Authors: Amy Lane
As soon as the door closed, Emmett disappeared into the house and began to dish up dinner.
Ten minutes later, while his phone buzzed irritably in his pocket, he made his way carefully over his driveway, up over the planter and through the rose hedge, across the ragged lawn, and into the entryway that still had an army’s worth of spiders keeping guard.
His hands were full of dished-up dinner and dessert.
And he had a rose between his teeth.
Keegan threw open the door. “It’s about ti…. Oh.”
Emmett grinned wickedly through the rose and looked at his laden arms.
“Oh, geez—I don’t know what to grab! Here. The plate with the cookies, and the rose….”
Oh, that was better. Emmett had the platter of pork chops and the bowl with a simple salad in a soft-sided ice chest dangling from his arm, and now he could use both hands.
“Aren’t you going to invite me in?”
Keegan grimaced, then turned around and shouted into what was probably the kitchen. “You assholes had better clean your shit off the table in about two minutes, or I’m swiping it all into the trash can, capiche?” Then he turned to Emmett, shaking his head. “Man, you asked for it.”
Emmett nodded. “I certainly did.”
Keegan managed to wipe off the table while Emmett put the insulated chest on the counter and pulled out dinner. In the meantime, two guys built like linebackers and one with the delicate build of a dancer kept walking through the kitchen going, “Hey, that smells good. Is there enough for everybody? Cookies? Kee, make your friend share!”
“Hands off, moochers,” Keegan muttered, scowling at them all until they rolled their eyes at him and left. “I’ve been waiting all day for this.”
Finally they were situated, complete with the cloth napkins that Emmett had picked up from Pier 1 that day, and the little placemats too. Emmett put the rose in a glass, so it could sit on the table, and the roommates had apparently retreated to their separate bedrooms, where they were all watching their own television or computer, with the volume at full blast.
Emmett listened to the cacophony and remembered how Flora used to adapt whatever she’d been planning for dinner or a holiday to include him.
It was time for Emmett to adapt.
“So,” Keegan said, trying not to look too embarrassed, “you’ve done it. The grand romantic gesture. And I have to admit—” He took a bite of his pork chop. “—it’s not bad. So what was the meaning of all of this?”
At that point, one of the linebacker roommates wandered down the stairs. “Kee, we got any milk?”
Emmett sighed. “Look, man, I’ll give you a cookie if you just go away.”
“Yeah, but do we have any milk to go with that?”
Keegan shrugged weakly.
“I don’t know,” Emmett said, giving up. “It’s
your
refrigerator.”
“Yeah, but the milk in there is expired.”
“
Take the fucking cookie and go
!”
“Okay okay, touchy! Man, I hope you’re not that loud in bed! That’s embarrassing!”
Emmett turned toward Keegan, who was now laughing helplessly on the table. Well, now Emmett knew. He knew why Keegan had pushed his way into Emmett’s life, and he knew why he was not that impressed with families.
And he definitely knew what he had to do.
“Kee?”
“Yeah?”
“Let’s eat dinner, grab your stuff, and go over to my place.”
“Oh my God,
thank
you.”
“For permanent.”
“Oh Jesus, really?” Keegan leaped up from the table and ran into his arms. Behind him, the roommate wandered disconsolately to the table and started picking at Keegan’s dinner.
“Oh my God,
yes
!”
They left
everything
there. Emmett had made enough for leftovers, and they ate
that
, in peace, over Emmett’s counter, a duffel bag of Keegan’s first round of clothes sitting on the floor in the kitchen.
After Keegan took his last bite of succulent pork chop, closing his eyes in appreciation, he said, “Did you mean to ask me to live with you on the first date?”
“Mmmno,” Emmett garbled, and then swallowed. He took a healthy swig of milk and tried again. “No. But now so much about the whole last year makes sense.”
“I won’t mind, you know,” Keegan said, for once some of his confidence deserting him.
“Won’t mind what?”
“Being a family of two, and meeting your family of a gazillion. I just… you know. It’s like with you and Chris. It
should
have been great….”
“But we weren’t the right people,” Emmett filled in, smiling.
“What’s so funny?”
“Nothing. I just don’t know how I’m going to put that into a cookbook.”
Keegan rolled his eyes. “Emmett, after we wash dishes, can we have sex?”
His brown eyes were big and deep, and his soft pillow of a mouth was still as beguiling as it had been two days ago. “God, yes. Please.”
“Then I’ve had all the food I need.”
T
WO
MONTHS
later, they made beet porridge. It took them all day, because Emmett tried making the chipotle seasoning from scratch, and he was glad he’d thought to wear gloves and ventilate the house, or they all might have died from tear-gas exposure. They cooked nonfrozen chicken in the chipotle broth until it was falling off the bone, and then added the sautéed vegetables and onions and the finely ground beets, and cooked everything until it became stew.
Then they put it in a special insulated bowl, along with the almond shortbread cookies and a veggie feta casserole that they’d gotten from another cookbook that Emmett had been using so he didn’t get fat.
They gathered all the food together and stuffed it in the car, along with a bag packed for two days and enough of Keegan’s nerves to make a whole other person.
“You told her?” he asked, when they were halfway to Chico.
“That I was bringing someone? Yes! You heard me!”
“You told them I was a man.”
Emmett smiled, remembering the conversation with Flora.
“Flora, I’m bringing home someone for the big birthday get-together—is that okay?” All of the Tomiche’s birthdays grouped in the same three months. As soon as Cecily turned eighteen, they started having a big gathering, just to make it easier.
“Yes, Emmett. Good. Are you bringing that Christine person?”
“Uhm, no. Uhm, his name is Keegan and—”
“Oh,
good
! Does Vinnie know?”
“Uhm, yeah. I texted him this morning.”
“What did he say?”
Emmett didn’t even have to look at the text to remember it, word for word. “He said, ‘What? Did you think I was stupid? I knew Jordyn was your college roommate. When you told Ma you broke up with a Jordyn and it was a “her,” we figured we’d wait until you were ready to come out!’” Emmett finished his impression by rolling his eyes, because he was pretty sure Vinnie had done just that when he’d been texting.
Flora laughed. “That’s my boy! Yes. We were very worried when you started talking about a girl, Emmett. We weren’t sure, you know?”
Emmett swallowed. “Yeah.”
“We hoped you’d trust us enough, but….”
“You’re my family, Flora.” He smiled and caught Keegan’s eye. Keegan, who was lying next to him, still in bed, watched him apprehensively, probably waiting for some sort of nasty comment or horrible upshot. It wasn’t going to happen. “I even added a little to that cookbook you gave me. Do you want me to bring it back?”
“No,” Flora had said, her voice decisive. “No. You and your young man keep it. Maybe give it to another youngster with big gray eyes who comes wandering to your porch.”
Emmett swallowed. Yeah. Family. It really was his for the taking.
“Me and Kee’ll do that, okay?”
“So, tell me about your young man—what’s he like?”
Emmett spent the next twenty minutes, talking about Keegan while Keegan lay next to him and pet the cat. By the time Emmett hung up the phone, he was looking a little bright-eyed.
“Am I really the love of your life?”
“I’m taking you to meet my family, aren’t I?”
And that had been that.
Until now, when the car smelled like beets and Keegan was beset with nerves and vibrating in the seat next to him.
“You’re sure she’ll like me.”
“Positive.”
“How do you know?”
“Because she believed the press release, Kee—you were right there!”
“Where are we going to sleep?”
“Vinnie’s old room—it’ll be a squish, but don’t worry about it.”
“But, they know we’re sleeping to—”
Emmett pulled the car into a Chevron station, because he needed gas anyway. Before Keegan could finish his sentence he leaned in for a kiss.
Keegan responded with an open mouth and a hungry moan, and Emmett was reminded of what they’d been doing
before
he’d called Flora up to tell her they’d be going to the get-together.
He pulled away, leaving Keegan a little glassy-eyed, and got ready to get out of the car.
“Are you done?” he asked, to make sure.
“Done what?”
“Done stressing?”
“Maybe.”
“Good. Remember how I was dating a girl because I wanted a family of my own?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, I got some clarity on that situation—and now I’m living with you, and you are a family of my own. And we’re going to visit some more family, and all together, I think we might not let each other down. Are you ready for that?”
“Can I get a Frosty first?”
Of course.
“Yeah. Get me one too.”
Keegan smiled at him softly. “You know what?”
“What?”
“I like getting things for two.”
“Good. I want to get another kitten.”
“For George to eat?”
“Just go get our ice cream!”
“Going, going, going—but we’re going to have this conversation later!”
Of course they would. Life with Keegan was never silent. There were always words of love.
A
MY
L
ANE
is a mother of four and a compulsive knitter who writes because she can’t silence the voices in her head. She adores cats, Chi-who-whats, knitting socks, and hawt menz, and she dislikes moths, cat boxes, and knuckle-headed macspazzmatrons. She is rarely found cooking, cleaning, or doing domestic chores, but she has been known to knit up an emergency hat/blanket/pair of socks for any occasion whatsoever, or sometimes for no reason at all. She writes in the shower, while at the gym, while taxiing children to soccer/dance/gymnastics/band oh my! and has learned from necessity to type like the wind. She lives in a spider-infested, crumbling house in a shoddy suburb and counts on her beloved Mate to keep her tethered to reality—which he does, while keeping her cell phone charged as a bonus. She’s been married for twenty-plus years and still believes in Twu Wuv, with a capital Twu and a capital Wuv, and she doesn’t see any reason at all for that to change.
Website: www.greenshill.com
Blog: www.writerslane.blogspot.com
E-mail: [email protected]
Facebook: www.facebook.com/amy.lane.167
Twitter: @amymaclane
Behind the Curtain
Beneath the Stain
Bewitched by Bella’s Brother
Bolt-hole
Candy Man
Christmas with Danny Fit
Clear Water
Do-over
Food for Thought
Gambling Men: The Novel
Going Up!
Grand Adventures (Dreamspinner Anthology)
Hammer & Air
If I Must
Immortal
It’s Not Shakespeare
Left on St. Truth-be-Well
The Locker Room
Mourning Heaven
Phonebook
Puppy, Car, and Snow
Racing for the Sun
Raising the Stakes
Shiny!
Sidecar
A Solid Core of Alpha
Super Sock Man
Tales of the Curious Cookbook
Three Fates (Multiple Author Anthology)
Truth in the Dark
Turkey in the Snow
Under the Rushes
Wishing on a Blue Star (Dreamspinner Anthology)
G
REEN
’
S
H
ILL
Guarding the Vampire’s Ghost • I love you, asshole! • Litha’s Constant Whim
Published by
D
REAMSPINNER
P
RESS
http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com
By
A
MY
L
ANE
(Continued)
K
EEPING
P
ROMISE
R
OCK
Keeping Promise Rock • Making Promises
• Living Promises • Forever Promised
J
OHNNIES
Chase in Shadow • Dex in Blue • Ethan in Gold • Black John
G
RANBY
K
NITTING
The Winter Courtship Rituals of Fur-Bearing Critters
How to Raise an Honest Rabbit • Knitter in His Natural Habitat
Blackbird Knitting in a Bunny’s Lair
T
ALKER
Talker • Talker’s Redemption • Talker’s Graduation
A
NTHOLOGIES
The Granby Knitting Menagerie
The Talker Collection