Chapter Eleven
"Whoa, back up, you and my sister almost what?" Bright stares at Ephram Christmas morning once the presents have all been unwrapped and everyone had broken off into little groups. The girls are playing by the tree with the truckloads of new toys they got for Christmas, Rose, Nina and Noelle are talking over coffee watching carefully over the kids, Andy and Harold are talking "shop" and Amy has been making herself busy to avoid any possible contact with Ephram. And Bright and Ephram are sitting on the far side of the living room and Ephram has just filled Bright in on the pervious nights happenings.
"Bright, can we try to remember that you're now thirty and a little more mature then you were in high school?" Ephram pleads.
"Fine," Bright nods, "but dude, what the hell? That's a little out of the blue isn't it?"
"I guess," Ephram sighs, "but it didn't then. It felt natural, like the last ten years just hadn't happened."
"Well, are you into her again?" Bright asks simply.
"Again?" Ephram asks, "I don't know that I've ever stopped being "into" her."
"I'm not going to tell you not to go for it, if that's what you're looking for. Dude, at the risk of sounding like a chick, you and Amy are meant for each other. Even marriage, separation and kids later that hasn't changed so you should just suck it up and talk to her about it. What?" Bright asks about the look Ephram is giving him. "All I'm saying is you've got to talk to her. If you give her too much time then she'll reason herself out of anything that's good for her. She'll come up with every reason why she shouldn't be with you. Now get in that kitchen and talk to her.
"When did you get good at giving advice?" Ephram questions.
"Dude, you think I got a girl like Noelle by being an idiot? I've matured. Now get in that kitchen so you can get some."
"Oh, yeah, definitely matured."
"What? I'm still me," Bright defends lightly.
Ephram gets to his feet and makes his way to the kitchen where Amy is doing nothing but sipping her coffee and staring out the window. "Hey," Ephram greets startling he rout of her thoughts.
"Oh, hey," she smiles briefly at him.
"You should see the girls, they're having so much fun with the dolls you picked out for them."
"Yeah, I can heard them from in here," Amy responds setting her mug down on the counter. "Ephram, about last night..."
"Yeah, I wanted to talk to you about that too, I don't..."
"Can I go first?" Amy asks, "I'll lose my nerve otherwise."
"Uh, yeah, sure," Ephram nods as a sinking feeling settles in his gut.
"Last night was..." Amy trails. "Everything I said last night was true and I've sat here for most of the morning trying to talk myself out of this..."
"Amy..."
"Let me finish, please, because even if you feel differently about it I have to get it off my chest. I can't talk myself into a good enough reason not to be with you, no matter how hard I try. I tried to tell myself if would be bad for the girls but it would only be bad if we broke up and I don't want to break up." Amy takes a deep breath and waits for Ephram's response, but when she doesn't she demands, "say something!"
"You said everything I was going to," Ephram responds.
Amy grins, "so what does this mean?"
Ephram takes a step closer, "it means we should take things slow. See how the girls feel about it, not rush things."
"I suppose you're right," Amy whispers wrapping her arms around Ephram's neck.
"It's hard to take things slow when you're this close," Ephram responds, their faces only centimeters apart. "Okay that was lame."
Amy nods but doesn't respond as Ephram's lips brush against hers, this kiss is as full of as much passion and yearning as it had been the night before but it's slower and more gentle then it had been before. Amy and Ephram are lost in a world where only they exist completely oblivious to the four-year-olds watching them from the doorway of the kitchen and then scampering off. "Daddy's kissing Amy," Antonia breathlessly announces when she reaches the adults in the living room.
"Come see," Emily grabs hold of Rose's hand and pulls her to her feet, dragging Rose behind her as the rest of the adults follow. They stop again right in the open doorway, the adults share glances but remain silent and it's the girls' giggles that bring Amy and Ephram out of their own worlds.
Amy blushes and runs a hand through her hair as Ephram states, "so Amy and I are..."
"Dude, back together after all theses years, awesome!" Bright enthusiastically cuts in.
"Oh my God," Amy covers her face with her hands.
"We'll be in the living room," Andy states, "why don't you guys talk to the kids."
Ephram nods and once the other adults have left the room he lifts both Antonia and Emily up onto the kitchen counter so that they are at eye level with both Amy and Ephram. "What are you guys thinking?"
"You and Mommy kissed!" Emily announces.
Amy smiles and gently touches Emily's dark head, "that's right. Ephram and I did kiss, but what do you think about that? About Ephram and me dating, being a family?"
Antonia's eyes narrow, "aren't we already a family?"
Ephram and Amy share a glance and Amy asks, "do you to remember what we told you guys before we all moved in together?"
Emily nods seriously, "you said that you were just friend helping each other."
Ephram nods, "that's right. And we said that we weren't going to get married and that we aren't dating. But some of that's changed," Ephram pauses trying to figure out how best to explain the situation to the two young girls. "Amy and I used to date when we were in high school..."
"Like Erin?" Antonia asks.
"Like Erin'a age, that's right. And we loved each other very much but we couldn't make things work." Ephram explains.
"Why not?" Emily asks.
"It was complicated," Amy responds.
"Why?" Antonia asks, "if you love each other you should get married."
Ephram laughs, "out of the mouths of babes. You're right Antonia, but sometimes adults are silly."
Antonia and Emily exchange seriously looks and then nod, "yup."
"So are you getting married?" Antonia asks as Emily, always the quieter of the two, nods along with the question.
"Maybe one day," Amy responds and then asks, "would that be okay?"
Emily nods, and completely out of character exclaims, "yeah! Antonia and I've been talking about it forever and ever!"
"You've been talking about us getting married?" Ephram asks.
Antonia nods, "we wanted you to get married so we could be sisters."
"Okay then," Amy laughs.
"Can we go play now?" Emily requests.
"Of course," Amy and Ephram help the girls slide off of the counter and hurry out of the room.
Ephram stares at Amy, "are we the only one's who haven't been waiting for us to get back together?"
"I don't think Alyssa has," Amy laughs before wrapping her arms around Ephram and resting her head on his chest.
"As much as I would love to be right here," Ephram states, "if we don't get out there Bright's going to think that we're having sex on the kitchen counter."
"Mommy you look beautiful," Emily and Antonia are perched on Amy's bed watching her as she slips on a delicate necklace with a single pearl.
"You think so?" Amy asks turning to face the girls.
"The most beautifulist person in the whole entire world," Antonia adds.
Amy grins, "wow, such a compliment." She turns back to face her full length mirror, she'd bought a new dress for Bright's New Years party. A black halter dress that was completely backless and with a plunging neckline that she'd almost chickened out of until Noelle, her shopping partner, had forced her to buy it and a skirt that fell straight to the floor. She applies her final coat of lipstick as the doorbell rings downstairs, turning to the girls she kisses both of them leaving their favorite "lipstick kisses". "You two be good for Erin, because she's doing us a huge favor watching you guys so we can go to Uncle Bright's party okay?"
"Okay," both girls nod, "Erin said we can watch a movie and stay up late."
Amy nods, "that's right. Just be good or Erin can put you to bed when she puts Alyssa to bed."
"We'll be good," Emily assures quickly.
"Good," Amy smiles at them, "now come on let's go see Erin."
"Erin!" Both girls go tearing out of the room and down the stairs and into the arms of their very favorite baby-sitter.
"Thank you so much Erin," Ephram is saying when Amy descends the stairs, "I know you probably could be out doing something much cooler then baby-sitting on New Years Eve."
"Cooler then hanging out with Antonia and Emily?" Erin asks with a smile. "Amy you look awesome."
Erin's words cause Ephram to move his gaze to Amy and his eyes go wide, "you look...wow..."
Amy smiles, moving to stand beside Ephram, "thanks. Make yourself at home Erin, we won't be much later then two."
"It's fine, whenever," Erin waves her off, "have fun."
"Okay, hugs and kisses," Amy orders gently crouching down so she can hug each of the three girls waiting in front of her.
"We'll see you guys in the morning," Ephram adds, copying Amy's stance and actions.
"Bye Dadda," Alyssa waves moving easily from Ephram's hug to Erin's arms.
"You look gorgeous," Ephram states once he and Amy have stepped into the garage and his arms wrap around her waist. After his words Ephram kisses gently along Amy's collarbone and up her neck, "you know we could skip this party altogether, I could rent us a nice little hotel room for two..."
"As high school prom-ish as that sounds, I would love to," Amy responds.
"Really?" Ephram is surprised by this because Amy has seemed excited about the party.
"But..."
"I should have seen that coming," Ephram groans.
"It's just, I want to go out as a couple," Amy states, "but we can leave the party early and ring in the New Year at home?"
"With a sleep-over?" Ephram asks grinning at the memory of the night before. The girls had all developed bad colds soon after going to bed on Christmas which prevented Amy and Ephram from, as Bright put it, having ten years worth of make-up sex. Last night had been the first night everyone was well enough to sleep through the night but Antonia had come out of her bedroom in time to see Ephram begin to follow Amy into hers. Antonia had asked if they were having a sleep-over and after receiving a semi-positive answer to that she asked if she and Emily could come too. So instead of spending the night in each other's arms Amy and Ephram had spent the night with their kids' arms wrapped around them.
"Yeah, a sleep-over, and this time no kids," Amy promises with a kiss.
"Fair enough," Ephram returns with a last lingering look before he moves toward the drivers side of the car.
"Who would have thought that Bright could host a party that's not based around a keg?" Ephram asks as they pull out of Bright's driveway.
"I dunno," Amy shrugs, "the same person who thought we'd be back together after ten years, I guess."
"Good point," Ephram responds while grabbing Amy's hand, their fingers automatically lacing together. "You had fun?"
"I did," Amy nods in the darkness. "Although I spent most of the time answering people's questions about if we were really back together."
"And you told them?"
"That we were and we were going to make it work this time, although I had to assure Laura that we wouldn't follow in the footsteps of our predecessors and run off to Las Vegas and get married."
Ephram laughs, and then still with a laughing tone in his voice suggests, "I have money in my wallet for Erin, do you want to get it all ready for her so we can get rid of her as quickly as possible?"
"You should know," Amy teases, "I don't have sex on the first day, I'm not that kind of girl."
"Good thing this isn't out first date then," Ephram responds as he pulls onto their street and leans over to kiss Amy.
"Ephram, watch out!" Amy screeches as a police car comes flying around them.
"What the hell!" Ephram exclaims, "this is a residential..."
"Ephram," Amy's voice comes out choked as she squeezes Ephram's hand hard. Ephram hits the gas hard as he watches the police car fly into their driveway, and by the time they pull in the officers are already in the house. Amy reaches the house first, inside the house is brightly lit and she's aware of Alyssa's screaming coming from upstairs and one police officer heading for the stairs.
Ephram is right behind her when the female officer approaches them demanding harshly, "who are you?"
"I love here," Amy responds sharply, "what's going on?"
"We received a call from the house from a young girl in hysterics saying a scary man was in the house and had hit the baby-sitter."
Amy's knees almost buckle but she fights the urge to collapse and instead runs for the stairs, "Emily! Emily!" She takes the steps two at a time still calling for her daughter, as Alyssa's cries grow louder as do the cries of someone else. As she reaches the top of the stairs, with Ephram right behind her, she can hear the female police officer downstairs speaking into a walkie talkie.
"Amy! Daddy!" Antonia flings herself at Amy the instant she reaches the top of the stairs.
Amy hugs Antonia quickly before holding the young girl at arms distance so she can see her tear streaked face. She doesn't really need to hear the answer to the question she is about to ask but she asks anyway, "what happened? This is very important."
Antonia always strong, even for her young age, understands the gravity of the situation and calms her tears for long enough to speak, "a scary man took Emi. He knocked over Erin and then he took Emi."
She'd been expecting the words as soon as she'd seen the police car pull into the driveway but that doesn't prevent her from being knocked down at the words. Dropping her hands from Antonia she sinks to the floor, "Mark has Emily."