She must have very much soooooo had to talk to me for she dragged me out of the kitchen, to the stairs and up them. It was clear boy Taylor agreed with her urgent need for communication for he put his hands on my back just above my bottom and gratuitously shoved me up the stairs Amber was yanking me up.

We hit the door to her room. One that I’d noted earlier had a white board on it with little pink and blue flowers drawn in at the edges. But contradictory to the cheerful flowers, the words “Enter and Die!” were printed on it in hot pink in the middle and under that, smaller but in all capital letters, “THAT MEANS YOU RUNT!”

It should be noted that under that, in much smaller letters and in black marker was written in a different hand, “Don’t call me runt!!!!!!!!!”

This amused me when I saw it earlier and it amused me seeing it again. However, at that moment my amusement was intermingled with confusion as to what was currently happening as Amber threw open her door and yanked me in.

I had not seen any of the children’s rooms but Ethan’s (entirely decked out in some sporting team’s paraphernalia, even the sheets) as Conner and Amber’s doors were closed.

Now I saw how Amber could exist in this intensely masculine abode.

There was not one inch of her pink and blue room that didn’t scream “Teenaged Girl!” from stylish but bright bedclothes to pages cut out of style magazine tacked to the walls to band posters to jumbles of clothes and shoes on the floor and accessories and cosmetics on every surface.

I had little time to take all this in for Amber was standing before me. The Taylors having moved to form a loose huddle around us, the door having been closed, Amber was visibly deep breathing while pressing the air down in front of her with her hands in a way I found alarming, repeatedly, chanting, “Okay, okay, okay.”

She sucked in a huge breath.

Then I winced when she smiled an enormous smile and screeched, “You’ll never guess what happened!”

Although I feared my eardrums were bleeding, her excitement was infectious so I smiled back and asked, “What happened, my lovely?”

“Alexi Prokorov said hey to me!” she cried.

I blinked. “Who?”

“Only the…coolest guy…in the entire school!” boy Taylor informed me.

“He is,” girl Taylor confirmed. “He’s the absolute bomb.”

I looked from girl Taylor back to Amber as she again began chanting, “Okay, okay, okay. Soooo…we were at the diner last night and he walked right up to me and said hey!”

“I’d done her face up in romantic palette number two,” boy Taylor leaned into me to share.

This was a good choice.

I didn’t get a chance to say that, girl Taylor was talking, imparting the unusual news that, “Alexi doesn’t date girls from Magdalene High.”

“He never has,” boy Taylor put in. “He usually goes out with the hottest of the hot from other schools.”

“He has a motorcycle,” Amber added and when she did, my heart skipped a beat.

Uh-oh.

“And he plays guitar,” she went on.

Oh dear.

“And he’s in a band,” she continued.

Oh no.

Her face changed, it went soft and wistful as she whispered, “He’s dreamy.”

“This is huge,” boy Taylor announced. “Huger than huge. The one guy who beats out Noah is Alexi. I mean, girls from Magdalene don’t even set their sights on him because they know they have no shot.” He smiled big. “This is awesome.”

“He writes his own songs,” girl Taylor added. “I saw his band play in the underage club that’s used to be an old garage down by the cove. It was amazing.”

“Look,” boy Taylor demanded and I looked his way to see he had his phone screen facing me. “I got this pic as he was leaving the diner. It isn’t very good but it tells the tale.”

I stared at his phone thinking the photo on it did, indeed, tell the tale.

The picture was of an exceptionally good-looking young man. He was rather fit and although he was sitting astride a motorcycle, captured on the phone arrested in lifting up a shiny black motorcycle helmet in front of him, it also appeared he was quite tall. He had very messy but attractive dark blond hair. He had excellent bone structure. He was wearing faded jeans, the knee torn and ragged, black motorcycle boots, a black t-shirt and a black leather jacket.

I stared at the photo thinking the young man in it was every high school girl’s dream.

I also stared at it thinking that if this young man came over to take Amber out on a date, Jake was going to lose his mind.

“Um…” I mumbled, fear constricting my lungs as I tore my eyes away from the photo and looked at a beaming Amber.

I got no further as she declared, “And Noah’s called me. Twice.”

“She didn’t pick up,” girl Taylor shared.

“He left a message. She’s leaving him hanging,” boy Taylor finished.

Although I was proud of Amber for doing this, her doing it shed even more light on Ellie doing the same to Conner which raised my current anxiety levels significantly, something which was notable seeing as they were already significantly high.

“I think that’s very wise, Amber,” I told her and she smiled a bright smile. “Now as for this boy—” I began but said no more when she jumped straight to me, grabbed my hands and held them tight.

“Josie, he came right up to our table and said hey right to me. It was the best moment of my life.”

Oh my.

In the face of her happiness, entirely unable to do anything but, I pulled one of my hands from hers, lifted it to cup her cheek, leaned into her and whispered, “Then I hope he likes you, my lovely. But I expect he does because you’re beautiful, you’re smart and you’re a good friend and he likely knows all of that.”

Hope washed through her features making her even more beautiful as she asked, “You think?”

“I think and hope, my lovely girl,” I replied.

Her smile got bigger.

Before anyone could say more, we heard bellowed from below, “Dip’s up!”

Jake.

Amber let me go, jumped back and cried, “Ro-Tel dip! Yee-ha! I’m starved.”

Then she dashed by me and out of the room.

Boy Taylor followed her.

Girl Taylor and I were left behind, staring out the now open door.

I turned to her.

“Is this Alexi a decent young man?” I asked quietly.

“He’s more decent than Noah,” she answered.

This would not be difficult to achieve and thus didn’t make me feel better.

“But if Alexi goes for it, Mr. Spear is gonna freak way the heck out,” she stated the obvious.

“Indeed,” I agreed to the obvious, looking back to the door.

Girl Taylor got closer to me so I turned my eyes to her.

“He gets straight A’s, his music really is super cool and word is he’s a one woman man. I also know he’s between girlfriends right now. But I’ve seen him a couple of times with his chicks and he’s with them like Con is with his chicks. So she could do worse, that being Noah. But Alexi is definitely better.”

I found the news Alexi was a “one woman man” somewhat soothing. The information he treated his girlfriends like Conner did (except having only one at a time) was even more so.

So I smiled at her as I reached out and gave her hand a brief squeeze.

Then I motioned to the door with my head.

She preceded me and I followed her down the stairs.

She said, “Hey, Mr. Spear,” as she walked past Jake at the bottom of the stairs, moving toward the living room.

“Hey, honey,” he muttered to her as she did, but his eyes were on me.

Then his large body was blocking mine as I reached the bottom of the stairs and thus I had to stop and look up at him.

“Everything cool?” he asked quietly, studying me closely and I knew I was not hiding my unease.

“For Amber, yes. For you, if things play out as she wishes…” I hesitated then finished, “No.”

“Come again?” he asked, his brows knitting.

“A young man said hi to her last night at the diner. Boy Taylor showed me his picture and he’s very attractive. He was also sitting on a motorcycle.”

Jake’s brows unknit and his jaw got hard.

I went on.

“I’m informed he plays guitar.”

His eyes flashed and a muscle jumped in his cheek.

I continued speaking.

“He also writes his own music and plays in a band.”

Jake looked beyond me, grumbling, “Fuckin’ fuck me.”

“I’m further informed he gets straight A’s and he’s a one woman man.”

Jake’s eyes came back to me and I could see immediately he did not share my minor relief at these revelations.

“Who woulda thought I’d miss Noah,” Jake remarked.

I pressed my lips together wanting to laugh but knowing I absolutely should not.

“A motorcycle?” he asked.

I tipped my head to the side and gave him a little wince.

He tipped his head back and said to the ceiling, “Why couldn’t you have given me all boys?”

I found this obvious conversation with God intriguing and thus asked, “Do you believe in God?”

He looked back to me and his brows were again knit. “Uh…yeah.”

“If this is so, I’ll inform you that Reverend Fletcher has invited me to attend services and he expressly asked that I bring you and the children along.”

“I bet he did,” Jake murmured, moving to my side and slinging an arm around my shoulders.

“I’ll tell you now, I’m not fond of waking up early but they do have an evening service.”

He looked down at me as he moved us toward the family room and I slid my arm around his waist.