Emma Whitman giggled as Brandon Guerin tickled her ribs. They were sitting at a booth in Out of This World Pizza with Jake Valenti and Daisy Evans after seeing a remake of Saving Private Ryan.
Jake rolled his eyes. "Guys could you stop it? You're acting younger then my parents."
Emma stuck her tongue out, laughing. "I'd have to go a long way to do that."
"Yeah me too." Brandon said with an eye roll. "Do you know what it's like to walk in on your parents making out on a desk?"
Jake mock shivered. "A chilling experience for even the bravest of souls."
"You wanna talk chilling experiences? Try walking in and finding your dad with his hands up your mother's shirt." Emma said with a grimace. "Gross."
Daisy snorted. "Tell me you're making this up."
"No. It was so icky." Emma said. "Jake, do your parents do things like that?"
"Only all the time." Jake said. "I still remember the different colors the principal turned when he found them in the Janitor's closet during parent teacher conferences. Their excuse was that they were making up for lost time- they didn't make out enough while they were actually in school."
"Mom gets this look on her face whenever the eraser room is mentioned." Brandon said.
"What kind of look?" Jake asked.
"The kind that tells me she's thinking about things I don't want to know about. Especially when she and Dad disappear upstairs for hours afterwards."
All the kids made 'Ew' faces and munched pizza for a bit.
"Go ahead, Daze. Regale us with your tales of torture." Emma laughed.
"You know my parents Em. They're normal. They act like they're grandparents already." Daisy said.
"Oh come on. You mean to tell me you have never walked in on them in a private moment?" Brandon asked.
"Wouldn't say that." Daisy shrugged uncomfortably. "I've walked in on fights I didn't want to see- or hear. But the weird thing is they just bottle it up. The way they treat each other after a fight is exactly the same as any other time- unless it's bad. Then my mom locks herself in the bedroom with baby books and the wedding album. My dad will send flowers. After that, they can pretend nothing happened."
"Dad sends flowers when Mom's mad at him." Jake nodded. "Tulips. She loves them."
"Mom likes sterling roses. Daddy always sends them to her." Emma said.
"What about you Brand-o?"
"White roses I think. But I've never seen them or heard them fight."
”You're lucky." Daisy said. "I wish I was in those shoes."
"Me too. Cause when Mom and Dad fight it ain't pretty." Jake said.
"Your parents both have major tempers." Emma pointed out.
"Exactly." Jake said. He nodded sagely. "Grandpa used to make jokes about them yelling loud enough to cave the roof in."
"Brandon you're saying that your parents never fight? How is that possible?" Daisy asked.
Brandon shrugged. "I dunno. They just don't." He shrugged. "Wait, there was the time Claire got a piercing and Josh got a tattoo- that was one of the few times I've heard raised voices." He grinned.
"I remember that. Melia got a tattoo too." Jake said. "Mom was pissed. But Dad took it in stride."
"Really?" Daisy brightened. "Eli never did anything cool like that. He only majorly pissed off Dad once- and they've stayed that way. Mom still thinks he's perfect." She made a face. "I hate being the not-perfect one."
"Well you're perfect to me. Does that count?" Jake said.
"Mush alert." Emma groaned.
"Hush." Her cousin smirked. "It more than counts." They kissed. "Do any of you have perfect siblings?"
"Hunter." Brandon said. "According to Mom and Dad he can do no wrong."
"Fay." Jake said. "Just cause she's the youngest and hasn't majorly screwed up yet."
"Kind of a toss up between both my brothers." Emma said. "They're both so much like Mom and we all know that Mom was a perfect angel when she was a kid."
"Except that she drove all her friends and family nuts every Christmas." Jake said.
"Dad says they called her the Christmas Nazi." Brandon said.
"That's become my mother." Daisy laughed. "You can't even imagine what a fuss she makes about that huge party every year- and the Christmas cards." She groaned melodramatically. "When I'm out of the house I will never, ever send a single Christmas card to anyone. And the cookies- and buying presents. She's almost obsessed. Our living room ends up looking like something out of a Norman Rockwell painting."
"Mom complains about it but I think she likes that Allie likes Christmas so much. Grandma loved it and since she's gone it's good for one of her grandchildren to carry on the tradition." Brandon said.
"Does she ever guilt you into hanging up the lights?" Daisy asked knowingly.
"Oh yeah." Brandon nodded. "Guilt, blackmail, you name it, she uses it." He looked at his watch. "Hey it's almost curfew."
"Darn." Jake signaled the waitress to box the rest of their pizza. "We didn't even get in the arcade."
"The arcade?" Emma sounded doubtful.
"An essential part of mall night." Brandon assured her. "We did the movie, you went shopping, we ate pizza; now the arcade. We have ten minutes if we want to make curfew, an hour if we want to break it without Jake's Dad coming after us."
"Half an hour." Emma said. "Close enough to curfew without getting serious grounding time and far enough away for us not to have Sheriff Valenti come after us."
Daisy smiled. "I'll just use the cell and warn my mom quick. She has this really weird thing about knowing exactly where I am."
"Okay. I'll meet you by the skeeball lanes." Emma said.
"My mom said stay out as late as I want, she trusts me." Daisy reported suspiciously to Emma, sotto voice as the boys showed off their expertise.
"Isn't that a good thing?" Emma said as she prepared to take aim at target.
"Ye-e-s." Daisy stretched out the word, but let doubt hang in every syllable. "I guess so. It's just really, really weird."
"Did Aunt Tess sound okay?"
"Yeah, she sounded fine." Daisy said, a slight frown crinkling her forehead. "I guess I'll find out when I'm at home- watch out, you're gonna get eaten by the purple thingie."
"Oh thanks." Emma quickly dodged.
Brandon let himself in through the kitchen. He could see the dim light of the hurricane lantern coming from the screened in porch at the back of the house. As he got closer he heard giggling.
Brandon slapped a hand over his eyes. "I'm coming in." He announced. "If I shouldn't, tell me now."
"It's okay honey. We've got clothes on." Liz's voice said.
"That's not what I mean. Hands off each other before I walk in."
Brandon heard them laughing and rustling as they presumably sat up.
"It's safe honey." He heard Liz laughing. "Did you have fun?"
Brandon slowly took his hand away from his eyes. He breathed a sigh of relief. "Yeah Mom we had fun. Sorry I'm late."
"It's okay, Isabel called us. Smart move, having one of the girls call home." Michael complimented. "What movie did you see?"
"A remake of Saving Private Ryan. This one starred Matt Damon's son in the part Tom Hanks played in the original."
"I always liked that movie." Liz said. "Your dad made me watch it once a long time ago."
"I'm surprised it was only once." Brandon said dryly.
"We watched Braveheart a lot more." Liz said.
Brandon smiled. "I'm gonna head up. Night Mom, night Dad."
"Night." His parents said.
Emma Whitman tiptoed up her front walk and slid the key in the lock.
She slid in quietly.
"Em? Is that you?" Isabel Whitman called.
Busted. She thought. "Yeah Mom, I'm home."
"Don't worry. Tess called. Did you have fun?"
"Yeah. The movie was good, the pizza tasted great, I found this really cool necklace and we topped it off in the arcade. I have a natural talent."
"Honed by years of video games with your old man." Her dad's voice said through the dark.
Emma smiled. "Hi Daddy."
"Hi sweetie. So the remake was good?"
"Yeah." Her hand reached for the light, and she flipped it on.
Isabel was in her robe and Alex was in his pajamas. "So was I interrupting something?" Emma asked.
"No." Her parents said at once.
Emma made a face. "Ew- just ew. You have your own room, please do us all a favor and use it." She pleaded in a teasing manner.
"I can't wait till you are married and have kids. They are going to do this to you. Mark my words."
"Do what? Be humiliated by me? Nope, I don't think so." Emma bounced upstairs jauntily.
"Good night Emma." Isabel called.
Jake Valenti's truck rattled up to the house he shared with his family. He pulled the keys out and separated his house key. There was a chance he could get in without getting caught.
"Hi Jake." Fay said as she sat up on the front porch swing.
"Fay." He said. "Shouldn't you be in bed?"
"I am. Mom said I could sleep out here tonight."
"Oh." Jake said, knowing what that meant. "I'll grab a blanket and take the hammock then."
"I'm okay. You can go in."
"No, trust me, neither of us want to witness what's going on in there."
"Okay." Fay smiled before she lay back down.
Jake skirted around to the garage, opened the door and grabbed a blanket. Sleeping under the stars. Did it get much better than that?
Daisy let herself into the house. It was pretty quiet. Eli was away at school so she was the only one left in the house to wait up for.
The light was on in her dad's study- that meant paperwork. Daisy closed the door quietly, but her mom still heard. She was barefoot, and came from the family room. She had a book in her hand. "Hi sweetie." Tess hugged and kissed her daughter. "I have strawberry shortcake in the kitchen. Come have some and tell me about the date."
"Okay." Daisy agreed. She followed her mother.
"How was the night?"
"Good. It was Emma, Jake, Brandon, and me. We hung out, ate, went to the movies, and played at the arcade.
"What'd you see?"
"The remake of Saving Private Ryan."
"Oh." Tess looked sympathetic. "How'd you do?"
"Closed my eyes at some parts and buried my face in Jake's shoulder during others."
"I bet Jake's getting to be a nice looking boy. I haven't seen him in a while. You guys don't really hang out here anymore."
"No." Daisy agreed simply.
Tess nodded. "How'd you do in the arcade? Did Uncle Alex and Eli's video game coaching pay off?"
"Yeah." Daisy nodded. "So what did you do tonight? Anything?"
"Dad and I went out to dinner, I read a little, I experimented with what you're eating now. Nothing big."
"Where did you and Daddy go?"
"That little Mexican place on 13th Street. It was pretty good."
"That's good."
"Well it's getting late and you promised Emma's Grandma that you'd help out tomorrow at the church bazaar."
"Right." Daisy nodded. "Night Mom."
"Night sweetheart." Tess kissed her cheek. "Don't forget to say goodnight to Daddy. Remind him that his shortcake is out here."
"I will." Daisy said. She walked by the study and poked her head in. "Daddy?"
Max dropped his pen, looked up, and smiled. "How's my little girl?"
"I'm good. I just wanted to say good night and that your shortcake is out in the kitchen."
"All right honey. Come give your old man a kiss good night."
Daisy hugged her dad and kissed his cheek. "I love you Daddy."
"Love you too Daisy, I do." He smiled at the little rhyme he used to say every night when he tucked her in.
Daisy just rolled her eyes. Her dad could be so cornball sometimes. "Night Dad."