Hello, Goodbye

Chapter Eight

"Oh wow," Kiel said as he looked down at the picture of him with her father and mother. A small wistful smile appeared on his lips as he said, "Where did you get this, Em?"

She shrugged her shoulders. "Found it in one of grandma's old photo albums. You guys look so different."

He nodded his head, his eyes glazing over the way they did every time he looked at a picture of her dad. "Yeah. I guess we were different. Damn," he said, shaking his head. "I miss that guy. Did I ever tell you he laughed like a horse?" She shook her head, fighting to hold back a laugh of her own. "He did. And he was always laughing. It was so funny to hear. It was like an infectious laughing disease. Once he got going, he'd spread it to me and then your mom. And then it was like we just couldn't stop. We'd laugh so hard our sides would ache. When your mom was pregnant with you, he made her laugh so much that she peed her pants a few times. True story."

She burst out in a fit of giggles. "No way. He did?"

"Yes," Kiel said, eyes wide. "I was there once when it happened. She was so embarrassed. I swear I thought she would kill him. But it made for a great story later. Funny, I can't even remember what they laughed about. I can't remember what we ever laughed about. Just that we did. I guess times were simpler back then."

She sighed, a little smile still on her face, and nodded her head. "Who's the other girl in the picture? The one you have your arm around?"

Kiel looked back at the picture, and his smile fell just a little bit. "A girl I was seeing at the time. Honestly, I was crazy about her. Really believed I was going to marry her."

Her eyes widened. "Whoa, really? I didn't know that." He nodded his head, and he looked sad as he continued to stare at the picture. "What happened to her?"

He shrugged his shoulders. "It just didn't work out." She stared at him curiously, wondering if he was going to offer any more information. But he didn't say anything else about her, and Emersyn knew him well enough to know the memory still hurt him.

"Is she the reason you never had a family of your own?" she asked, focusing on his face so she could catch his reaction to her question.

He waved his hand, dismissing the thought. "I have my own family. You are my family. And back then, your dad and his parents were my family. I wasn't close with my own parents. They had their vices, so being home was never easy. There were so many times I wished your dad's folks would just adopt me. They might as well have, because I was there all the time."

"Yeah, I know," she said, having heard the stories about Kiel's alcoholic dad and verbally abusive mom. "But I mean... is she the reason you never... you know... got married and had kids of your own?"

He shrugged. "Maybe. She broke my heart. I always considered her to be the one that got away, you know? I waited for her for a long time, but after a while, I kind of figured she was never coming back. And then your dad died, and I was too busy helping with you and your grandparents to go fishin' in the old partner pond again. And now here I am. And I enjoy my bachelor lifestyle, thank you very much."

"By bachelor lifestyle," Zeke said, having just come back in after draining the old water heater tank so they could bring in the new one, "he means living on TV dinners and watching old reruns of The Big Bang Theory before passing out in his recliner."

Emersyn laughed at this as Kiel glared at his young new hire. "I have gotten a lot better about what I eat, thank you very much."

Zeke snorted, and Emersyn liked the way his light blue eyes sparkled as he teased her uncle. "Only because I cook for you every night. If I wasn't making quinoa and salmon or chicken and broccoli for you, then you'd probably still be stuffing your face with flash frozen Salisbury steak every night. Which, by the way, is disgusting. Even before my diet, I never ate that crap."