Delilah was apprehensive the first night Embry climbed up to her room. She'd never let Nathan spend the night in her room in the time that she'd dated him. She was worried that the one time she did, her father would find out, and that would be it for personal freedom. She worried what it would do to her dad's self esteem. He trusted her with the long hours he worked to be a good kid, following his rules even when he wasn't around to enforce them. She never wanted him to feel blindsided by her lack of respect for his rules, considering he had very few.
But Embry was different. It didn't feel scandalous, it felt right. So she reluctantly opened her window, watching as he climbed up to the second story of the house until he was face to face with her.
"Hi." He smiled at her, giddy. His warm brown eyes made her feel instantly better than before she'd come face to face with them. She knew right away that she wouldn't be able to turn him away. She never could in any situation, she thought to herself. So she stepped aside, letting him duck into her room.
"Just realized I've never really been in here before." Embry said, looking around the dark space. She'd been asleep before she'd heard him text her. But now she was more than awake, being around him made her feel the most alive that she ever had.
"Well, it's a mess. I didn't expect you to climb in through my window at 2AM." Delilah murmured humorously, turning on the lamp that was set up on her bedside table.
"I didn't get to see you today." His hands rested on her hips as his lips ghosted over her forehead. Her breath hitched. There was no denying how she felt around him, and that she wanted to feel that way all the time.
"Well, technically, it's tomorrow." She pressed her lips to his quickly before crawling back into her bed, turning the light back off again.
"Do you want me to go then?" He questioned, not moving from where she'd just stood with him. She thought about it for a moment, already knowing her answer, though she still felt obligated to feign contemplating it.
"No." She finally responded. She saw Embry's lips curve upward as he moved to sit next to her on the other side of her bed. She found comfort laying on his warm chest, falling asleep quicker than she would've, had he not been next to her.
Delilah woke up the next morning and found that Embry wasn't there. She felt confused at first, even a little bummed out. But she figured he'd left so her father wouldn't come in and find him there. She was grateful for that line of thinking, she supposed. It was only then that she smelt bacon.
She went downstairs to find Embry sitting on her couch, watching TV casually. She was surprised, though this had been the usual scene in the morning since before they'd even started dating. She just usually had to let him in the front door first.
"There's eggs and bacon on the stove for you." He mentioned before looking back to whatever morning show he was watching. She looked to find that it was Boy Meets World, a show that she'd watched a lot growing up that he often had on when he was there in the mornings. Reruns were always playing on various cable channels.
"You didn't need to do that. Don't you want to sleep?" Delilah questioned, sauntering into the kitchen. She was surprised that her father had even had bacon in the house. It's not like it was in his usual nature to cook it for himself, and she hadn't been home all that often. Then she thought about Tracy and how she may have bought it to have in the house for her to make. She felt a bit uncomfortable by the thought, but she still nibbled on a piece. She was happy that Embry hadn't burned it. She hadn't burnt bacon.
"I'm an early riser. Any good?" Embry stood in the door frame, shrugging, then looking at Delilah expectantly. She took another bite, which made him smile.
"Really good." She complimented. Embry walked over, taking a piece off the plate for himself before scarfing it down quickly.
They were both startled when they heard the front door's knob jiggling, then they were frantic. They hadn't thought fast enough, though. And there was no way that Embry was going to be able to make it out of the back door. Delilah was surprised when she didn't see her dad's tall stature enter the room, but rather a small female stature. It was Tracy.
"Hi, Tracy." Delilah tried to be casual as she greeted the woman. This was the first time she'd spoken to her since the incident, really. And it wasn't how she'd expected it to happen. Tracy observed the situation, looking somewhat suspicious.
"Did your boyfriend spend the night here?" She questioned bluntly. Delilah felt her face drain of color. She wasn't a liar by nature, and she had never been a good one in the few times that she'd deemed it necessary to not tell the whole truth.
"No, he didn't. He takes me to school in the mornings. He just showed up early today and decided to make me breakfast." Delilah felt her stomach lurch as the lie poured out of her mouth. But, by the look on Tracy's face, she seemed to believe her.
"Oh, alright then. I just came by because your father forgot the lunch I packed him while I was here last night." Delilah hadn't known that Tracy had been at her house the night before. Then again, she'd been out at an art exhibit with Carlisle, Rosalie, and Edward until past nine, so it wasn't exactly impossible.
"I won't mention anything… about all this. Could only lead to trouble." Tracy said pointedly. Delilah nodded in agreement. Tracy went to the fridge, grabbing a paper sack before taking a piece of bacon off of the plate, turning back around and winking at Delilah as she made her way out of the house. Delilah let out a heavy breath once she heard the front door slam.
"That was close." Embry mumbled, leaning up against the counter.
"I hate liars. I'm not a liar. Or, I didn't think I was. But I just lied to Tracy and basically told her I agreed with her plan to keep the truth from my dad, which is basically lying." Delilah's hand flew to her face as the distress took over her.
"Hey, it's okay. People lie sometimes. It doesn't mean it's who you are." Embry tried to comfort Delilah, pushing her hair out of her face. It didn't make her feel much better. But affection from him always made things at least a little better.
"Hey, I was gonna ask you. Do you wanna have dinner at my place tonight? My mom has been asking to meet you." Embry said. Delilah looked up, quickly forgetting her internal moral squabble. Her mind began to race with all the possible reasons she could want to meet her. She finally settled on, well, she was a normal woman who wanted to know who her son was dating.
"Tonight?" Delilah found herself questioning still. Embry cupped her face, seemingly analyzing Delilah's every facial feature, his thumbs running across her soft cheekbones.
"It'll go great. I already know that she's gonna love you." He looked at Delilah for a few more moments before turning, picking up the pans on the stove and taking them over to the sink. As she watched him, Delilah wondered just how many times she was going to think about the dinner while she was at school. The answer was, well, a lot.
Delilah had never been to Embry's house in the time that they'd known each other. If they went to the reservation together, Emily's was usually where they hung out if they stayed indoors, sometimes Jake's. So, she was anxiously waiting to see where her boyfriend had grown up. He was the son of a single mother, and it had hurt Delilah to hear him apologize for their house being so small and "a little dingy". It didn't matter to her, and she wished that it didn't matter to him. Delilah told Embry that he should be proud of his home. That his mother had worked hard to provide it for him and he should take pride in that fact. She was both relieved and happy that his energy changed after her comments. He no longer seemed nervous or embarrassed, he just took hold of her hand and smiled to himself as he drove up the windy road, toward the reservation.
Embry conducted his usual routine. Getting out of the car, then immediately going to Delilah's side of the car and opening her door for her, helping her out. Now, it was Delilah's turn to be nervous. She wanted Tiffany to like her, though she kept reminding herself not to call her Tiffany until she told her to. First impressions were everything, especially when you want something from the other person. All Delilah wanted from Tiffany was for her to like her. Tiffany taking to her on a more personal level would be better, of course. But Delilah wasn't getting her hopes up any more than she thought that she should.
"Mom?" Embry's house was the same model as Emily's, though the outside was completely different. They both had screen doors, though. Embry pushed the screen open, walking in casually with Delilah in tow. He grabbed hold of her hand, knowing she was likely getting more nervous the further they moved into the house.
"Sorry I was in the kitchen. Delilah!" The green eyed girl felt slightly jarred by the middle aged woman's excitable reaction. Tiffany walked toward her, her arms held open widely as she looked at her with deep brown eyes. Embry had her eyes. Delilah took the embrace. Tiffany gave good hugs, Delilah thought. The woman's energy was warm and kind.
"I'm excited he finally brought you over. You're all he ever talks about when I see him." She revealed, smiling at Delilah as she seemingly examining her features as she looked at her.
"Mom." Delilah thought Embry's tone had a feeling of warning to it. Delilah looked out of the corner of her eyes and saw that Embry was blushing profusely. She couldn't help but giggle at him.
"Well? I'm not lying. You can go ahead and start the barbecue now." Tiffany instructed as she looked away from Delilah and over at her son.
Delilah followed Tiffany into the kitchen as the woman listed off things that they had to drink in the house. Delilah noticed that she had thick black hair that stopped right past her shoulders and an oval shaped face. The two women stood in silence for a few minutes, watching Embry as he messed with the barbecue.
"I'm really more of an introvert, believe it or not." Tiffany finally spoke, looking to Delilah. She was sipping on a can of beer, leaned up against the kitchen sink. "He's just been so much better since you showed up. He's telling me where he is, when he'll be home way more often than he was. I'm really grateful to you, I feel like I know my son again." As Tiffany's words settled into Delilah's mind, she thought about Mindy, the waitress from the diner, and how she'd asked Embry about how things were with his mother. She remembered the woman seemed worried, and she remembered Embry saying that Mindy was Tiffany's friend. Clearly there had been issues between Embry and his mother. Delilah didn't feel comfortable being treated as the sole reason their relationship was back on track, but she was glad that Tiffany felt like Delilah being with him had made him better. Considering how much Embry had generally bettered Delilah's life, including her relationship with her father.
"I'm glad things are better for you guys. He really loves you so much." Delilah responded, earning a sweet smile from Tiffany. The woman looked back to her son, who had lit the barbecue during the time of their exchange. Delilah had noticed right when she first met him that Embry was good with his hands. He always fixed his car himself, he fixed Delilah's bathroom sink for her one morning before school, he even fixed the broken strap on her gym bag at one point, and it hadn't ever come back apart. She wondered if Embry had felt the need to learn these things to help Tiffany. Delilah couldn't help but feel that Embry had, in some ways, been a father to himself, something that was out of Tiffany's control. Delilah hadn't thought of it that way until she watched him in front of that barbecue, but after she did, but knew she'd never be able to not think of it that way.
Delilah looked back to Tiffany, who had seemed to space out while staring at her.
"Oh, I'm sorry. I guess I was trying to memorize your face. I just have this feeling that you're not going anywhere." Tiffany's russet toned hand touched Delilah's shoulder softly as she walked past her and into the backyard with her son.
Embry took Delilah home at around 9:30 that night. They hadn't left the table after dinner was over, they just stayed and talked to Tiffany and various things. It never got boring, and Delilah could tell that Tiffany was enjoying the time that she got to just talk to her son, like she didn't get to talk to him the way she used to, the way she was that night.
"I told you that she'd love you right away. Se's already asking when I'm going to bring you over again." Embry said as he pulled out of his driveway, looking over at her as he grinned ear to ear. Delilah was also happy with how things had gone, she felt that she'd connected with Tiffany well beyond how she'd expected to, which was definitely better than the alternative.
"Well, I'm going to see her at the bridal shower this weekend." Delilah replied, looking out the window at the large redwood trees that encapsulated the windy drive.
"Oh, yeah. Is the planning for that still going alright?" Embry asked her.
"Yeah, Alice sort of took over in a lot of ways but she's doing an amazing job, so I don't know how much we care about that." Delilah laughed, thinking back to Alice's many shrill phone calls to different vendors that always seemed to end in her getting her way. Even the girls, who had been uneasy about having her help them, were entertained by her antics. And everything was going well, so, it wasn't like they had anything worth complaining about.
"Well, here's to hoping it goes off without a hitch." Embry nudged her.
Bridal showers weren't exactly surprise parties, so Emily insisted on helping set up where she could. Delilah noticed that a small bump had begun to form on Emily's stomach as she saw her running around, looking more and more exhausted by the minute. Delilah finally made her sit down and rest, telling her she could be just as helpful by "supervising". This had earned Delilah something of a glare from Emily, who clearly didn't like feeling useless. Nevertheless, Emily relented and sat the rest of the set up out. She didn't have much of a choice, given how prone she was to becoming nauseous by then.
"It's done!" Alice's hands were on her hips as she looked around pridefully at the event that she had essentially put together on her own.
"It looks beautiful in here, I hardly recognize it. Thank you." Emily couldn't help but smile at Alice as she looked around the reservation's multipurpose room. Everyone on the reservation had been to a party in this building before, even Emily had gone to a few Clearwater birthday parties there, but it had never looked like this. Of course, it was a bit more extravagant than the bridal shower that would've been planned had Emily been part of the preparations, but Emily was one of those girls that didn't do a lot for herself, but she liked being pampered every once and a while. This was one of those times.
"Yeah, Alice. You really went above and beyond. We never could've pulled this off." Kim walked over to the other two girls, Rachel and Delilah close behind her. She was slightly sweaty from the workout she'd gotten from moving so many things around, but she'd look fine by the time the party started.
"I'm sure your wedding will be beautiful, too. Especially now that you've switched to my florist. And my food caterer." Alice winked at Emily. Delilah watched Emily move uncomfortably in her seat for a few moments before she finally looked up again and spoke.
"Why don't you come?" Emily's invitation didn't sound uneasy at all, really. Which surprised Delilah.
"What?" Rachel and Kim murmured at the same time, their shock more than apparent through their tone of voice. Alice noticed the reaction and shifted, clearly feeling awkward.
"You don't need to do that." Alice assured. Delilah noticed Rachel and Kim both visibly loosen up. It had seemed as if it was just Kim that was unsure of Alice the night they'd first begun planning at the diner, but Rachel was showing her own discomfort right then, and Delilah took notice.
"You've helped so much with this shower. And you've even helped with the actual wedding now. Your whole family should come, I think it'd be fun." Emily assured the tiny, paled girl. Alice's amber colored eyes softened at Emily's response.
"We'll all be sure to be there then." Alice looked back at Rosalie, who had reluctantly agreed to come help her sister set up the party she had planned.
Delilah saw so much good in Emily, she was always one to take the high road and be the first to extend an olive branch, even in everyday situations. And though the olive branch extended to Alice seemed to be bigger than the knowledge that Delilah possessed indicated possible, and though she made a mental note of this, what Delilah found to be more important than what she didn't know what she did know. They weren't just being civil or tolerant of each other like she'd previously witnessed. They were getting along.
Hello! I'm so excited that some of you have enjoyed the story so much that you felt the desire to live a more than favorable review. It's so exciting to know that someone, or rather multiple people, out there like my writing. I hope this is an entertaining chapter, and I hope that you will join me for the rest of the story as I continue to add to it every day. I've absolutely loved creating it. Thank you again and please continue to stay safe and healthy.
-J