Read Indelible Love - Emily's Story for Free Online Page B

toward Jake. “It would be fun.”
    “You do know I went to your rival
school?”
    “Boo!” We all jeered, then laughed
like good friends.
    “I don’t know if I can sit through one
of your football games.” Sure, rub it in that your school has a
better football team. Wait till basketball season. “Plus, I can’t
take any more time off from the hospital.”
    I was bummed at the thought of Jake
being really busy again, No doubt we’d be back to our once-a-week
date night at best.
    “Emily, what are you doing next Monday
to Thursday? My mom called this morning to tell me that we are all
going to Hawaii right before Christmas, and she wants me to bring
you along. You know my family’s been dying to meet you. She’s
reserved a seat for you on the plane, and you can room with my
sister, Jane.”
    “With your whole family?” I was a bit
flustered at the thought of being with Jake’s family for four days.
Would they like me? Would I like them? Then it dawned on me. “How
did you get four days off?”
    “Well…the chief of staff at the
hospital is my dad’s brother. Mom reminded Uncle Henry that I
haven’t had a vacation since I got there. It didn’t hurt that she
promised him four tickets to the New Year’s Day football
game.”
    “I see. Are you sure you want me there
for four days with your family?”
    “I couldn’t think of a better
Christmas present than to have you spend four days with me and my
family!” Jake declared.
    “OK, then. Tell your mother I said
thank you and that I’d love to go.” The thought of being a part of
Jake’s family on this trip gave me a sense of belonging and a sense
of family I so desired.
    We headed out the door, and I knew I
had some explaining to do so before we reached the car; I pulled
Jake’s hand to a halt.
    “Jake, I’d like to explain about the
guys you saw this morning, especially Max. I know that was really
uncomfortable and I’m sorry.”
    “Emily, you don’t have to explain
anything.” Jake’s face looked even more uncomfortable, than when he
saw Max come out of the guest room.
    “I do. Peter and Jeff went out to the
bar with our friends and drank enough to where they couldn’t drive
home. We found them lying on my doorstep, and they asked to spend
the night.”
    “Can I ask where you and Max were at
this time? I assume you weren’t with them?”
    “No. We went out for a bite to eat. I
didn’t have any dinner, and Max suggested I grab a bite to eat
before we met up with the rest of the gang. Our dinner took longer
than expected, and when we got back to my house, Peter and Jeff
were comatose on my front porch.”
    Jake’s face turned a bit pale.
“Dinner?”
    “It was literally dinner. We also had
a good talk, which I’d like to share with you whenever you’d like
to hear about it. Are you OK? Can we go on with this day without us
being uncomfortable with one another?”
    I gave him a hopeful smile.
    “I told Max last night that I was
really looking forward to spending a whole day with you. Even
though we’ve been dating a few months, I don’t think we know each
other very well.”
    “What do you mean we don’t know each
other?” he asked while opening the car door for me. “Here, get in.
We need to get going, or we’re going to miss our
flight.”
    Flight. OK, we were probably headed up
to San Francisco. I delighted in the idea of spending this day with
him.
    “How can you say that we don’t really
know each other?” I guess he couldn’t get over my last
statement.
    “Jake, when was the last time…better
yet, has there ever been a time where we spent an entire date
without being interrupted? Our first date at the Mexican
restaurant, what happened? You got paged and went in to perform
some surgery. Our second date, brunch at the hotel, what happened?
The chief called you and told you to attend some conference in
Atlanta. That’s also when we got into our first argument and
couldn’t even talk it through because you had to