Emily

  “Yeah, I guess. Let’s go eat.”

  Emily was hoping the boys would compliment her on her cooking. Instead, they ate hunched over, their heads down, not even talking.

  Finally, Austin asked, “Can I have some more pancakes?”

  That was the chance she’d been waiting for. When she returned from the kitchen, she laid her hand softly on his shoulder and leaned close to him, letting her long blonde hair brush past his ear as she forked a couple of her best pancakes onto his plate. “Have all the pancakes you want, Big Boy,” she said, in what she hoped was a seductive voice.

  Jeremy was staring at her, not quite sure what was going on. “Get me some more pancakes too while you’re at it,” he grumped.

  She went back into the kitchen, got a couple of pancakes, went around to Jeremy’s side of the table, and lobbed them onto his plate. Then she sat down next to Austin.

  A short time later Jeremy went to go take a shower. That left Emily and Austin alone.

  She took his plate back into the kitchen and dished up the rest of the scrambled eggs, five strips of bacon, and the last of the pancakes, then returned to the dining room and set the plate in front of him. “Here, why don’t you finish this up?”

  “I’m pretty full already.”

  “You’re a growing body,” she said, then quickly corrected herself. “ . . . A growing boy . . . that’s what I meant. A man, really, if you think about it, a young man about to serve a mission. Who knows how they’ll feed you in the mission field? They might not have bacon where you’re going, so eat all you want. And not every country has pancakes. Some countries don’t. Ecuador I think . . . no pancakes. I heard that once.” She felt like a complete airhead, rambling on like that, but she couldn’t seem to stop.

  “Is something wrong?” Austin asked.

  “No, nothing, why do you ask?”

  “You have kind of a wild-eyed look about you. And the way you’re talking, it’s sort of like you’re about to go over the edge.”

  Her voice became high and strained. “The edge? Really? I haven’t noticed.” She wiped at the perspiration that was gathering on her forehead. It was time to change the subject.

  “Where do you think you’ll serve your mission?”

  “Illinois.”

  “Really? How can you be sure?”

  “I’ve already received my call.”

  “Right, I knew that,” she said, feeling stupid. “So you’re pretty sure, then? I mean, they could change their mind.”

  “They don’t change their mind once you receive your call.”

  “No, of course not. When are you going?”

  “Two weeks. And then two weeks later, Jeremy leaves.”

  “Two weeks? That doesn’t give us much time then, does it?”

  He looked at her with a puzzled expression.

  She winced. “Excuse me. What I meant was it doesn’t give you much time to get ready. That’s what I meant.”

  “It gives me two weeks.”

  “Yes, that sounds about right.”

  She needed an excuse to sit with him, so she decided to have some breakfast, but when she went into the kitchen, all the good food was gone. Watching to make sure Austin couldn’t see her, she fished through the garbage can under the sink, looking for reject pancakes that weren’t too bad. When she found one, she put it on a plate then took it in the dining room and poured syrup on it.

  “Where’d you get that one?” he asked.

  “Not every pancake can be a masterpiece,” she said.

  He glanced at the misshapen, burnt pancake. “How many you got in there like that?”

  “Not many.”

  “I can’t believe you went to so much work for us. That was really nice.”

  She melted under his smile. “Thanks. That really means a lot