Post by StoryGirl83 on Nov 10, 2011 22:06:04 GMT -5
Chapter Twenty-Nine – Big Brothers Bite
Emily shut the front door behind her and hung her purse on the coat rack that hung by the door. Dad had said her brothers had decided to stay after dinned and if he didn’t know better he’d think they planned to ambush her. Even though she was pretty sure they actually did plan to ambush her, she hadn’t said so on the drive home. It was bad enough that her brothers knew about strange things going on around Chris and his brother. She didn’t need her parents questioning it, too.
She tipped toed past the family room where she saw the tops of her brothers’ heads as they watched TV. Dad had said Mom had gone to bed early . . . which meant her brothers had probably won whatever argument had gotten them invited over for dinner in the first place. Mom didn’t like to lose.
“Freeze,” Nate’s voice called out just when Emily thought she was home free. “Get in here, Emily Anne. We need to talk.”
Never a good sign, she decided. “Can it wait? I just got home from work. I smell like food.”
“Smelling like food’s not actually that bad of a thing,” Matt commented. “Remember when I used to come home smelling like cigars?”
Emily grinned. “Mom and Dad were convinced that you were smoking and you wouldn’t tell them what was really going on, because you were trying to surprise them.”
“Who’d have thought trying to earn enough money to send them to Fiji for their anniversary would get me grounded,” he retorted.
“Well, you could have told them what you were doing,” she pointed out. “They wouldn’t have known why.”
“Yeah, but that was before they realized Matt wasn’t just playing around with magic,” Nate reminded her. “They still thought the magic tricks he did were cute, but a total waste of time.”
“To be fair, he hadn’t actually made any money before that point,” she shot back. “Putting on shows for the neighborhood kids isn’t going to cover the costs of supplies no matter how good you are.”
“I remember how furious they were when Matt quit his job as a bag boy at the supermarket,” Nate chuckled. His face fell as he realized what she was doing. “This isn’t about Matt though. Get in here, Em.”
She sighed. Behind her, she heard the door close, indicating their dad had entered the house. She entered the room and stopped about a foot inside.
“Close the doors behind you,” Nate directed her.
Emily sighed. She pushed shut the doors and headed over to the middle of the room. She plopped down onto an empty arm chair and looked over at her two older brothers. “Okay, want to tell me what’s going on?”
“I think that’s our line,” Nate commented. “Matt may not have an elegant way of putting it and he’s way off base about Wyatt Halliwell’s sanity, but despite his assurances, I’m not sure that you are safe around him. Today was one of the most frightening, if not the most frightening experiences of my life. I know it could have been worse and I know that Wyatt Halliwell knew what was going on out there.”
“Haven’t you beaten this topic to death?” Emily protested as she looked at her brothers.
“You’re our little sister,” Nate reminded her. “There’s no such thing.”
“Nate’s more or less convinced me of Wyatt Halliwell’s sanity,” Matt admitted, “but he’s still got me worried.”
“What makes you think what happened today has anything to do with Wyatt?”
“I got the idea that this was nothing new to him,” Nate informed her.
“So he has a cool head under pressure,” Emily retorted. “Isn’t that a good thing?”
“It also implies that he’s attracted to this sort of thing,” he returned.
“Well, it’s not like I’m dating the guy,” she shrugged. “I just work with his brother.” She glared at Matt.
“I have retracted my objection to your job,” he announced. “Right now I want to know what your relationship is with the Halliwell brothers.”
Emily’s glare deepened at she said in short clipped words, “I. Work. With. Chris. How is that a hard concept to grasp?”
“Because your first instinct was to trust them,” Nate reminded her. “You’ve only known them for two months and Wyatt claims he barely knows you.”
“He does,” she agreed. “Chris I do know. He’s a nice guy and, yes, I trust him.”
“With your life?” Matt asked, pointedly.
“If necessary,” she agreed without hesitation.
“Well, I don’t want it to be necessary,” Matt protested.
“I don’t either,” she informed him, “but today I had to trust Wyatt with Nate’s life and Wyatt came through.”
“Do you know what actually happened today?” Nate wanted to know.
She shook her head. “No, I can’t say that I do. I know enough to know that I know that I know you had the best possible people handling it. I won’t deny that I was worried, but I knew if anyone could come through, they could. If you don’t trust them, trust me.”
There was silence from both of her brothers.
She sighed. Turning to Nate she asked, “Nate, would you say that you are an expert at what you do?”
He shook his head. “No, not really.”
That hadn’t exactly been the answer she had been looking for. “Well, then would you say that you are very good at what you do?”
“I’d admit that,” he agreed.
“So I should trust you with my finances?” she pressed.
He chuckled. “Last I checked, you did trust me with your finances.” Those finances didn’t amount to much since she was two months into her first paying job.
“Exactly,” she grinned. Turning to her other brother she asked, “And, Matt, would you say that you’re an expert in your field.”
“There’s always room to grow,” he admitted, “but I’d say I’m high up there.”
“And you’d say that I should trust you . . . with my life . . . when I assist you at shows?”
“You’re my sister,” he reminded her, sounding a little offended. “I wouldn’t let you come to harm.
“But I should trust your ability?” she pressed.
“Of course,” he told her. He sounded even more affronted as he added, “I know what I’m doing.”
“And so does Wyatt,” she informed them both. They didn’t need to know what it was Wyatt knew how to do to understand that he was good at it. “You’d agree with that. Right, Nate?”
“Yes,” Nate nodded. “I don’t know if I want to know what was going on out there, though.”
“You probably don’t,” Emily admitted.
“But yes, he did know what he was doing,” Nate continued, “or he sure gave a good show of it.”
“He knew,” she assured both of them. Giving them both a pleading look she asked, “Trust me?”
Matt sighed and didn’t say a word. He didn’t like the direction this conversation had taken.
“Yes,” Nate agreed reluctantly. He didn’t like it much, but he was convinced that it was better to have her around an expert than a rooky and Wyatt clearly seemed like the former.
Having Nate’s word, Emily directed all her attention and her older brother. “Matt?”
Matt nodded silently.
“Good,” she smiled at them. She knew they still weren’t quite ready to admit their little sister had grown up, but they were on their way and she definitely liked the idea of being allowed to forge her own path in a direction very different than that either of her brothers had taken.