Exception (53 page)

The irritating noise of a phone ringing woke Taylor from his pleasant dreams. He noted with joy that Emily was still asleep, and in the same position she was before. Trying not to wake her, he reached to the bedside table to retrieve his phone. He stole a glance at the screen to see who the caller was and the name startled him. Carefully, he rolled Emily to the side so he could go out of the room and answer the call.

“Hi Mom,” he greeted in a low voice, walking into the hallway.

“Finally, one of my children has decided to answer my call. Your father and I have been calling all three of you for the past hour.” Tina’s annoyance was evident in the lack of her usual mushy greeting. Not seeing enough of her kids, the thing she hated the most in life was having her calls ignored.

“I’m sorry, Mom. It’s not even ten in the morning though. We all went out last night, so everyone is probably still passed out cold,” he informed, stifling a yawn.

“Oh. Well you all better wake up, ‘cause we’re having breakfast together.” Her happy tone was nearly hysterical.

“What?” Taylor’s shock was evident, and the remnants of sleep still in his head vanished.

“Well, darling, as much as your father and I understand your desire to stay in the States this Christmas, we need to be with you. So we decided to come spend the holiday here and show our support for Emily and her family. We’re heading over to your sister’s for breakfast.”

Taylor didn’t have time to process any other ramifications of his parent’s visit, other than the fact that his dad was about to walk in on a half-naked Jude. Knowing Rick was even more protective of his daughter than him and Gabriel put together, the potential for disaster the encounter presented was of unimaginable consequences. “Mom, where are you exactly?”

“We just arrived in town. Since we couldn’t get in touch with any of you we stopped for bread and gas.” Her voice was confused. “Your dad just went to pay for it. Why?”

He sighed with relief at the fact that they weren’t already in the danger zone. “Mom, I’m at Emily’s. Poppy and Gabe are at the apartment, and they both have company.”

“Oh.”

“Yes, and I’m sure Dad won’t be happy with it.”

He heard his mother mutter something that sounded awfully like
shit
, but decided not to mention it, knowing she’d be embarrassed. After a heavy sigh, she spoke. “What do we do, son? If I tell your father why we can’t go there I don’t know what he’ll do. You know how he is with your sister. And we’ve been driving since yesterday. I can’t really tell him that I want to go to Denny’s for breakfast, he’ll know something is up.”

“He knows that she has a boyfriend, right? You think Dad could handle knowing about the sleepover but not seeing it?”

“Yes, I guess so. He won’t be happy though. Why?”

He took a deep breath as he paced the hallway, rubbing his eyes. “Come here then. Tell him you talked to me and Emily invited you join us for breakfast. I’ll make sure they come as well.”

“Won’t Emily mind making breakfast for all of us?”

“No, it’s Saturday, and we have a breakfast tradition with our friends and their boyfriends. They’ll be here soon anyways. How long till you get here?”

His mother had her I’m-plotting-something-and-loving-it tone. “We’re less than five minutes away from your sister’s.”

“Then you should be here in less than ten.” He gave his mother the address and they hung up. After a deep breath, he went to wake up Emily and drop the bomb.

When he entered the room, he saw that Emily was sitting on the bed with her phone in hand. She lifted her head to look at him. “Good morning. I woke up and you were gone.”

“I was just in the hall talking to Mom,” he informed her, as he sat next to her on the edge of the bed. “Good morning.” He followed his good wishes with a kiss to her nose, and received a full smile from her.

“Oh, what did she want?” Her brows pulled in.

He took a deep breath and squared his shoulders. “They decided to surprise us for Christmas by driving here. They’re five minutes away from Poppy’s.” Her eyes popped open, and he knew exactly what she was thinking. “Exactly. I told them to come here and join the PJ&B instead. I know it’s our thing with the twins, but with Jude at Poppy’s, I couldn’t think of anything else. You mind?”

“Not at all, you did the right thing. We’ve had enough drama this holiday season. A heart attack two days before Christmas would be too much.” She giggled. “I just received a text from Zack saying they’ll be here in about five with great Alice news. I was texting Jody, I’ll ask her to bring some more stuff over and we’ll make do.”

He looked at her, amazed that she was being so accommodating to his family. He could tell that there was more to her actions than just being a good friend, and he desperately wanted to tell her he loved her and kiss her. He didn’t. They didn’t have as much time as that would require, and he didn’t want to risk ruining everything. Instead, he said the one thing he’d thought about her, every day since they’d first met. “You’re amazing, you know? And you’re also a fantastic cuddler, not even one kick.” She smiled at him and he chucked. “But you drool.”

She opened her mouth and scrunched her brows. “I do not!”

“Yes you do, but I like it. You can drool on me again any time you want.” He laughed again as he got up and kissed her head. “Now, get up, because we have to make breakfast for fourteen people and we have to wake up our siblings.”

“Good luck with that!” She gave him an exaggerated wink as he walked out of the room towards the bathroom.

Emily got up, made her bed and opened her window before wrapping herself with her floor-length kimono. It was a beautiful white silk one, with cherry blossom print and red trim on the three-quarter sleeves and neckline. The waist was tied with a wide red and pink band. It was elegant and covered her body enough to be proper to meet his parents in for the first time.

Before leaving her room she finished her text to friends, asking them to bring more food and to put on their good pajamas, since they would have company. Zack answered with a snappy remark, reminding her about her old rags.

With her teeth brushed, hair combed, a light application of makeup on her face and her sister and brother-in-law up, Emily walked into her bedroom again and found Taylor pacing and rubbing his eyes while talking to Gabe.

“Dude, honestly, I don’t care if you two haven’t talked about that yet. I have too much shit on my mind to care about your relationship status. I’m not fucking facebook. I’m about to have Dad meeting Jude in Emily’s house. On top of that, I’ll have to deal with Mom wanting to prove to my gay friends that she’s modern the way she did to our cousin Gary, while making sure Ems is comfortable with our whole family being in her house. You tell them anything, just put some pants on and make sure she’s got some decent pajamas on.”

He listened to his brother’s rambling for a while and let out a frustrated sigh. “Because it’s PJ&B, which implies the use of pajamas. You two brought pajamas, right?”

He frowned at his brother’s words and asked him for a minute, as he turned his attention to Emily. “You mind lending Tara something to wear? Gabe says she’s mortified to meet Mom and Dad in the ones she brought.” With her agreeing nod, he spoke to his brother again. “Get your ass here soon and Ems will have some waiting for her and I’ll have something for you.”

Taking the few steps that landed her in his arms, Emily hugged Taylor tightly. “Can you believe we’ve just woken up and I’m already tired?” she asked him.

“No, I’m ready to go back to bed too. This is definitely not how I thought today was gonna go.” He kissed her head. “Thanks for doing this, by the way.”

“Nothing to thank. It’s your house too, therefore, your family and all your almost in-laws in need of decent sleepwear, are always welcome.”

Laughing at her teasing, he kissed her once more and walked to the dresser, mumbling how much he hated all of them. It was the first time she’d ever really paid attention to what a mumbler he was; it was irritatingly cute.

By some miracle, Gabriel and Penelope arrived with their significant others before their parents, and had plenty of time to change in the garments their hosts had picked for them. The two boys were in some of Taylor’s flannels, while Tara was wearing a black and white satin Victoria’s Secret pajama set Emily had purchased a few weeks before, with Penelope’s help.

The four men were sitting on the breakfast bar stools talking, while the girls busied themselves with the significant amount of food their large party would require. A rattling at the door announced incomers.

“Good morning, friends,” Jody yelled from the door, locking and throwing her keys on the side table and setting both their coats in the closet, before making her way to the kitchen with her fiancé right behind her.

“Hey, sweetie,” Emily cried over her shoulder.

“Someone is in a good mood this morning,” Taylor said with a raised brow.

The silly look on Brad’s face, and his wide smile as he made his round of greetings, spoke louder than his words. “I woke her up early, if you know what I mean.”

“TMI Bradley,” Jody reprimanded her fiancé, as she made her way to her friend. “Hi, Cheesecake.”

Smiling, Emily greeted her back, using her nickname, and complimented her on her beautiful knee-length gray cotton with white lace trim nightgown. “Something smells great. What did you bring?” she asked after introducing her friend to Tara.

Jody placed the tray she was holding on the counter and, with a “ta-da” removed the aluminum foil that covered it, revealing twenty perfectly iced cupcakes.

“Cupcake’s cupcakes,” Emily said, giggling. “They look great J, and now we know why Brad woke you up early . . . to bake.” All but Brad laughed at her joke.

“The baking was yesterday,” she replied with an exaggerated wink at her man. “I made all our favorites. Peanut butter and maple syrup for the Canadian, red velvet with cream cheese icing for our southern belle Zack, triple chocolate with fudge for the coolest couple in gang—” Brad high fived her with a loud hell yeah, “—and granola cupcake with pink lemonade frosting for our healthy host”

As soon as the rest of the group was distracted with other things, Jody asked her friend how the sleepover had been. Hearing that it was amazing and had left her in serious need of “cake time” had her smiling from ear to ear.

“God Emily, how many people keys have to your house?” Gabe asked staring at the door as Zack opened it and walked in, followed by Toby and the Carters’.

Ignoring the annoying question, she walked to the front door to greet the newcomers.

“Hi Cheesecake,” Zack said.

With a stupid grin on his face, Taylor noticed that, for the first time in all the time they’d knew each other, Emily turned her face to the side, receiving Zack’s peck on her cheek instead of her lips. Her change in behavior also didn’t go by unnoticed by Zack and Toby, all three with matching smiles.

“I found these two walking the hall. They have croissants in this beautiful bread basket so I invited them in,” Zack informed with a smile and a wink at Rick and Tina before making his way to the kitchen.

“Mom, Dad, welcome,” Taylor said moving in to kiss his mother on both cheeks.

“Hi son, good morning.” Tina held her son’s face between both her hands to look at him. “You look good, darling. I bet I can thank this gorgeous woman for that.”

Taylor’s eyes beamed with pride. “Yes, you can. Emily, these are my parents, Rick and Tina.”

Tina was short, plump, and lovely. It was incredible how, despite the fact that all three of her children had her facial features, none of them had her height or her bluish-gray eyes, or her honey-colored hair. Those they had copied from their father, who was as tall as Taylor and Gabriel and had the same chocolate hair and eyes as the kids.

“Mr. Carter, Mrs. Carter, it’s a pleasure to finally meet you both, welcome.”

“Oh, darling, Mr. and Mrs. Carter were my in-laws, God rest their souls. We’ve heard so many great things about you that we feel like we know you already, so please, call us Tina and Rick, or Mom and Dad.” With a wicked smile she stole a glance at her son, before continuing, “We prefer the latter, but you can choose either one.”

Exchanging quick glances with her best friend who simply rolled his eyes at his mother, she turned back to them, smiling. “Mom and Dad it is.”

Tina’s reaction was incredibly funny. The almost sixty-year-old woman squeaked and clapped, the way Penelope was known for doing. “Thanks for having us and helping with the boyfriend situation,” she said after her outburst, holding both Emily’s hands.

“No problem, Mom, having you here is my pleasure, really.” The honesty in Emily’s voice and smile was pure. “I hope you had a nice drive.”

Rick was also all smiles at her as he answered, “It was very long, but very nice. We rented a van and stayed in one of those side-of-the-road hotels. I hadn’t done that since college, made me feel young again.” His words were followed by a loud, throaty laugh.

When they turned to walk back to the kitchen, Tina was still holding Emily’s hands, and Rick had his on the young woman’s shoulder. Taylor saw the tension in her jaw, but it was very mild, and overall she seemed to be handling what, for her, was a truckload of physical contact, quite easily. Moving his eyes back to the twins and Charlotte he saw that all of them were staring with wide smiles.