Page 70 of The One I Love
Then I hear a door open and slam shut.
Amelia...Morning light...Fuck…fuck, fuck, fuck….
I nearly jump out of her bed in a panic, which also wakes her up.
“What’s going on?”
I start looking around her floor for my pants. “I spent the night.”
My words don’t register right away, which is making me panic even more. I know she was asleep five seconds ago, but I need her to catch up. “Amelia. We fell asleep. It’s morning. By the look of how bright it is, I’m guessing it’s not early, and I’malso going out on a limb to say the door I just heard shut is because Luke and Mariah are home.”
Her eyes slowly get bigger and bigger as my words sink in.
“Shit!” She throws off the covers and leaps toward her drawers to put on a T-shirt and shorts. “Oh God, Oh God, Oh God…What time is it?”
I pat my jeans pocket before I remember that I left my phone downstairs last night before the…activities started. “My phone is downstairs.”
“Mine too.” She starts pacing around her bedroom as I finish getting dressed. “Shane! My pants and underwear are downstairs. In my kitchen!”
“Maybe they didn’t notice?”
The death glare Amelia shoots me is downright scary. Actually, I take that back. Scary isn’t a good enough word. Terrifying is a little better, yet still not quite doing justice. “Shane. My clothes are on the kitchen floor. Our phones are laying out. Your truck is in my driveway. It’s safe to say they noticed.”
She sits on the bed and covers her hands with her face. “Oh, this is bad. This is so bad.”
“Hey,” I say, doing my best to calm her down as I sit next to her. “They were going to find out sometime.”
“But not like this. I wanted to sit down with them. Explain everything. And I know they are teenagers, and I know you’re not a stranger. But still. This is big, and I didn’t want it to be like this.”
“I know,” I say. “But that plan is out the window. So we need a new plan.”
This perks her up. “Yes! Window! You climb out the window. I did it for you. Time to pay up, bucko.”
I look over to her window, then back to her. “Amelia, you’re on the second floor. There isn’t anything to break myfall. I love you, and I’ll do a lot of things for you, but I will not jump out a window.”
“We’re going to forget that you just said ‘I love you’ for the first timeduring a crisisand we’re going to focus.” She stands back up and starts pacing again. “Okay. If you refuse to sneak out the window, which I think you should reconsider, then I guess we only have one solution…”
“Yup,” I say, standing up and putting my hands on her shoulders. This stops her from pacing and coincidentally makes her take a few deep breaths. “We have to go face the firing squad.”
She nods and starts shaking her limbs out like we used to do before football games. “You ready, Cunningham?”
I bring our foreheads together. “Let’s do it, Evans.”
I put on my T-shirt, and with one more big breath—and a double-check to make sure there wasn’t anything out of place or lingering—we walk out of her bedroom door and head downstairs to the living room. I don’t hear Luke or Mariah, but as soon as we are the bottom of the staircase there they are—sitting on the couch, neither of them saying a word. Their arms are crossed, their looks are stern, and all of a sudden I feel like I just got busted by my girlfriend’s parents for sneaking over.
“Come in and have a seat,” Luke says, his tone even.
“Kids, let us explain,” Amelia says.
“Oh, there will be explaining,” Mariah says. “Because we have some questions.”
Amelia and I look at each other and do as we’re asked, because clearly any thoughts of us controlling this conversation are long gone. We sit next to each other, but with a few inches between us. I don’t dare hold her hand, because I have no idea which way this conversation is about to go. I’d hope because they know me, and I’ve been around so long, that they’d be okay with this. But on the other hand, maybe they like their lifethe way it was. They might be scared that Uncle Shane is now more than that.
No matter what their feelings are, I know I’m about to be put through the wringer. These two love their mom. They will protect her just as much as she does them. Especially Luke. He was old enough to know, at least somewhat, how bad things were before the divorce. He knows what she’s sacrificed to raise them basically alone. So, the fact that they’re sitting us down like this doesn’t surprise me. These are two cubs looking out for their mama bear. And I must say, I’m damn proud of them for this.
“First, we need to start by saying we’re not mad, just disappointed.” I glance over to Amelia, and both of us are trying to keep our laughs in. Luke sounds so serious, and I want him to have this moment, but he had to know that was going to make us crack.
“I understand,” Amelia says, pushing down her laughter. “And we’re sorry. We didn’t want you both finding out like this.”
