Her heart pounded in her chest as she gripped tightly on Silas"s hand. With tiny scissor-like motions she made an attempt to skate but was horribly unsuccessful. Silas tried to give her tips but she couldn"t focus on him. She could feel the cool breeze of people pa.s.sing her. When she pa.s.sed Ava and Gabe, who had now sat down on a pile of blankets near their fire, they clapped for her. She wasn"t sure if they were cheering or mocking her. About halfway around the first lap she felt someone come up on her other side. She had expected it to be Trick but it wasn"t. It was a blond guy she didn"t recognize.
He turned and skated backward in front of her with a grin. He was younger than Silas, early twenties at most. The boy reached out and grabbed her free arm.
"I think this one needs more than a one arm hold, Silas," he said.
He put his other arm out in an attempt to take it from Silas.
"No, boyo, I"ve got her," Silas answered his unspoken question.
"I can work with her a bit. It"ll be easier on her if she has a st.u.r.dy support from the front. If I"d known we were going to have new legs out here tonight I would have brought some crates for her to push," the guy said, looking down at her feet. "Bend your legs a little, sweetheart."
Emmie frowned at the man but did what he said. For just a second it was easier but with one arm out to the front and the other to the side it threw off her balance. They steadied her on her feet.
"Sorry boys, I"m a hopeless cause. Let"s find some gra.s.s, what do ya say?" she asked, gripping onto their arms tightly.
"Silas, I can work with her a bit, if you want to go skate," the guy offered.
Interestingly enough, he didn"t sound like he was coming on to her. He just sounded like he wanted to help. Sort of like a coach.
"Emmie, this is Elijah McKee. He"s another Bell House boy like me, but he moved away last year. Elijah plays hockey up in Canada. He quit playing on ponds and thinks he knows it all now," Silas said with mock annoyance. From the corner of her eyes she thought he was grinning as he spoke. She couldn"t be sure though because she was afraid of what would happen if she turned to look at him straight on. Bell House boy, McKee-he was obviously from Irish immigrants too.
"Boyo here, is just sore that I beat him three to nothing in our last hockey game," Elijah said with a grin, still looking at her feet. "You"re going to have to bend those knees a little. You"re skating like you"ve got a stick stuck up your-"
"Elijah," Silas warned.
The boy laughed.
Silas let go of her hands for just a second. She grabbed onto Elijah tightly until she felt her feet leave the ground. The other man let go as soon as she was cradled in Silas"s arms. She wrapped her arms tightly around his neck. When he had her weight balanced he took off. Emmie squealed as they pa.s.sed couples. Her short hair blew backward into his chest. She couldn"t stop laughing. Excitement trumped any fear she might have been feeling at being carried around the ice. He finally slowed to a stop in front of their starting point, near the blanket where her shoes were. She turned to see his face. His cheeks were chapped and red but he was smiling too.
"That was so much fun," she squealed.
He stepped off the ice and onto the gra.s.s before setting her down on the thick stack of blankets.
"See, there"s no reason to be afraid of a little ice," he said, kneeling down in front of her.
"Not as long as you"re there to skate me around," she said, touching his cheek.
Elijah yelled for Silas. Emmie nodded toward his friends. "Go join them."
"Are you sure?" he asked.
"Of course, besides you look pretty handsome out there all relaxed and playing around," she said.
He grinned again before standing up.
"Oh, and Silas," she said. He looked down at her with an eyebrow arched in question. "I said the wrong thing."
"About what?" he asked.
"I should have said I like it here and my home will be where you are," she said with a grin. The words came out easily because she realized it was the truth. She did like it here. She liked the Chicago he had shown her: the Old Man Dan"s ice rink, his apartment, his office, the Irish party, and especially the Bell House. It wasn"t hills and cabins but she had room enough in her heart for both Illinois and Kentucky.
The look on his face was priceless.
Chapter Thirty.
Standing next to the fire the woods in the distance looked like eternal blackness. Emmie stood and extended her hands toward the dancing flame, soaking in the heat. The boys were pa.s.sing a puck. She didn"t think they were playing a real game of hockey, but she couldn"t be sure. She"d never seen anything of the sport. Other than Ava, she didn"t know anyone who owned a pair of ice skates.
She turned and looked back at Silas. He was taller than the others so he was easy to spot. He and Trick were fighting over the puck, laughing and calling each other all sorts of appalling names. Gabe skated out to join them, leaving Ava alone on the blankets. Emmie moved over to join her, bringing one of the quilts along. She wrapped it tightly around her shoulders.
"You do realize that you are getting married tomorrow and you are going to have circles under your eyes as black as night," Emmie teased.
"Pish-posh, it"s nothing a little powder won"t fix." Ava dismissed her comment with a smile.
"Why aren"t you out there showing off your fantastic skating abilities?" Emmie asked, nodding to Jemma and a couple other girls who were still on the ice.
Ava laughed. "Because my abilities are only slightly better than yours."
"Surely you are teasing. I would have had better luck getting around out there with a boat and an oar." Emmie laughed.
"Do you not remember? I"ve spent most of my winters with you. I wasn"t up here very much when it was cold. But the few times I was here, I came out to Old Man Dan"s. They do look handsome out there don"t they?" Ava smiled.
Emmie nodded.
"You"d never guess their heads were full of problems." Ava frowned and looked over at Emmie. "Speaking of problems, how are you holding up?"
Emmie swallowed hard. "I"m fine."
Ava turned and looked back out at the ice. "Come rain or shine, Emmie"s always fine." Emmie rolled her eyes at Ava"s silly poem.
"When you say you are fine it means you"re not. You forget I know you well," Ava said, still looking out at the ice rink.
Emmie sighed. "I mean . . . it"s not easy. It"s a lot to process but on the whole, I"m fine. Regardless of my past, the truth is I"ve already lost my mother. It"s a pain I have learned to live with. And really, as awful as it is that I learned Gabe"s mother threatened to kidnap me as a child, it gave me some peace."
"How"s that?" Ava asked, still looking straight ahead.
"Well I learned Gabe"s father, my father, tricked my mother. She didn"t know he was married. Mrs. Del Grande"s actions finally explained why my mother kept me hidden away all those years. As painful as the answers were, I have them. It"s Gabe I feel more worried about. He"s just learned some horrible truths about his folks. You"re going to have to be strong for him," Emmie answered.
Ava nodded without saying anything. Clearly she was mulling that over in her mind. A fair piece of dead silence pa.s.sed before either girl spoke.
"I guess that is always our job, right? We are strong for them. We show it in different ways but that"s what you and I do," Ava said, looking at her friend.
Emmie nodded and asked, "Is that why you don"t get in his business? You think you are being strong for him?"
Ava shrugged. "I don"t know. I don"t have the same desire to be in the middle of it like you do. I"ve listened to things if he wanted to talk. If he didn"t, I"ve learned ignorance is bliss."
Ignorance is bliss. Emmie wasn"t sure she could ever see it that way.
She opened her mouth to argue with Ava but decided to say nothing. Ava was getting married tomorrow. She was pregnant with Gabe"s baby. At this point Emmie"s opinions on her relationship no longer mattered. Tomorrow. This time tomorrow Ava would be Mrs. Del Grande. A question popped into her mind that she hadn"t considered.
"Ava, where will you live after you are married?" Emmie asked.
"Tomorrow we are staying here at home. We plan to enjoy the wedding celebration with our family as late as possible. Then we may spend a few days in a hotel in the city. I"m not really sure. Gabe was to take care of those details. I was just in charge of planning the wedding and meal." Ava smiled. "Although I do think I would like to spend Christmas in Kentucky. We nearly always spent Christmas in the country. I"m not sure it would feel like the holidays here. And I suppose you"ll be eager to get home to see Walter and his family."
Emmie never got the chance to reply. Their conversation was cut short as three girls made their way over to join Ava. Emmie smiled at Jemma who was following in behind them.
"h.e.l.lo, darlings," Ava said in a voice that was too sweet to be sincere, "please join us."
Jemma squeezed Emmie"s hand. "I saw you skating out there. Nice job for your first time."
"Oh, you are being too kind. We both know I"m no good." Emmie laughed.
"At least you gave it a try, unlike this one. Since when are you afraid of a little adventure?" one of the women asked snidely.
"We all know I would have just embarra.s.sed myself," Ava said with a grin.
"Well, I suppose it"s for the best being in your condition and everything," the second girl said.
Emmie tried to place their voices. They sounded so familiar but she couldn"t remember where she had heard them.
"My condition?" Ava asked.
"Oh, please, we all know the reason for this rushed wedding tomorrow. Let"s just be honest," the first girl said.
The queen and the deck of cards. These were the girls from the Halloween party. Emmie looked at her friend. She looked like she"d been hit. Ava swallowed hard before she spoke.
"I don"t know what you are talking about." She smoothed her dress out across her knees. "Gabe and I are in love and eager to begin our life together. There was no reason to wait."
"No reason to wait all right. That boy"s had you laid out flat on your back since last summer. Do you not remember we were here when your love was rekindled?" Both girls snorted as they laughed at Ava. Emmie had never in her whole life met two people more cruel. Well, she had met one person and she"d smacked him with an iron skillet.
Emmie stood and put her hand on her hip, "Go. Home. We don"t want you here."
"I beg your pardon. You are a guest at our party. If someone should be going home it"s you," one of the girls said.
"This is not your party and you have worn out your welcome. Leave," Emmie repeated.
The taller girl looked from Emmie to Ava with her arms crossed over her chest. "Oh I suppose you think this is your party because you"ve been carried around by Silas, which is highly improper, I might add. I guess we see why Ava"s turned out the way she has if you are an example of the kind of loose-moraled friends she"s had back in Kentucky."
Each time the girl mentioned Ava"s condition her friend looked like she"d been smacked. Emmie never thought about what happened next. She just knew she"d had heard this girl refer to Ava in a hateful way for the last time. The sound of her hand popping the girl"s cheek seemed to echo through the quiet. Emmie couldn"t remember the last time she had smacked someone, but this girl deserved it. She had deserved it since the Halloween party when she had belittled her. She deserved it now for making Ava feel bad.
The girl stood there across from Emmie with her hand on her cheek and her mouth open in surprise. "You actually slapped me," the girl said in disbelief.
"And yet here you are still talking when I"m pretty sure I asked you to leave," Emmie said and turned to her friend. "You too little duckling; we don"t need any followers here." The second girl backed away from Emmie like she was a crazy lady.
"What in the h.e.l.l is going on over here?" Trick shouted as he came off the ice. Emmie looked up at him and saw Silas, Gabe, and Elijah following.
"We came over to visit with Ava and that girl smacked me," the girl said to Trick, pointing at Emmie.
All four of the men looked at her with wide eyes. While brawls might be an everyday occurrence at the Irish parties, clearly they were not common at Old Man Dan"s ice rink parties.
"Next hockey game, I call Emmie. Poor skating aside, we need a fighter," Trick yelled. Elijah laughed and said they"d flip a coin for her. Emmie didn"t understand their meaning, but she didn"t think it was good for her image.
Emmie crossed her arms around her chest and met the men with an even stare. "That is not exactly how it happened."
Silas gave her an amused grin. "Then tell us exactly what happened because, in all of my years of coming out here ice skating, I have never in my life seen two women in a fight."
Emmie felt herself blush. Had she embarra.s.sed Silas?
Chapter Thirty-one.
"She was implying crude things about Ava. I know you wouldn"t want someone saying such horrible things," Emmie said, jutting out her chin.
Ava stood, smiled, and wrapped her friend in a hug. "Thank you for defending my honor."
Although she was teasing, Emmie could hear the appreciation in her voice. When Emmie turned to look at the boys again she noticed Gabe was glaring past her at the two girls who had yet to make their escape. He looked mad enough to spit.
It was Silas who spoke first. "I think the time has come to take our friends home."
Gabe added, "You better hurry and get your things together. I won"t hit a girl but I sure wouldn"t mind watching my sister give you another smack."
"Your sister?" the girl frowned. It looked like she was sorry to have opened her mouth as soon as the words escaped her lips.
"That"s right. Emmie is family. Next time you are around, treat my girls with a little respect, eh?" Gabe shouted.
A couple of guys Emmie hadn"t been introduced to said goodbye and walked the girls in the opposite direction from the woods that Emmie, Ava, and Silas had come through.
"You do know by this time tomorrow all of Chicago will know that Emmie is your sister? They will make up all sorts of rumors to explain the situation," Ava said to him.
"Yeah, and I don"t care. I"m ready to get this out and move past it . . . all of it. The deeper this thing gets the more I start to take Emmie"s stance on secrets. They are stupid and just end up hurting the people they were created to protect." He turned to Emmie. "Although, I guess I should have asked you if you wanted it known before I told her."
"I"ve got nothing to hide, Gabe. We"ll figure this all out in time but I agree with you, honesty is best," Emmie said with a shrug that she tried to make come off as indifferent. She didn"t care what these people in Chicago thought of her. She was surprised that a tiny part of her actually felt proud that Gabe had claimed her as a sister. She"d always believed that might be a secret that stayed buried for a while.
"We had better go home. Maybe we can get a little sleep before we have to be up tomorrow . . . actually, later today," Silas said. "Are you walking Ava back?"