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“Gosh, I am so skeptical…” she hissed, closing her eyes, slapping her forehead and taking a deep breath.
“Hey sweetie,” Emily heard and groaned aloud as the front door chimed and she heard her mother’s voice. Cracking open an eye, she saw her mother beaming happily and carrying a carton of Chinese food right when her stomach gave an audible rumble in protest.
Forgiven…she thought instantly.
“Tell me that is Pad Thai noodles…” Emily whispered hopefully, and then frowned again. “Did you check my mail?”
“Yes, and you should check it daily. How many times do I have to tell you that people steal things all the time,” her mother reiterated, handing her the Chinese food and smiling. “You look so stressed, my sweet girl.”
“Iamstressed…” she admitted and sighed. “Do you mind if I go ahead and inhale that?”
“No,” her mother laughed, pulling up an office chair as Emily dove into the carton openly with a fork, shoveling a massive bite in her mouth with zero grace. She hadn’t eaten since yesterday evening’s dinner and was starving to death.
“Who do you know in Afghanistan?”
Emily hacked as a noodle went down the wrong way, instantly causing her to gasp for air. She put down the open container, not caring about the papers underneath, and ran to the restroom coughing and coughing painfully before wiping her face and rinsing her mouth.
“Are you okay sweetie?”
“Why are you asking about Afghanistan?” she wheezed, racking her brain.
“Your package says it’s from someone in Afghanistan. Are you buying stuff on eBay again?”
“Mom, you should have been a detective…” she muttered, and returned to her seat. “Where’s the package?”
“And that is why you check your mailbox daily,” her mother said pointedly. “Anyone could have taken it.”
“Mother?” Emily growled at her Mom’s knowing smile.
“Soooo? If it’s not eBay and you didn’t know about it? What is it?”
“I don’t know, because you haven’t given it to me…” Emily said in a saccharine voice.
“Did you hit it off with one of the young men that is friends with Jace? I thought they were all stationed in Afghanistan. Did you meet him at the wedding? Tell me he’s that pretty young man that walked you down the aisle…”
“EWWW No?!” Emily retorted. “He’s not my type in the slightest. He’s practically a girly-man. I like them a bit more masculine, thank you very much.”
“So, youaretalking to one of them.”
“Mother? I’m going to use your tried-and-true method, counting to three…”
“Are you going to check the mail daily – and wax your eyebrows?”
“Yes – and no,” Emily retorted. “I hate doing that to my eyebrows, because it makes me cry…wait… do they lookthatbad?”
“They are a little bushy,” her mother shrugged. “Nadine does a fantastic job on my eyebrows and…”
“I’ll think about it,” Emily uttered holding out her hand. “Package?”
Her mother dug it out of her purse – and Emily’s heart nearly turned over in her chest seeing that it indeed was from Afghanistan and the box was quite beat up and crushed on one side.
Cutting through the tape, she saw a little velvet box inside that had a massive dent on one of the rounded corners… causing her to frown.
“What is it?”
“I don’t know yet…” she said flatly, pulling out the box – and a note taped to the outside of it. Pulling it off, she unfolded it and caught her breath.
It was from John.
