Chapter 14

Jason watched the red checker hit the board not once, not twice, but three times, claiming one of his men with each jump.

Michael looked up at him with a smug look on his face. "Crown me."

"Sure thing kid." He placed one of the game pieces he was holding on top crown size up, and surveyed the board. They had played four games so far and each time Michael seemed to know his every move. "Who taught you how to play so good?"

"Aunt Em. She said you used to play checkers with her when she was growing up."

"Yeah we did." Jason said looking over at his little sister. She and Sam were sitting over on the couch going over wedding ideas. Emily seemed really happy right now but Jason wondered if it was just a cover, a bandage, so to speak over all the pain she'd been through in the last few months. Connor Bishop was lucky that he got off so easy at his sister's hand because Jason would have made him suffer to his last breath.

"Hey Uncle Jase you gonna go or not?"

Jason focused back in on his nephew. "Not. I give up. I can't win against you."

"Now that's a first even if you will only admit it to my son. What did he do beat you too?" Sonny laughed walking through the foyer. "Sorry I'm late. The snow is really coming down out there."

"Yeah he did," pretending to glare at Emily, "somebody gave away all my secrets."

"Surely you're not referring to moi?" She looked back acting offended at the thought.

Sam and Sonny exchanged looks and rolled their eyes.

Michael laughed and looked at his dad. "It's not aunt Em's fault, I'm just that good."

Everybody couldn't help but laugh at this. Sonny rubbed his son's head. "We know you are. Where's your brother?"

"He's upstairs taking a nap. Aunt Em said you went to see mom. Is she ok?"

"She's fine and she misses you and Morgan."

Emily could tell something else was bothering Sonny. "Come on Michael why don't we go see if Morgan's up yet." She picked up the checkerboard. "We'll take this and you can start to show him some of your cool moves. What do you say?"

"Ok."

Sonny looked at her with a silent thank you. It was as if she knew how hard it was for him to talk to Michael about his mother right now. Sonny felt that it was his fault that she was where she was now and his kids had to suffer most from the consequences of it.

"Hey I'll come too." Sam chimed in following them to the stairs.

Emily turned around at the top of the stairs. "Sonny?"

He looked up. "Yeah?"

Miss Dawson says that dinner will be ready in another hour. She wanted to make something special for Jason."

"Sounds good." He said turning to find Jason watching him. "What? My hair out of place or something?"

Jason laughed. "Funny man but no. I was just checking something out."

Sonny moved over to the bar to pour himself a drink. He looked back at his friend. "You want one?"

"No. You go ahead. I'm good." He watched Sonny turn back around. "You seem to be getting along really good with the kids since Carly's been gone."

Sonny turned to walk to his desk to check the mail. "I guess you could say that but I couldn't have done any of it without Leticia and of course Emily. Your sister is really amazing."

"Yeah she is."

Sonny noticed the cautious tone in Jason's voice. He looked up at Emily's brother. "What's wrong? Is she ok? Did something happen?"

"She's fine. I'm worried though Sonny I don't want her to get into a situation where she can be hurt."

"I don't think I understand. Nobody's going to hurt her here. Or anywhere. If you're worried we can get one of the guys to follow her around," Sonny laughed, "but I don't think she'd be too happy about it."

"I'm not worried about anybody else, I'm talking about you."

"Me? I'd never do anything to hurt her."

"Not physically no, but emotionally yes. I've been watching the two of you, at the hospital, here."

"And what Jason? We're not fighting, she and I get along, and the kids love her. She's worked her way through some heavy heartache, I thought you would want her to be happy."

"I do Sonny but if you two are falling for each other. I'm just afraid that she's going to get in over her head."

Sonny kept his cool. After all Jason was just trying to protect Emily. Hell he expected him to. What kind of a brother would he be if he didn't?

"Look Jason I care about Emily. I'm not," he hesitated, "I can't lie to you about that, but you have to believe me I would never hurt her in that way."

Before Jason could argue his point more. Sam and Emily came downstairs. Sam looked Jason.

"You two look pretty intense. Is everything alright?"

Jason looked back at Sonny deciding to let it go. "We're fine."

"Good. Come walk with me. We still have a few minutes before dinner I think. I want to see the garden."

Emily elbowed her brother and leaned over. "I think she's trying to tell you she wants a few minutes alone with you."

"I think I know what she means sis."

"Well I was just trying to help. We all know how dense men can be sometimes."

Sam laughed taking Jason's hand. "Come on tiger. You and your sister can verbally duke it out later."

Emily turned her attention back to Sonny. "Are you and Jason really alright? Sam's right the two of you did look like you were having more than just a heart to heart discussion."

Sonny smiled back at her. "We're ok. We were just coming to an understanding about something. You know how we are sometimes. He and I just needed to talk it out."

He walked back over to the desk and held out some letters and what looked like a package. "You got mail."

She looked at the small box he had handed her. "Hmmm….no return address. I wonder what this could be?"

"I don't know. Could you have ordered something you forgot about?"

Emily shook her head. "Not that I can remember." She gently tore the paper off and lifted the lid. It was a pair of matching ornately designed hair combs. They reminded her of a pair that she owned.

Sonny came and looked over her shoulder. "Nice. Who sent them?"

She looked the box over inside and out. "There's no note. I wonder if it came in the mail or if it was delivered."

"We can ask Max if you want. If anyone would know he would."

"No that's ok. It's probably something from my mom. I'm going to take this stuff upstairs to my room and see if the boys are ready to come down for dinner. While you check to see if it's ready and find the happy couple."

Sonny laughed. "I see how this works. I get to be the one to interrupt them huh?"

She laughed back. "You're not scared of little ole Sam are you?"

He smiled at the sound of her laughter disappearing down the upstairs hall.