Emmett
I tossed and turned all night about accepting the job offer, and I knew it was because I hadn’t told Autumn about it. I had gone into her office to discuss things, but for some reason, I just couldn’t find the words. To save face, I’d asked her about the wedding date, and while I wanted to believe she’d really been excited to move the date up, I couldn’t help but wonder if she felt like she was being pressured to do it sooner.
I managed to fall asleep at some point, and waking up with Autumn in my arms not only made me feel worse about keeping the secret, but it made me wonder if I should go back and talk to her father again.
She looked so beautiful lying there beside me, and I couldn’t imagine the pain in her eyes or the disappointment from me accepting the job offer without even asking her how she felt about it.
“What time is it?” Her voice was rough in the mornings, and she had been sleeping so hard at night she barely moved.
“It’s just after eight.” For us, that was sleeping in, and she moaned and turned over to face me, snuggling closer.
“I don’t want to get up.”
Footsteps sounded at the door, and I heard a little knock that announced Pen was on the other side. “Come in.”
Before I finished the words, she opened the door, so I waited until she was halfway across the room. “The floor is lava!” I yelled.
She jumped from the middle of the room to our bed in a matter of two bounds. She landed on the end of our bed with a scream.
Autumn rolled over and held her mouth. “Pen, that’s enough.”
“That was my fault, Autumn,” I said. “I was playing our latest game.”
“I don’t mean to be a party pooper, but I don’t want to be jostled around this early.”
“Sorry, Mama.” Penelope looked over at me with her big blue eyes and then crawled over to lay beside her mother.
“It’s okay. I’m just a little queasy. I think it’s from that ice cream we had last night. It didn’t sit right or something.”
She still looked a little pale, and I hoped that she wasn’t coming down with something. “Are you running a fever?”
She reached up and brushed her hand through my hair. “No, I’m sure it’s nothing. Stop your worrying.”
“What are we going to do today, Emmett?” Pen asked, bouncing up and down.
“Pen. Stop it, or I’ll make you get down.” I looked over at Autumn, who was turning green around the gills.
“Don’t you just want a bushel of them?” I asked.
She placed her hand on my chest as Pen got down to stand by my side of the bed. “I do, but I think this one is enough for now.”
I reached out a hand and tickled Penelope’s side. She giggled and fell to the floor.
“I’m going to make you some oatmeal, Emmett, and if you’re not downstairs in twenty minutes, I’m going to put raisins in it!” Pen laughed and turned around to run downstairs. Paul had told her about my hatred for raisins, and now she had an arsenal against me.
As she ran away, Autumn sat up in the bed. “I’m serious. What would you think about having one of our own?” She searched my eyes.
“I think that would be amazing someday. I’ve thought about having kids before, what our children might look like, what they’d grow up to be, who they’d favor. You know, all the usual stuff people dream about.” I didn’t want to pressure her into having another child, and I knew that would be way down the road for us. We needed to enjoy Pen first. She was only seven, so we had time.
“Oh, I see.” She moved to the side of the bed and got up and walked to the bathroom. “I’ll be a minute.”
“I’ll just go downstairs, but hey, Autumn. I was going to tell you that I need to go take care of some business this morning.”
She glanced over her shoulder. “Is something wrong?”
“No, nothing like that. Don’t worry yourself.”
She stopped and leaned against the doorframe. “You not telling me is making me worry.”
“I just need to go to the office for a bit. Something’s been nagging me.” We’d talked before about how sometimes ideas will come to me, and when that happened, the best thing I could do was look over the project’s progress.
“Oh, okay. You know you can talk to me about those things.”
“I know.” I pretended like it was no biggie.
“I know you’re not my father, Emmett. If you have to go in for a little while on the weekend, I understand. You’re with us all the time. It’s not like one or two hours here or there will matter once in a while.”
She didn’t mind “once in a while,” but she was going to flip when she found out I’d agreed to a lot of long hours. Her eagerness to be understanding was only going to make it worse.
“Thanks, baby.” I headed down and found Pen in the kitchen, just about to drop the first raisin in my bowl.
“It hasn’t even been twenty minutes,” I said.
She turned around and giggled. “I was just going to put one.”
She put the raisin in her mouth and then slid my bowl over to the end of the bar.
Paul walked in the back door whistling. “Good morning, family.”
“You’re in a chipper mood,” I said.
“I am, aren’t I?” He flashed me a devilish grin. “I’d tell you why, but young impressionable ears are around.”
“I’ll cover my ears if it helps, Uncle Paul.”
“It doesn’t,” I said, giving him a pointed look.
He laughed. “Don’t worry. I’ll save all of the sordid details for the watercooler.” He usually waited until we were at work to tell me all those things when Pen and Autumn were nowhere else around.
“Good, because I’m in a hurry.” I grabbed a spoon from the drawer and went to work on the oatmeal as Pen climbed up to the bar and perched on her favorite stool.
“Where are you going?” Paul asked.
I looked over at Pen and knew I needed to choose my words carefully. I didn’t want her to tell her mother where I was going or ask if she could go and see her grandfather. “I need to rethink that offer I took. I’m hoping it’s not too late.”
I had a feeling Mr. Cooke was going to be super disappointed in me for reconsidering the deal, but I wasn’t sure. There was a chance he’d understand. Either way, I had convinced myself to have a heart to heart with him. I hoped he would realize that I needed to talk to Autumn and get her opinion on it. If it was only my life it was going to affect, there’d be no hesitation, but she and Pen were too important to me now.
“Ah, I see.” Paul shook his head. “You’re really going to pass up that great opportunity? For what?”
“It’s not that I’m passing it up. I’m just going to tell him I need some time to think and that I haven’t been able to talk to a certain someone about it. I feel like I should do that before I give a final answer. I just can’t disappoint her. I love her too much for that.”
He nodded. “I hear you, man.”
“And I’d like to assure him that we’ve set a date, but I wanted to let Autumn tell him when.”
“He’s going to get it out of you,” Paul said.
“No way. I’m a rock. There’s no way I’d blab. I haven’t even told you.” I laughed, and he stuck out his tongue, which was mostly to make Pen laugh.
She’d been watching us go back and forth, and even though I didn’t think she had any idea what I was talking about, she didn’t ask any questions. Which kind of made me nervous that she’d ask her mother later.
I finished the oatmeal and then went upstairs to get into some clothes, but Autumn was still in the bathroom. I said my goodbyes through the door and figured she was just in the tub. Even though it was strange for her to lock herself inside, I wasn’t going to interrupt her to open the door.
I left the house and drove across town to her father’s house, where he was practicing his golf swing out in the front yard.
“Ah, Emmett. I was just thinking about you. How’d Autumn take the news?”
I walked up and shook his hand, but I did so with a somber expression. “I’m sorry, but I haven’t told her yet. I really think I spoke too soon, sir. I just couldn’t lay it all out to her. I’m not that kind of man.”
“I see,” Mr. Cooke said. “So, did you change your mind? What is it you’re saying?”
“I just think that before I give you a final answer, I need to talk to Autumn about how this will affect our lives. The thing is, I’m trying to build a relationship with her, and I don’t see how I can build an honest one if I make decisions that will impact our marriage before we’ve even walked down the aisle together. I want to make sure she has a choice to at least speak her mind about it.”
He kept a straight face, and just when I thought he might tell me what a weak man I was, he looked up and gave me a smile.
“I have to respect that, Emmett. I mean, I do hope you’ll decide to take my offer, but I understand you want to discuss it with her first. I suppose it’s only fair if my daughter knows who she’s marrying and what kind of career he has. After all, she’s got strong opinions about working overtime.” He gave a soft chuckle.
“Thank you, sir. I also wanted to tell you that we’ve finally discussed a date.”
“And?
“And I’m going to let your daughter tell you. She’s supposed to call you today. I told her I had to go into work for a bit, and I’m headed down to the office to make some notes.”
“Excellent. I was beginning to wonder if you really liked each other.” He gave me a nudge. “Before you go, watch this. See if you can tell me what’s going wrong.” He lined up his shot, reared back, and then followed through. Despite his efforts, he hit the ball hard to the left.
“I think it’s in your stance, sir.”
“Please, son. Call me Lance. We’re about to be family, and we’ve known each other far too long for formalities.” He handed me the club and then teed a ball for me. “Let’s see what you’ve got.”
I hadn’t played golf in ages, much less swung at a ball. I had been carrying guns through Afghanistan and was busy getting shot at instead. But I took the few lessons my coach had given me and put them to use. I held my breath as I swung, hoping I’d least connect. The ball sailed through the air, landing across his pond, and he turned and smiled.
“Not bad, son. Not bad at all.”
“Especially for someone who hasn’t really ever played?”
“Even better then.” He laughed. “We’ll have to play at lunch sometime. You could bring that brother of yours, and I’ll ask Hudson to come. He loves playing me because he can win. But believe it or not, we just play for fun. I’ve never had enough time to take it too seriously, and it’s a good stress reliever.”
“We all need an outlet, I suppose.”
“Indeed. That’s why I want you to take your time, talk to Princess, and figure it out. We’re not in a hurry.” He clapped his hand on my back, and I felt so much better now that I’d come down to talk to him. Even though it was hard to believe, the man had really changed.