember that. Both of us. And no military school. If he goes, I’m going with him.”

  “For protection?”

  “Laugh if you like, but I’m a brown belt in tae kwon do.”

  “What?”

  She shrugged, smiling at his surprise. “Didn’t you wonder how I was able to drop a man that size so easily? I didn’t have anything else to do on long winter nights, so I enrolled in a Korean karate class. It was very educational.”
<
br />   “No wonder you didn’t balk when I asked you to go with Amy to look for Guy. I worried about doing that. Men are going to feel protective about their women. It’s their nature.”

  “I know that. I don’t mind. Just as long as you know that I’m not helpless all the time.” She rolled over and kissed his chest, feeling his breath catch as her lips pressed through the thick hair to the hard, warm flesh beneath it. “Of course,” she whispered, “there are times when I really enjoy being helpless.”

  “Is this one of them?” he murmured, coaxing her mouth closer.

  “I think so.”

  “Good. Let’s be helpless together…”

  He rolled her over and very quickly, the friendly banter turned to something much more serious and intense.

  Randy and a very pregnant Adell came to visit two months later. The children accepted her condition without comment, and there were no problems.

  By the time Emmett and his family drove Adell and Randy back to the airport, they were friends. Randy, who looked so much like his sister, was obviously the end of Adell’s rainbow.

  “Nice to see them so happy,” Emmett remarked as he and Melody watched the other couple walk off toward the loading ramp, arms close around each other.

  “Yes, isn’t it?” Melody asked with a sigh. “Emmett, I’m so happy I could burst.”

  “So am I.” He bent to kiss her, very softly. “And the kids were so good, weren’t they? I could hardly believe they were the same bunch that put on their Thanksgiving Indian costumes and attacked that car of Florida tourists that got lost on the place last week. We really are going to have to start enforcing some new codes of behavior.”

  “Oh, maybe not,” Melody said. “They’ve been so good today…”

  “Excuse me?”

  A uniformed security guard with a grim expression tapped on Emmett’s shoulder.

  “Yes?” Emmett asked politely.

  “Someone said those might be your kids…?”

  He gestured toward the concourse. Emmett noticed three things. An empty pet carrier. A screaming, running woman. Three laughing children holding equal parts of an enormous, friendly python. It looked almost identical to a Far Side® cartoon by Gary Larson that the twins had just been looking at in the book he’d bought them earlier…