12
Just a few steps away from my front door, Jake set me on my feet, or at least one of my feet, the only one I was able to put my full weight on. “I guess I should let you down here, just in case your dad is still on the warpath from Kevin. Maybe he wouldn’t be especially happy to see you in the arms of another newcomer right now.”
Smiling a little, I exhaled in a rush. “Yeah. Knowing my dad, you’re probably right about that right now.”
For a long moment, Jake and I just looked into each other’s eyes. Sparkling in the warm glow of the porch light, his eyes were a clear light blue with dark blue flecks at the outer edges, reminding me of the ocean. When he spoke, his deep voice somehow reminded me of low-toned, churning ocean waves, too.
“So, I completely quit smoking.”
Without removing my arms from around his neck, I smiled a little. “That’s great. What made you decide to do that?”
His beautiful eyes twinkled.
“Well, I just wanted to be able to do this without having to make you smell something similar to an ashtray.”
Before I could ask him what “this” was, he dipped his head and pressed his warm, firm lips against my cheek, instantly causing a riot of butterflies in my stomach. When he pulled his face away after a very long moment, I had the idea that he might try to kiss my lips next; however, because of what he’d said about my dad being “on the warpath,” I couldn’t be sure that he was going to go this far. So, I felt the need to verbally encourage him, telling him to kiss me.
“But this time, on my lips.”
As if my wish was his command, Jake brought his mouth to mine. In complete rapture, I found the feel of his lips against my own to be one of such intense pleasure that I curled my toes inside my sandals. Teetering a bit on the only foot I could put my full weight on, I kissed him back, and he tightened his arms around my waist to keep me supported and take some weight off my injured ankle.
My first kiss didn’t last nearly as long as I wanted it to. Just as Jake began deepening our kiss, probing my lips apart with his own, loud quacking pulled me out of my reverie. After pulling my mouth from Jake’s very reluctantly, I saw a small white duck waddling toward the porch steps. Just a second later, Jen came tearing around the side of the house, followed by David. Approaching the porch, Jen slowed to a walk, then scooped up the little white duck and planted a kiss on the top of his head, making him quietly quack.
Then, after giving Jake a lightning-fast little glare before shifting her gaze to me, she apologized for the interruption. “Johnathan’s just being really ducking naughty this evening. When we went to go check on him and the others, he was the only one not sleeping, so we thought we’d take him with us on our walk. But then, he wanted to be sneaky, and he scurried away without us even realizing it for a minute. I guess I might need to get a leash for him or something to take him on walks. Maybe he can borrow one of Wanted’s.”
By this time, Jen had climbed the porch steps with Johnathan in her arms, and she now took a step closer to me so that I could inspect him. To my surprise, just because he was a duck after all, he seemed perfectly content in Jen’s arms, and he looked at me with bright, intelligent-looking little eyes.
“Here…kiss him,” Jen encouraged me.
Not quite sure if I should, I surveyed Johnathan some more. “He won’t try to peck me or bite me or something?”
Jen said no. “Pecking and biting are two things that aren’t even in the list of things he does. He only does loving things. Well, and sometimes, some running away things. So, just go ahead. Just give him a kiss. Right on the head or the bill, or even on one of his beautiful little feathers; doesn’t matter to him.”
Knowing that Jen probably wouldn’t be satisfied until I gave her “son” a kiss, I tentatively leaned in and gave Johnathan a little peck on his head. From kissing a gorgeous vampire to a little white duck, I thought. This is actually my real life.
As if expressing thanks for my kiss, Johnathan quacked quietly a few times. I couldn’t deny that he was awfully cute, and also remarkably tame and well-behaved for an animal that wasn’t usually considered a pet.
After giving him another kiss herself, this time right on the end of his little orange bill, Jen smiled at me. “Well, I guess me and David should get going. I’ll probably just walk with Johnathan right in my arms so that he doesn’t get too adventurous.”
Jake and I had removed our arms from around each other when Jen, David, and Johnathan had come on the scene, although Jake had kept an arm around my waist for support. However, just then, even with his arm, it suddenly became too difficult for me to maintain my balance just standing on my one leg alone, with just the toe of my other leg touching the porch.
Stumbling a little, I grabbed onto Jake for support, wincing while I had to momentarily put a little weight on my injured ankle. “Ow.”
Jake immediately grabbed me to hold me up. Eyes wide, Jen asked me what was wrong.
I told her I was fine. “I just took a little tumble walking home, and I think I might have sprained my ankle. Fortunately, Jake was nearby, and he found me right after it happened.”
“Oh, no.” Frowning, Jen knelt and examined my ankle in the glow from the porch light for a moment, then stood. “Yup. It looks a little swollen all right.” Shifting her gaze to Jake, she glared at him. “And you didn’t even carry her home, even though you have superhuman vampire strength? She should be held up in your arms right now.”
Jake began protesting, saying that he had carried me home. “I only set her down when we got up here to the porch because I thought her dad might fly off the handle if he saw me carrying her without knowing the reason why.”
Jen snorted. “Well, I’m about to fly off the handle if you don’t pick her up and carry her inside right this second.”
Wordlessly, Jake picked me up, and Jen opened the front door, shifting Johnathan to one arm while she did so. In protest of being jostled, he quacked a few times, lightly flapping his wings.
Once inside, we found the kitchen dark and empty. Jake set me on a barstool, and Jen turned on all the lights, saying that she was going to call Nora, who was our community doctor. After Jen had made the call, she had a seat at the island with me, Jake, and David, setting Johnathan right on the island. Proving to be a curious little duck, he waddled around a little, poking at a pen and notepad with his bill, before climbing right on inside a large, empty wooden fruit bowl, where he promptly sat down with a few quiet quacks.
Wearing a little smile, Jen looked at him approvingly. “What a smart son I have. He knows all the best places to sit, and he also knew that the bowl would fit his little body in it perfectly.”
Just then, a repeated thudding sort of noise faintly sounded from somewhere out in the living room, and within a few seconds, Wanted emerged from the hallway at a trot, slamming on his brakes when he entered the kitchen. Normally, he wouldn’t have stopped, and would instead have leaped right into Jen’s arms. However, wide-eyed, he’d clearly seen Johnathan sitting in the fruit bowl. Quietly woofing at him, Wanted began backing out of the kitchen but then changed course a little tentatively, barking.
Shushing him, Jen hopped off her barstool, went over to him, and knelt down beside him, telling him to be nice to Johnathan. “He’s your new nephew, you know, since he’s my son, and you’re pretty much like my little brother.”
Barking once, loudly, with his focus on Johnathan, Wanted seemed dubious.
A few minutes later, when Jen had finally gotten him somewhat settled down, he went to sit in one corner of the kitchen, keeping one eye on Johnathan.
Jen had just hopped back up on her barstool when Carol and Mark came in the kitchen, both of them in bathrobes.
Mark immediately stopped short, eyeing Johnathan with a frown. “Uh, Jen? Why is there a duck on the island? The island where some members of this household eat.”
Jen heaved a sigh, raking a hand through her long red curls. “Dad, I don’t mean to embarrass you, but the duck sitting in the fruit bowl is your grandson, Johnathan…who you’ve met. Three different times today, actually. Remember?” Without waiting for a response, Jen sighed again, turning her focus to those of us sitting at the island with her. “They say with grandparents, it’s pretty common for them to have memory issues; so, I probably should have expected this.”
With his fists on his hips, Mark frowned so hard at Jen that his expression actually bordered on a scowl. “Jennifer, please listen to me. Carol, Hayden, and I have all told you today, at different times, that there aren’t to be any ducks in this home at any time. Ducks belong outdoors. Not in fruit bowls, from which you and other family members eat fruit.”
“Oh, come on, Dad. I’ll clean it out.”
“You certainly will. Right after you take that duck—”
“His name is Johnathan. Or, you can even call him Polka Dot sometimes if you want, since that’s kind of starting to become his nickname, because see how he has like, some lighter-colored yellowish little spots all over his bill? One of the Amish ladies said that those lighter-colored spots are supposed to be a sign that a particular duck will have especially tender meat, which…how dare she, right? What a sick thought…that someone would actually cook and eat their own child.”
Just then, Johnathan quacked loudly, flapping his wings a bit, as if concurring, before settling back down in the fruit bowl.
With her expression radiating concern, Jen began petting his back. “Don’t worry, little Polka Dot. I would never, ever cook you and eat you…not even if your mean grandpa tried to force me to.”
Pinching the bridge of his nose with his eyes shut, Mark took a deep breath and let it out slowly before looking at Jen again. “Please remove Johnathan, also known as Polka Dot, from our home. I don’t want to have to ask you again, Jennifer…and if I do, I may ask Hayden to rethink the whole idea of having a duck pond in the backyard.”
Frowning hard, Jen recoiled on her barstool, as if Mark’s words had physically pushed her backward or something. “Fine. I’ll take Johnathan back outside. But as he grows up, if he never quacks anything that even remotely sounds like ‘Grandpa,’ just remember this night, and remember how you banished him from our family home.”
With that, Jen picked up Johnathan from the fruit bowl, headed out to the foyer, and yanked the front door open, muttering and huffing the whole time. As she and Johnathan exited the house, Nora came in, asking how my ankle was feeling. I forced myself to answer, even though I felt like I’d barely really heard her. I felt like I’d barely heard any of what Jen had said, either. This was because a few minutes earlier, Jake had taken my hand in his own under the island, and he’d periodically been tracing slow circles in my palm with this thumb. A little lightheaded in the most pleasant possible way, I wasn’t sure that I’d ever experienced any touch so heavenly in my entire life.