Page 67 of Townshipped
Em gives me the smile she’s only ever given me in the middle of the night, or on a few rare occasions when we were out in the pasture and I caught her watching me.
Twice that smile led me to kiss her.
“Okay, then. I’ll see you in the morning. You have your phone, right?”
In all the hub-bub of getting ready for this trip and preparing for Paisley and Ty to move in, I still haven’t upgraded Em’s phone.
She taps her purse. “In here.”
“You can call me if you need anything.”
She lightly shakes her head as if I’m ridiculous. Her copper waves bounce across her shoulders and a tendril falls forward. My hand lifts to brush the strand of hair back before I have time to think. As soon as my fingertip grazes her temple, our eyes catch. I feel the touch everywhere. The air thickens around us. She’s all I see—all I want.
Of course this is the moment my brother and Lexi look over at us. I pull my hand back quickly. It has the opposite of the intended effect. Trevor’s eyebrows rise. Em looks around. I can tell when she sees Trevor staring at us.
“I’ll see you in the morning,” she says quietly.
“Sounds good. Maybe they’ll serve barley cakes, black broth of blood, and boiled pig's leg. You know, Spartan food?”
“I’m sort of hoping for oatmeal or a muffin and decent coffee,” Em says with a playful wink as she turns to join Lexi.
“That’s the spirit,” I say from behind her. “I think oatmeal is served to the women after the head shaving and javelin throw.”
From over her shoulder, Em says, “You’re really going with this Spartan thing.”
“I’m all in,” I shout after her. “I’m a man who knows how to commit!”
I look around to see the collective turning of every head in my family. Their gawking follows what unwittingly appeared like my profession of undying love to my houseguest of two weeks.
Mom places her hand over her heart as if she’s hearing wedding bells. Thankfully Trevor walks over toward me with our room key.
“Come on, Jack, let Rose go put her things in her room.”
“Did you just make aTitanicreference?”
“Maaaybe,” Trevor says.
“You’ve been to one too many girls’ nights.”
“And you haven’t been to enough of them. Let’s go find our room.”
I pop the handle of my suitcase and pull it behind me, feeling antsy. Tomorrow I’ll see Van’s children for the first time in close to a year. And I’ll take them home with me after the funeral to devote myself to filling the gaping hole my cousin left in their lives.
Maybe the Titanic isn’t such a farfetched analogy. I’m definitely in over my head.
24
“EM”
Lexi and I pull our suitcases toward our room. Trevor and she already had a sweet goodnight kiss in the parking lot—well, it went further than sweet, to be honest, but I looked away at that point. Then Trevor decided to escort us to our room so he could help Lexi get settled in with Poppy.
Watching Trevor and Lexi kindles a longing in my heart. They have community, friendships, one another, and now a new family. I love all that for them. Still, the stark contrast between each aspect of their life and mine pricks at me.
Trevor swipes Lexi’s keycard for her.
“Let’s get you three settled.”
He leads the way into a room where two queen beds fill most of the space. The gaudy geometric-patterned polyester comforters look like they may have been original to the hotel. The carpet sends the message:take your shoes off at your own risk. It’s clean, but at a level of overuse that can’t be restored no matter how many times a vacuum runs over it.
