Always Emily

Her gaze slid away from his and she stared at the wall. “Nothing,” she said, voice small but defiant nonetheless.

“Tell me,” he insisted.

“I can’t. It’s better if you don’t know.” He recognized the stubborn set of her jaw, so particular to Emily. There was no fighting her when she dug in her heels.

“I’m not getting any more out of you, am I?”

She shook her head.

“So I’m good enough to come to when you need your forehead wiped, but not good enough to trust. Is that it?”

She didn’t answer.

There’d been times when they’d been close, when there had been a connection he’d cherished, when he’d hoped...

Aw, forget about it.

“Let’s get you home.”

“Okay.”

“Have you had malaria before?”

“No. I won’t again. The medication will take care of that.”

“You’re taking medicine?”

“To prevent it from coming back.”

“Can you walk?”

“Sure. Help me up.”

He lifted her into his arms.

“Put me down. You can’t carry me that far.”

“Want to bet? What have you been eating? Feathers?” It angered him that she’d changed, that she wasn’t the woman he knew, a go-getter, determined and sharp. Hale and healthy. “Don’t you take care of yourself?”

“Not lately.” For the first time, Salem understood what a sardonic laugh sounded like. He didn’t like hearing this self-mockery from Emily.

At the elevator, he stood her on her feet for a minute while he used his key to start it up again. When the door opened and he moved to pick her up, she protested. “Love you holding me, but I can walk. Just let me lean on you.”

Love you holding me. Did she know what she was saying?

They made it to the car with Emily leaning on him heavily, with Salem rushing them through the rain to his Jeep, parked behind the resort. He put her into the passenger seat then climbed behind the wheel and swiped rainwater from his face.

“You picked a great night to come home.”

Emily laughed, but it sounded hollow, as though more than her body was ailing.

“What happened to you in Egypt?” He sounded as disgusted as he felt.

“The Sudan.”

“What?”

“Not Egypt this time. Too much political turmoil right now. Country’s torn apart. I was in the Sudan.”

“What happened?”

She didn’t answer and he glanced at her, but the country road was too dark. “Are you crying?”

“Nope,” she said, but the thickness in her voice betrayed her.

“Was it that boyfriend of yours? What did he do?”

“Screwed me over.” A bitter laugh barked out of her, but she said nothing else.

He didn’t want to know more, didn’t want to hear another word about the guy.

Out of the silence, Emily’s voice floated like a disembodied ghost. “I hit rock bottom.”

CHAPTER THREE

AIYANA PEARCE CREPT past the living room where her grandfather dozed in the flowered armchair.

Dad would hit the roof if he knew she was going out without his permission, but what Dad wanted didn’t matter. He wasn’t home, was he?

She couldn’t help being bitter. Dad used to be home in the evenings with her and Mika, but now he was usually at the Heritage Center, and then when he finally came home all he did was study for his college courses. He wanted to be an architect.

Dad said a person should have ambitions.

Gramps snored and Aiyana glanced at him. Gramps didn’t have ambitions, hadn’t even finished high school, but people still loved him anyway, didn’t they?

Having justified her defiance, Aiyana stepped outside and closed the door slowly. She was careful. There was no way Grandpa would hear the click of the lock catching.

Bypassing the creaky third step, she ran down the walkway to the street. The cool breeze took her by surprise and she zipped up her jacket. The air smelled like rain.

A sharp whistle from a couple of houses down caught her attention. Justin! Her heart rattled in her chest like a baby bird flapping its wings.

She raced toward the sound but squealed when he jumped out from behind a tree and wrapped his arms around her. “Did I scare you?”

“Yes.” She gasped and caught her breath. She smacked her boyfriend’s arm, but couldn’t be mad at him for long. Boyfriend. She liked the sound of that. Yesterday, he’d said he was hers and had invited her out tonight for the first time. Hers, he’d said, forever and ever.

Justin White, the most popular boy in school, wanted her for his girlfriend. How cool was that?

He wanted to keep it a secret, even though she wanted to shout it to the whole world. He said it felt good that it was their special news, only theirs, and they should hang on to it for a while.