Protect My Heart

by Judy Corry

  “Great. We’ll see you then.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  ARIE

  I DROVE to the other end of the street to watch Emma’s house while I called Jason to find out where he’d been. He should’ve been at the office watching her tonight. If he’d been there, we could have caught those guys and found out what they were doing and who they worked for.

  Jason answered his phone after a few rings. “Hi, Arie, what’s up?”

  “That’s what I’d like to know.” I knew I sounded angry. I couldn’t help it. Emma had been left alone tonight, without protection, and it was the one night she’d needed it. Him not being there was unacceptable. “Where the heck were you tonight? I just dropped Emma off at her house after a close call at the office.”

  “I-I lost track of her.” He sounded defensive. “I was watching the parking lot at the community center, waiting for her family to leave, and after a couple of hours her parents left without her. She must’ve slipped out a side door and walked to the office while her parents stayed behind.”

  “It looks like you need to pay closer attention in the future,” I said through clenched teeth. Jason was getting older and had been doing this job for a long time. Maybe he was becoming lax in his duties.

  “I’m pulling up to her house now,” Jason said. I glanced down the street and saw his headlights approaching. “What happened at the office?”

  “Emma said there were a couple of guys searching the building when she was about to go home. She had to run out and hide behind the dumpster and wait for them to leave.” Jason parked his car in front of Bruce’s house, across the street from Emma’s. “When she called me, she was terrified. The guys didn’t see her, but that doesn’t mean they won’t try coming back.”

  “Are you serious?” I could imagine the confused look on Jason’s face as he spoke.

  “I know. I’m starting to worry that the guys working for Fenris may have figured out where she’s been all these years.” I pinched the bridge of my nose and squeezed my eyes shut for a moment, trying to relieve some of the tension I felt. “I’ll try to get Emma to let me come to work with her from now on. Those guys may come back, and we’ll need more than just one guard watching from outside to protect her.”

  We finished our conversation, and I pulled out from the spot I’d parked in. I waved to Jason as I drove past his car, still frustrated with him for making such a huge mistake.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  EMMA

  THE NEXT MORNING, I called the office to let them know what I had witnessed the night before. They didn’t know of a guy nicknamed D who worked in the building, so they said they’d report the incident. They appreciated the call but said I shouldn’t worry about it any further.

  I had a lot of other things to think about, anyway, so I pushed the incident from my mind. Today was my birthday, and Arie was coming to dinner with us.

  Eighteen. I couldn’t believe it.

  At six sharp, Arie arrived at my house, looking way too good in his gray V-neck shirt. Once I had discreetly checked him out, we headed to the best Mexican restaurant in town, La Casa Garcia, with my parents. It was a family-owned restaurant, in a quaint old house on Main Street that desperately needed a facelift. The stucco exterior was chipped and discolored, and the interior needed a fresh coat of paint as well, but the food was authentic and delicious. I had actually applied for a job there last year, just so I could learn the secret recipe for the salsa. Sadly, I never got the job or the recipe.

  “It’s a good thing you and your siblings were cute when you were little. If you hadn’t been, you probably wouldn’t have survived after all the mischief you got yourselves into,” Mom said as we ate. Instead of tonight being a nice relaxing dinner with my parents getting to know Arie better, they’d decided to turn it into an exposé on all the embarrassing things I’d done growing up. Apparently, I’d been quite the tornado when I was two, and my parents wanted to make sure Arie knew every detail there was to know.

  “What other things did Emma do?” Arie asked as he cut into his pork burrito. “Sounds like she kept you busy.” He winked at me, obviously loving all the stories.

  “I think we’ve heard enough for one night,” I said, hoping to end the humiliation.

  My mom patted my arm. “It’s okay, sweetie. I just have one more.” She looked at Arie. “It’s really cute, actually.”

  “Oh yeah?” Arie grinned.

  “When Emma was a baby, she loved her binky so much she had to have it with her all the time. It got so bad that we finally decided to cut her off from it, cold turkey. We told her how there was a binky fairy who was gonna take her pacifier to give it to new babies.

  “One night, we showed her a picture of the new baby who was getting her binky.” Mom stifled a giggle. Ugh, why were my parents so embarrassing? “Let me tell you, Emma wasn’t happy at all. She went around saying, ‘I no wike dat baby,’ all night. It was hilarious!”

  Both my parents were laughing now.

  “Oh, come on, honey,” Dad said to me. “You were so cute when you were mad.”

  Arie’s smile ran from ear to ear. He was so planning to tease me later; I could see it in his eyes. But my parents weren’t done yet. Mom looked at me pointedly and said, “You were quite the little drama queen. I’m glad you grew out of that phase, or I’d be completely gray by now. Possibly in a mental institution.”

  Dad cracked up. I rolled my eyes at them. “Yeah, yeah.”

  My dad reached across the table to squeeze my arm. “I can’t believe our baby girl is an adult now. Soon you’ll be off to college and then getting married. The years have gone by so quickly.”

  My mom sniffled and dabbed at her eyes. I started to feel a little sentimental myself and drew in a deep breath to calm my emotions. I couldn’t have Arie see us all become a blubbering mess.

  Dad removed the glasses from his face, looked at them, and then wiped them clean with the tail end of his shirt. “You’ve certainly matured over the years, and we’re proud of the beautiful, bright daughter you turned out to be.”

  Wow, this was getting over the top. It was just my birthday dinner. It’s not like I was leaving the house or anything. No need to get all mushy. “Thanks. I think I turned out okay.” Then for added measure, I said, “All thanks to your awesome parenting.” I might as well try and earn a few brownie points while I was at it.

  As if I had said the magic words, Mom set a silver gift bag on the table in front of me. “Your father and I got you this for your birthday.”

  “Thanks!” I gazed at the bag, trying to guess what it was. I’d hinted before that I would like a car for my birthday, but I knew there was a fat chance of that happening. My parents didn’t believe in buying their children vehicles. That was something I would have to save up for on my own.

  I reached inside and found the latest electronic tablet sitting at the bottom of the bag. “This. Is. Awesome!” I turned it over in my hands.

  “We hoped you’d like it,” Dad said, glancing at my mom. “We thought it would be a good thing for you to have for college next year.”

  My mom pointed to the bag. “There’s something else in there.”

  I reached in the bag again and felt around for a moment before my fingers found a small aerosol can. Pepper spray. I furrowed my brow.

  “And that’s to give your father and me peace of mind,” my mom said, noticing my confusion. “After what happened at work on Wednesday night, we wanted to make sure you had some sort of protection with you.”

  I gave my parents an appreciative smile. “These gifts are perfect. I can’t wait to use them—well, at least the tablet, that is.” I held up the pepper spray. “Hopefully I won’t be needing this anytime soon.”

  “We hope so, too.” Mom glanced at Dad, then back to me. “Did you have anything planned with your friends after this? Is there a basketball game tonight?”

  “Uh-huh. Maya and Kathryn wanted us to meet them at the game after this, and then
we were gonna drag Arie to the discount theater to see a chick flick.”

  My parents smiled at Arie, who smiled back in a way that made me think they were all keeping something from me.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  EMMA

  IT WAS ALMOST seven thirty by the time we arrived home from dinner, which meant Arie and I were late to the basketball game. As soon as we walked through the door, the lights flicked on and we were greeted with a loud, “Surprise!”

  My jaw dropped as I scanned the living room. Maya, Kathryn, and about fifteen other friends from school stood in my living room. There were bright balloons and hot pink streamers, and a large ice-cream cake on the coffee table. A huge smile crept across my face.

  “Wow!” I said, setting my gift bag on the coffee table. “Talk about a surprise! How’d you guys keep this secret from me?”

  “We’re awesome, that’s how.” Maya shrugged when I hugged her. Everyone else in the room grinned and nodded, Arie included. The sneaky smile he’d shared with my parents at dinner made sense now.

  After I finished my round of hugging and thanking everyone for coming, Kathryn called out, “I think the birthday girl deserves a special song, don’t you?”

  Mom lit the candles on the ice-cream cake, and the group sang happy birthday to me. When the song was over, I made a wish and blew out the candles.

  I followed my mom into the kitchen to help serve the cake to my friends, but Kathryn grabbed my arm and stopped me. “Oh no you don’t, Birthday Girl. We will be serving you today. Not the other way around.”

  I stayed behind, glancing around the room for a place to sit. The only seat left was a chair next to my wizarding friend, Brian. Nope, better to stay standing. But Brian caught me looking in his direction and motioned for me to sit by him. So I did, not wanting to be rude.

  Since our date, I had avoided Brian pretty well. The times I had talked to him, he’d given the impression that he liked me more than I wanted. At school, I’d always gotten away before he could ask me out on a second date.

  “Hey, Birthday Girl,” Brian said.

  “Oh, hey.” I wondered how he’d ended up being invited to the party. I didn’t think Maya would go out of her way to invite him. “How long have you known about this?”

  “A few days. Kathryn was drawing up some party plans before school when I stopped to talk to her.” He pushed his glasses up higher on the bridge of his nose. “I asked her what she was doing, and she ended up inviting me.”

  So that was it. Kathryn was too nice sometimes. But I couldn’t be mad at her, because I’m pretty sure I would have done the same in that situation.

  “I even helped with some of the plans,” he went on. “They didn’t use all my ideas, but I’m sure you would’ve loved them.”

  “Really? What were some of your ideas?” I couldn’t begin to imagine the things he’d come up with for a party. Maya came over at that moment and served us our ice-cream cake. I stabbed it with my fork and took a bite of the chocolate ice cream.

  “One idea I knew you’d love was to have a wizard-themed party. I remembered how much you enjoyed using the wands on our date, and I thought it would be fun to continue.” I almost choked on my cake. “I even offered to let them borrow my collection of wands to decorate with. Maya didn’t like the idea for some reason. I guess she doesn’t know you as well as I do.”

  I cleared my throat. “Uh, that’s an interesting idea. Nice that you even offered up some of your wands. I know how special they are to you.” I crammed the last bit of my cake, excused myself, and escaped to the kitchen.

  “What’s next?” I asked Maya, who was eating her cake at the counter.

  “What? You want more?” Maya asked sarcastically. “Isn’t this enough?”

  “What I meant was, are we going to be hanging out here for a while or going to the last half of the game?”

  In between bites, she said, “I was thinking we could hang around here tonight. We could get the karaoke machine out downstairs, pull out some other games, or watch a movie. Maybe have a few things going on at once for people to choose from.”

  “Sounds fun.”

  A sudden spark came into her eyes. “Hey, maybe we could even get Arie to serenade the birthday girl with that sexy voice of his.”

  “Shhh.” I peeked behind me to make sure no one had overheard Maya’s suggestion. Thankfully, no one else was near the kitchen.

  She laughed. “Oh come on, I’m sure I could get him to do it for you.”

  “Ha-ha, yeah. There’s nothing more uncomfortable than being serenaded in front of fifteen other people. I mean, you of all people should know. Didn’t you get, like, three singing valentines last year?”

  “It’s not so bad once you get used to it.” She leaned against the granite counter.

  “Please don’t ask him to do it,” I said. “I don’t want everyone to know that I like him.”

  “Fine, I won’t.”

  A little later, Maya and I ushered our friends downstairs. We got the karaoke machine going, which was popular with the girls. It was fun to listen to some and painful to listen to others. After a lot of begging, a few of the girls were able to persuade Arie to sing a song with them. It was cute to watch him get all self-conscious in front of the group. He really had nothing to worry about, though, because he totally rocked it. After karaoke, the group broke up—some started watching a movie while others went upstairs to play party games in the living room.

  Exhaustion started to creep over me, and I yawned. I hadn’t slept well since Wednesday night and wanted to lie down and rest for a minute. But I couldn’t do that with everyone at my house.

  Instead, I decided to go out back, hoping the cool night air would wake me up. I went upstairs, grabbed a thick jacket, and went out on the deck.

  My breath swirled in the air as I walked to the porch swing. I loved rocking back and forth on the swing. The motion had a calming effect and was a place I always came to when I needed to think.

  My mind wandered back to Wednesday night. I hadn’t heard anything back from the office or police, so maybe I’d freaked out over nothing? It certainly hadn’t seemed like nothing as I’d cowered behind that dirty old dumpster.

  I startled when the door opened behind me. Hopefully, it’s not Brian again. My stomach flip-flopped when Arie stepped out, wearing his jacket. Was he headed home and coming out to say goodbye before he left? My heart sank at the thought.

  He zipped up his jacket and put his hands in its pockets as he strolled over to the porch swing. “I saw you come out here all alone and wanted to make sure everything was all right.” His brow furrowed.

  I was flattered he’d noticed my absence. “I’m fine. I was feeling tired. I’m sure I’ll perk up again in a minute.” I didn’t mention how having him come outside to find me had already brightened my spirits.

  “It does feel nice out here.” He took a deep breath, gazing into the night sky. “Do you mind if I sit with you?”

  “Of course not.” I slowed the swing.

  We began swinging back and forth, sitting in silence for a few minutes, just enjoying the peaceful evening atmosphere—well, at least I pretended to be serenely enjoying the clear night with stars twinkling high above us. I was actually freaking out on the inside at being alone with him again.

  “Have you had a good birthday?” Arie asked after a while.

  I nodded. “It’s been good, and definitely full of surprises.” I turned in my seat to face him, putting my back against the armrest, and tucking one leg beneath me on the seat. “I had no idea everyone would be here when we got back from dinner.”

  He smiled his signature dazzling smile that made my heart pick up its pace. “Maya threatened us with our lives if we so much as mentioned that your birthday was coming up.”

  “I’m glad no one lost their life because I turned eighteen.”

  “Eighteen.” Arie said the number as if it had some special significance. He ran a hand through his tousled hair that
looked almost black in the moonlight. “You’re old enough to date older men like Mr. Rochester now.” He winked.

  I scrunched up my face. “Ew. Just because you’re old enough to do something, doesn’t mean you should.”

  “Oh yes, yes. I remember. You have those rules of yours. No one over, let’s see,” he made a show of counting on his fingers, “eighteen, nineteen, twenty, twenty-one . . . and since you said a few years, which most people translate into three or four, that means twenty-two-year-olds are also included in that list.”

  “I don’t think I’m quite ready for that.” The eighteen-year-old in front of me was all I could think about at the moment.

  “Come on.” He smiled. “Older guys are cool, too.”

  “Is that what you say to all those fourteen-year-olds you’ve been trying to pick up?”

  He scowled. “Now that’s just not cool, Emma. You know I wasn’t talking about dating middle schoolers.”

  “I know. But if you think you can tease me about dating older men, then you better be able to take what you’re dishing out.”

  “Okay, okay.” He held his hands in front of him. “I was just reminding you of the significance of this birthday. You being eighteen changes everything.”

  “Everything?” I challenged. “How?”

  He opened his mouth to say something when the door burst open.

  “Emma. Are you out here?” Maya called out.

  “Yeah, over here on the swing . . . with Arie.” I hoped she’d take the hint and leave us alone. I really, really wanted to see where this conversation was headed.

  She didn’t take the hint. Her shoes clomped on the wooden deck as she hurried toward us.

  “I’ve been looking everywhere for you.” She placed a hand on her chest as she tried to catch her breath. “I need to warn you before Brian finds you.”

  “Warn me?”

  Arie sat up straight and scanned my backyard.

  Weird.

  Maya eyed Arie, seeming to notice his change in behavior, too. She said, “I just overheard Brian and Troy talking about the Winter Ball. Brian says he’s planning on asking you tonight!”