Alicia's Misfortune (29 page)

When Emily woke up it was almost 10:00 a.m.
 
She could hear the girls laughing and yelling
downstairs and she wondered if they were always so loud.
 
Before she had a chance to get out of bed,
Eisley came bounding into her room and jumped on top of her bed.
 
“Come on!
 
Uncle Dylan made us all pancakes.
 
Come on!”
 
She pulled at Emily’s
arm and tried to drag her out of bed.
 
Emily gave Eisley a sheepish smile and then slowly slid out from under
the covers.
 

“Good morning.”
 
She
smiled at Dylan when she entered the kitchen and noticed that he was already
dressed.
 
He was wearing a pair of jeans
and a white t-shirt, and his hair was still wet from his shower.
 
He beamed when he saw Emily, and told her to
have seat.
 

“I made my specialty this morning, just for you.”
 
He flipped a pancake on the griddle and then
pushed a plate toward her.
 
She smiled
and watched as he placed three steaming hot blueberry pancakes on her plate,
then flicked off the burner and handed her some butter.
 
“The girls love these, right?”
 
He looked at Anna and Eisley who were all
smiles as they waited for their Uncle Dylan to serve them some of his
mouth-watering pancakes, too.

“Miss Emily, we know you’re going to love them.”
 
Anan smiled and took a sip of her orange
juice.
 
Emily dug in without much
hesitation and then realized that she hadn’t eaten anything since her
flight.
 
She was famished and the
pancakes tasted delicious.
 
She devoured
what Dylan set in front of her, and then protested when he offered her more.

“Thank you, but this is great.
 
I’m full.”
 
She smiled and then had a sip of the coffee that Dylan had set in front
of her.
 
Emily thought of Leila at that
moment.
 
The two used to drink their
coffee together every morning before heading off to the Lancashire Textile
Company.
 
A pang of sadness coursed
through her body, and she figured it must have shown on her face because Dylan
immediately asked if she was okay.
 

“Yes, thanks.
 
I’m
fine.
 
I just need to use the
bathroom.”
 
Emily excused herself and
walked into the dining room.
 
Pictures of
Ann and Eisley hung on the wall, and they made Emily smile.
 
The bathroom was just to the left, so she
turned on the light and stepped inside.
 
As soon as she had the door closed, she let out a sigh and then looked
at her face in the mirror.
 
She was still
tired from all of the traveling, and it showed in her face. She thought about
Leila, and about how she would tell Emily to just slice some cucumber for her
swollen, puffy eyes.

“I miss you, Leila.”
 
Emily looked up, as if Leila were watching over her from inside the
bathroom.
 
Then she unzipped her pants
and sat down on the toilet.
 
It was a
relief to get away for a few minutes.
 
She wasn’t used to all of the attention, and she certainly wasn’t used
to being around two middle-school aged girls first thing in the morning. After
she had gone to the bathroom, she splashed some water on her face and then
walked back into the kitchen.

“I’ve still got some pancakes if you’ve got room.”
 
Dylan was now sitting at the table sipping a
coffee.
 
Eisley and Anna had gotten up
and were both running around outside in their pajamas.
 
Emily sat down.
 
She wasn’t one for beating around the bush,
so she came out and asked the first question that popped into her head.

“So who was the woman that was here the other night?
 
The one who was sitting in front of the
television while the girls cut each other’s hair.”
 
Emily couldn’t disguise the disapproval in
her voice.
 
Dylan shook his head and
chuckled.

“That was Mary-Jo.
 
She’s the babysitter, if you could call her that.”
 
Dylan took a sip of his coffee and studied
Emily’s face.
 
“You know, you remind me
of someone.
 
I think she’s one of those
Victoria’s Secret models.”
 
He nodded his
head and then smiled.
 
“There’s one who
has this real pretty face, kind of like yours, and long, slender legs.”
 
Dylan raised his eyebrows and Emily realized
that he was hitting on her in an odd sort of way.
 
She blushed and then she sipped her coffee.

“You know, I gave you that room at the end of the hall so
that you could acclimate for a few days, Emily.
 
But, you do understand that you agreed to be my wife, right?”
 
Dylan gave Emily a wry grin and then put his
hands on his hips.
 
Emily nodded her head
in agreement.

“Of course.
 
I
responded to your ad with the honest intention of fulfilling that role.”
 
Emily nodded her head but even as the words
came out, her voice wavered with doubt.
 
She and Leila had discussed at length some of the challenges that might
result from agreeing to a marriage of “convenience,” as Dylan phrased it.
 
Emily had balked at the idea of sleeping in
the same bed with someone that she didn’t even know, with having sex with a man
who she might not be attracted to, and who she might not ever fall in love
with.

“Emily, you need to just do what he asks and look at it like
a job, because that’s what it is.
 
His ad
didn’t ask you to fall in love with him.
 
It asked you to move to Texas and raise his nieces.
 
So, that’s what you do.”
 
Leila had spoken matter-of-factly and Emily
had walked away feeling confident in her decision to follow through with the
role.

“Well, I just wanted you to know that I’m glad you’re here,
and I look forward to getting to know you better.
 
I mean, all I know about you right now is
that you’re from a little town in England, and that you have a cousin who
you’re close with.
 
The girls go to
school during the week, so I was thinking that maybe you and I could go to one
of the local barbeque spots on Monday and have lunch together.
 
How does that sound?”
  
Dylan looked at Emily with a hopeful expression.
 

“That sounds great.
 
I’d love to get to see what Texas looks like.”
 
Emily smiled and then had a good look at
Dylan’s face.
 
He had a dimple in his
left cheek and a slight bump in his nose.
 
She definitely found him attractive, and it made her want to speak to
Leila so that she could tell her.
 
They
had sat up together one night trying to guess what Mr. Dylan McBride looked
like, and Emily had been pretty close in her estimation.

“I look forward to it.”
 
Dylan smiled and then turned around to face the mound of dishes that
loomed over the sink.
 
Before he could
even think about washing one, the back door flung open.

“Uncle Dylan.
 
Robbie
asked if we could go on a tractor ride.
 
Can we?”
 
Eisley, still in her
pajamas, stood before Dylan, her big blue eyes wide as saucers, her hair
trailing wildly down her back.
 
Dylan
looked at Emily for approval.
 

“I think that you and your sister need to get dressed before
you do anything.”
 
Emily stepped in and
then looked outside.
 
Anna was on her way
in.
 
She tromped up to the back door,
threw it open, and then kicked off her boots which were covered in mud.
 
“Okay, Anna.
 
Right upstairs you go to get dressed.
 
Leave those boots here.”
 
Emily
smiled and then took the boots as Anna scampered away with her sister.
 
Dylan looked on with a smile.

“You know, for being here less than twenty-four hours, you
seem to already have a knack for talking to the girls.”
 
Dylan was impressed.
 
He didn’t know what to expect, and he was
somewhat relieved that Emily, so far, met his expectations.
 
“We can talk more tomorrow about their
schedules, and their behavior.”
 
He
raised his eyebrows and Emily chuckled.
 

She knew that with a little bit of effort, she could get the
girls to comply with her requests and even enjoy themselves doing it.
 
Emily was used to being around children, and
just like her letter had stated, she was prepared to make sure that they were
respectful and hard-working, as opposed to rude and unsavory.
 
She approached the sink and looked at the
dishes, not quite sure where to begin.

“Emily.
 
You just got
here.
 
Take today to just un-pack and
settle in.
 
We’ll get out tomorrow for a
little bit and then we can get down to the nitty-gritty as the week begins,
oaky?”
 
Dylan didn’t want Emily to feel
so overwhelmed that she second-guessed her role.
 
He wanted to ease her into the McBride
lifestyle, wanted to slowly incorporate her into the chaotic and unbalanced
life that they currently led.

“Okay.
 
Thanks.”
 
Emily rocked back and forth on her heels and
then turned around to go upstairs.
 
She
passed Eisley and Anna as they came bounding down the steps, dressed in their
clothes to go outside.
 
For a second, she
thought back to her own childhood and recalled the many afternoons she’d spent
outside on her parents’ farm.
 
She liked
the fact that Dylan lived on what appeared to be a vast expanse of property,
and she liked the fact that there was enough space for her to wander alone and
in private if the household environment became too demanding.

Once upstairs, she closed the door and sat down on her
bed.
 
Then she pulled out a note pad from
her suitcase and reached in her purse for a pen.
 
She wanted to write to Leila and let her know
that she had arrived safely and that she was just beginning to get settled in
her new home.
 
She had just written “Dear
Leila,” when she heard a car pull up in the driveway.
 
She slid off the bed and walked to the window
to take a peek at who had arrived.

Two men in black suits climbed out of the car and approached
the front porch.
 
As soon as they knocked
Emily heard the dogs bark and the girls call out to Dylan.
 
She wondered who the men could be, and then
figured that she’d find out soon enough.
 
She sat back down on the bed and had just finished writing “I arrived
safely,” when she heard a knock at her door.

“Hi, Eisley.”
 
Emily
smiled when she saw the little girl standing before her.
 
Eisley tugged at Emily’s shirt.

“Miss Emily, can you please make me and my sister some
lunch?
 
Uncle Dylan is in a
meeting.”
 
Emily realized that Dylan
probably hadn’t told the girls that he was giving Emily the day off, but she
didn’t mind going down to make them a quick lunch.

“Sure, sweetie.
 
I’ll
be down in a minute.”
 
Emily walked back
toward the bed and folded up her letter.
 
She tucked it neatly into her suitcase and then walked toward the mirror
that was attached to her dresser.
 
She
thought back to what Dylan had said about her resembling a model.
 
It brought a smile to her face as she
realized that this would be the first man she had been involved with in over
five years.
 
It gave her pause when she
realized the depth of the commitment she had just gotten herself into.

Dylan was seated at the head of the dining room table when
she got downstairs.
 
The two men in black
were on either side of him, and both had a series of papers and folders in
front of them.
 
She wondered what this
meeting was all about, but knew that it wasn’t the right time to ask.
 
She gave Dylan a weak smile and she tried to
gracefully slide into the kitchen to make the girls lunch.

“Emily, thank you for getting their lunch.
 
This was a little bit…”
 
He paused and then looked at one of the men
with a frown.
 
“…unexpected.”
 
Dylan drew in a deep breath and then looked
down at the papers before him.
 
Emily
nodded and then continued walking.
 
When
she got into the kitchen, all of the dishes from the previous day, along with
the dishes from breakfast, were piled in the same intimidating mound.
 
Eisley and Anna looked at Emily with
expectant faces.