Hello, Goodbye

Chapter Sixteen

The nice breezy days of spring were beginning to give way to hot, humid days of summer, and the closer it got to the end of June, the more Emersyn knew she would have to face the music. She'd promised Kiel she would start looking for a job at the start of summer, but the truth was she had no intention of finding a job. Not until she was finished helping Zeke find his family. She knew she would have to tell Kiel sooner rather than later, and she worried he was going to be disappointed in her choice. Part of her even feared she'd have a blowup fight with him just like the one she had with her mother. But she had to tell him the truth. Rip it off like a Band-Aid.

It was the Monday just before the first day of summer. Zeke was in Seattle doing whatever it was he did on Mondays, and Emersyn was having a tense lunch with Kiel. He seemed fine, really. But she was sick with anxiety about the conversation she knew she had to have with him. Out of all the loved ones she had left in her life (and there weren't very many), she dreaded disappointing him the most. He was like a father to her. She loved him so much, and all she ever wanted was for him to be proud of her.

They had just finished talking about the progress he was making on the new renovation with Zeke when Emersyn blurted it out, just as he was taking a bite of his cobb salad. "I'm not going to look for a job."

Kiel froze, naked fork suspended in midair, and Emersyn felt her blood run cold. She bit her lip, praying he didn't explode. That he would understand. He stared at her for a few seconds, and in those few seconds she thought she might faint. But then he rested his fork in his salad bowl, sighed, and said, "Emersyn, you told me you would start looking for a job when summer hit. What's going on?"

Her Monte Cristo sandwich looked totally unappetizing as she rubbed her hands anxiously against her ripped jean shorts. "I just... I'm so caught up right now in helping Zeke, you know? And then there's this new... thing I'm working on. And I just... don't really have time right now." Her uncle raised his eyebrows at her, and she grimaced. "I know. I know how it sounds. And I promise you, I am not going to blow through the entire estate. But Zeke even says he doesn't know how much longer he's going to be here, so I want to help him for as long as he is here."

She heard tinkling laughter somewhere behind her, and she jumped, having totally forgotten they were in a restaurant full of other people. Kiel stared at her, an unreadable expression on his face. And she was waiting for the explosion. A repeat of the night she left her mom's house. But he just sighed and pierced another lettuce leaf with his fork. "Okay."

It was like all the stress in her body just oozed out of her all at once. She blinked in surprise, waiting for him to say more. But when he didn't, she wrinkled her face in confusion and said, "Okay? That's it? Nothing else?"

Kiel chewed a bite of lettuce and egg, swallowed it quickly, and shrugged his shoulders. "What do you want me to say, Em? You're an adult now. I can't tell you what to do. All I can do is give you advice and hope you'll take it. But you don't have to. I want you to get a job because I'm worried you're going to blow through the estate. But if you don't feel like you need one, then I'm not going to force you to get one. I have to trust you."

She was not expecting the conversation to go this way at all. "Wait. So that's really it? You're not going to get mad at me? Yell at me? Tell me I'm making a stupid decision that'll ruin my life? Call me a loser?"

He blinked, surprised, and then gave her a small sympathetic smile. "No. Emersyn, sweetheart, I would never do that. Ever. You know me better than that. I just worry about you, but I could never say those things to you." He reached forward and placed his hand gently on top of hers. "I love you."