At My Door

Chapter Fourteen

Around eight in the morning I was on the road headed for my parents house. Jax had let me have the weekend off from work without any questions as to why. Maybe he was just that nice of a guy or maybe he could tell from my expressions and my voice that I needed to get away for a bit.

Either way I thanked him and left in a hurry. Alex had text me a few times and called once on my way to my parents house but I ignored him. Camille knew where I was and I knew she would tell him so I didn't worry about it.

The first person to greet me was my little brother, Mark, but it wasn't surprising as my parents were at work this early in the morning.

"Hey little brother." I gave him a big hug like I hadn't seen him in years.

"Hey, Emma," he said.

It really hadn't been that long since seeing him but he looked older already, and even though not much time had passed since being back home it was nice because we hadn't talked much since I moved.

We went inside and I took my bags upstairs to my old room before heading back down and joining Mark on the couch. "So, what brings you here?" he asked.

"Do you not want me here?"

"Of course I do, but you haven't been gone that long, so I thought maybe something was up."

"Nothing is up," I lied. I hated lying to him because we talked about almost everything, but I definitely didn't want to drag him into my guy problems.

I went into the kitchen and grabbed a glass from the cabinet filling it with water from the tap.

"Could Alex be the reason you're here right now?" he yelled from the living room.

My head shot towards him but his back was to me. "What?"

"Yeah he just text you." I could see him hold up my phone. "He said, please talk to me."

I ran into the room and snatched the phone from his hand. "It's not nice to read others messages."

"It was right in my face!"

I set my glass down on the coffee table and sat back down beside him, laying my phone beside me on the couch on the opposite side of him. "Still, it's not nice."

"So, what happened?" he asked.

"Nothing," I said.

He went to speak again but the front door swung open interrupting our conversation, and I can't say I was mad about it.

"Honey," my mother exclaimed, a wide smile, as she walked inside coming over to give me a hug.

"Mom, what are you doing here? Shouldn't you be working?"

She waved her hand. "Oh please, do you honestly think I'm going to work when my daughter is home visiting?" She tossed her purse onto the armchair. "Besides, I'm the owner. I make my own rules."

I laughed through my smile. "Of course you do."

"Are you hungry? I can make us some lunch," she began as she looked at her watch, "yeah it's still early enough for that."

"That would be nice." I followed her into the kitchen. "I'll help."

We made some pancakes, a favorite of mine when I still lived at home, but too time consuming now that I lived on my own because the only way I liked them was made from scratch.

The three of us sat around the table and talked throughout the meal about how things were going for me and how things were here since I'd been gone.