Page 148 of The Girl Out of Time
“Ah, here we go again, and me thinking you finally got better …”
“Me? I have nothing to worry about regardingmycharacter …”
Emmeline smiled, left Aunt Emily and Mother to bicker, and walked over to Father and Theo. “Do you think he could come to dinner?”
Father pressed a kiss to her temple. “Anything you want, dear. Anything you want.”
Safe in her father’s embrace, she smiled at Theo and winked.
New York City
Three months later
“I’ll get the door!” Emmeline checked her appearance in the mirror one last time and ran to the front entrance of their house. A whoosh of a pleasant summer breeze entered the hallway as she opened the door, revealing the last two guests for her birthday party. “Grandma! Grandpa!”
“My beautiful birthday girl.” Grandma kissed her cheek. “Look at you, so grown up already.”
“You saw me a month ago.”
“Oh, well, time flies.” Grandma winked at Grandpa, then smiled at Emmeline. “And where is your young man? He’d better be treating you well, or I’ll have words with him.”
“He’s in the dining room, talking with Father about telephones.”
“Oh, Will.” Grandma shook her head and nudged Grandpa. “That’s because of you, you know. All the technology obsession.”
“Actually, Theo is quite interested in it,” Emmeline said. “Come in. We’re all ready.”
She escorted her grandparents to the dining room, where the rest of the party had gathered. The table was set for a spectacular dinner: the finest china laid out, the vases of flowers precisely positioned, the lamps lit to provide a cozy ambiance. Emmeline stopped at the entrance and proudly beheld her family, scattered around in groups. Theo and Father chatted by the fireplace, Aunt Emily and Uncle James stood by one of the windows, Emily saying something about “Don’t make me hold a vote for the name,” and her brothers quarreled over a pocket watch—
“Hey!” Emmeline cut in, putting one hand on Tristan’s shoulder, and another on Brendon’s to keep them apart. “What’s that?”
“Brendon won’t let me see the watch,” Tristan said.
“It’s not yours, it’s Father’s!”
“But he left it on the table, so it’s fair for me to look.”
“Well, you’d already broken it. See, it doesn’t work!”
“That thing is not for you, boys.” Emmeline snatched the watch out of Brendon’s fingers. A quick look-over confirmed it was Father’s time-traveling pocket watch, not the regular one. Aunt Emily and Father both agreed that Emmeline had been the only one to get the effects from Mother—meaning Brendon and Tristan weren’t time travelers—but it still didn’t hurt to be cautious. She didn’t want any surprises of that kind tonight.
“But—” Brendon objected.
“You can ask Father to lend it to you later.” She sashayed away with the watch, heading to the other side of the room, but got intercepted by Mother.
“You look splendid, darling.” Regardless, Mother still pushed a strand of Emmeline’s hair back, adjusted her necklace—the locket Theo had given her—and straightened out the sleeves of her beaded lavender gown.
Emmeline didn’t mind the fuss. She thanked her mother, kissed her on the cheek, and walked over to Aunt Emily and Uncle James. “And how are you two doing?”
“Starving,” Emily said. “Thank you for giving us aridehere, though.”
“No problem. Sorry for that brief foray into India. I’d been showing Theo my old book collection earlier, and for some reason, I thought of theJungle Bookjust as I was about to portal us—”
“It’s fine.” Emily patted her shoulder. “You’ll get the hang of it.”
Now that she knew how to activate her powers, time traveling had become easier for Emmeline, although sometimes, she still missed her destination. She’d need plenty of practice—after everything had been revealed and Father told her about the family history, she hadn’t done that much time travel. Today was an exception. Her aunt and uncle wanted to come to her birthday dinner, but with Emily this high pregnant, she didn’t find it very comfortable to travel by regular means—hence Emmeline’s little help with the portal.
“Are you sure you’re fine?” Emmeline asked her. “Shouldn’t you be resting?”
