"You have a date?"

It was late, at Emily had just broken the news to her mother about Jesse and the "date" she had made with him earlier that day.

"It's not really a date, Mom," said Emily, looking through her things to see if she'd brought her jeans, "Think of it like… going somewhere with a friend. Gotcha!" She pulled out a pair of worn blue jean from the dresser.

"Yes, a male friend," said her mom, crossing her arms and sitting down on the bed. "You know nothing about him."

"I do to," said Emily stubbornly, folding the jeans and looking for a t-shirt. "I all ready told you he was a Tuck. You know, Grandma used to talk about the Tucks all the time, and he said he's parents knew her… who else could he be?"

"Who else indeed?" said her mom quietly, her eyes staring at nothing in the middle of the floor.

Jenna Bannock, Emily's mother, had remembered well her mother's stories about the Tucks when her daughter had told her about her date. Winnie Foster had told her children about the time her parents thought she had been kidnapped, but she had really been staying with a family, the Tucks, that lived in the woods behind this very house, and how Mae Tuck had protected Winnie from a mysterious man in a yellow suit, and other things. But just because the Tucks had been her mother's friends, Jenna Bannock still had understandable reservations about letting her daughter go off with one of them on a date, alone, in those woods.

"Mom, come on," said Emily, "other kids go on dates right after they've met someone! Please?"

"I don't know," said her mom, stroking a black cat that had just jumped into her lap. "What'd you think, Jinx?"

"You're asking the cat?" asked Emily dryly. "Come on Mom. It's just a date."

She pronounced every word in the last sentence clearly, distinctly, and plainly.

"Fine," said her mom after a moment's thought, "but I want you to take my cell phone

"Thank you!" said Emily, hugging her mom quickly and setting the t-shirt she picked out next to her jeans.

"Yeah, yeah," said her mom, picking up Jinx and getting to her feet, "Now get ready for bed. It's got to be at least twelve thirty."

"Good night," said Emily, shutting the door after her mom.

As she got changed and ready for bed, Emily thought about Jesse. So he was a Tuck. She tried to remember everything her grandmother had told her about the Tucks. Jesse must have been named after his grandfather, because the Jesse Tuck in her grandmother's stories was probably too old to be this Jesse's father, although it was possible. And Emily must have seen Jesse's older brother when she was eight. If he had an older brother. And if that were true, she realized, then this Jesse would be kind of like the one her grandma told her about.

It was funny; even though she'd never met Jesse before, she had the feeling that she'd known him her whole life. And then there was a different feeling, a fluttery one that she got inside when she thought about him….

But that's probably just his good looks, she thought to herself as she got into bed, smiling.

The next morning, there was chaos upstairs in the Foster house.

"I can't find my stupid brush!" Emily shouted to Kaylie from the bathroom across the hall from her room. Kaylie was already scattering everything Emily had brought all over her bed, trying to find her cousin's eyeliner.

"Well, it's not here!" Kaylie said irritably, "and why do you need eyeliner anyway? You've got gorgeous eyes without it!"

"Because I need— aaah!"

Emily had tramped out of the bathroom only to fall face first on to the hard wood floor, avoiding Jinx the cat, who had chosen that moment to dart between her legs.

"DAMN IT JINX!" she yelled, getting to her feet. She had split her scalp right underneath her hairline, and it was bleeding.

"Emily!" yelled Kaylie, running out and grabbing her arm. "Are you okay?"

Without warning, Emily burst into laughter.

"What?" asked Kaylie, completely baffled at her cousin's outbreak of ecstasy.

"I don't know," said Emily, calming down a little. "It was funny for some reason. Here we are, all panicked and rushed, and then, BOOM! The Jinx strikes."

"I think someone stayed up to late," said Kaylie, smiling in spite of herself. "How's the head?"

"It's fine," said Emily, laughter ceasing, but a grin still on her face. "I just need a tissue or something until it stops bleeding. Here, you get that, and I'll find my brush. And just forget about the eyeliner."

Kaylie rolled her eyes and went to get some tissues while Emily finished getting ready.

Ten minutes later, after Emily's cut had stopped bleeding and she'd brushed her hair and put it into a ponytail, she was heading out to the crossroads behind the house. As she walked along, kicking dirt into the air, she tried to calm the butterflies in her stomach.

It seemed the had barely left when she was there, and there was Jesse with two horses.

"Hi!" she said, waving and hurrying over. Jesse smiled.

"Hi," he said, handing her the reins of one of the horses. "I remembered last night that I didn't ask you how much you had ridden before."

"I used to get ridding lessons at a stable near our house," said Emily, "on a really frisky horse. His name was Demon. I'm pretty good, I think."

"Well," said Jesse, "I brought Angel just in case. She's real sweet."

The horse next to him, a light bay mare, nickered softly and nosed Emily's shoulder. Emily smiled and rubbed her velvety nose.

"Is she yours?" she asked.

"Her?" said Jesse. "Nope. She belongs to the riding stable on the outskirts of town over there. I'm working there, too. Every other day. Denver here's from the stable too."

His horse was a tall, dark chestnut gelding, with soft eyes and a square head.

"But I have a horse," said Jesse, "his name's Scout."

"That's cool," said Emily, smiling.

"Yeah," said Jesse, seeming to think that he'd talked too much. "So, let's go then!"

They mounted, and started for the woods. Emily knew that were there trails through the woods, but they were really just deer paths. She didn't know of anyone actually making riding trails through the woods, mainly because most of the woods still belonged to the Foster family, otherwise known as her uncle, aunt, and cousins.

"So," said Jesse as the entered the woods, "what happened to your head?"

"I tripped over a cat," said Emily, smiling. Jesse laughed.

"Sorry," he said. "I guess it wasn't that funny."

"It was, actually," said Emily, smiling at him.

"So are you staying with your cousins for the summer?" asked Jesse.

"Yeah," said Emily, "I haven't seen them in forever. The last time I was here, I was eight." This reminded her of something. "Hey, Jesse, do you have an older brother?"

"Yeah," said Jesse, "my older brother Miles. Why?"

"Nothing," said Emily, "I just thought I might have seen him before. When I was eight."

"Oh," said Jesse, and Emily didn't notice as his voice caught on something. She was paying too much attention to something up ahead of them. There were on what seemed like a real trail, only overgrown. And up ahead was what looked like the remains of some sort of structure.

"Hey, what's that?" she asked, more to herself than to Jesse. "Come on, let's go check it out."

She stopped her horse, and dismounted. Jesse stopped Denver, but his eyes were on the structure.

"Damn," he said softly, dismounting and leading Denver up to where Emily was tying Angel.

"Hey, maybe we should just leave," he said. "There's probably nothing in there anyway."

"What," said Emily, smirking a little at him, "are you afraid of ghosts?"

"No," said Jesse, tying up Denver, "buy you don't know what kind of animal could have its burrow under that… thing."

But Emily was already walking up the burned up house, and he had no choice but to follow. Her stubbornness reminded him of someone he'd met a long time ago. In these very woods, as a matter of fact, not too far from here.

"Okay, you looked," said Jesse, "can we go now?"

Emily kicked aside some thick, rotted planks of wood. "Hey, look at this," she said, picking up what was left of a glass bottle. It was blackened and burned and twisted.

Jesse walked around her, and stood in a spot in the middle of the rubble. Then, he leaned over and moved some of the wood. There was a hard, metal lump there. He picked it up and ran his fingers over it. It must have been the brooch he'd bought for his mother in Paris. So, this had been her room…

"Hey, look," said Emily, holding up something. Jesse looked at her, and his eyes fell to the object in her hand. It was unmistakable. His mother's music box.

"Wind it," said Jesse.

Emily looked at the music box for a moment, then found the key, and wound it up. Miraculously, it still worked. As Emily's hand turned, an eerily, soft music played. A weird feeling came over Jesse. The same feeling was coming over Emily. Without warning, the music stopped.

"Jesse," said Emily softly, "do you think anyone… died here?"

"I doubt it," said Jesse, just as softly. Emily didn't question his doubt. Fortunately, she didn't feel like hearing an explanation, and Jesse didn't feel like giving one.

"You're right, Jesse, let's go," said Emily.

"Can I…" asked Jesse, swallowing, "can I keep that?" He pointed to the music box.

"Be my guest," said Emily, handing it to him. They made their way over to the horses, and mounted, then continued the ride, leaving the burned house and it's mystery behind them.

"That was kind of creepy," said Emily, shivering, but smiling as they got out of view of the house.

"Just a little," said Jesse, smiling back. But his smile died shortly afterward; they were coming into view of something else he'd hoped to avoid. It appeared he didn't remember the woods as well as he would have hoped.

"Hey, I remember this!" said Emily, smiling widely as they reached the spring, and the tree with the "T" carved into it. "Grandma told me about this tree, and the spring. I think she said it was poisoned, or something."

"Yeah," said Jesse, "I think it is poisoned."

"So, what it, like, your great-grandfather, or something, who carved that?" she asked, pointing over Angel's head to the "T" in the tree.

"Something like that," said Jesse, forcing a smile.

"Cool," said Emily, and Jesse was glad to see that she rode past the spring instead of stopping. He lingered for a moment longer, and then trotted Denver up next to her.

"Hey, do you want to meet my mom, and aunt and uncle?" asked Emily. "I mean, they'd love to meet you. Oh, and Kaylie and Matt would really love to meet you! They're my cousins. You know, the ones who were at the ice cream shop."

"Sure," said Jesse, smiling. What harm could he do in meeting Emily's family? He was seen by tons of people at the stable and ice cream shop every day, wasn't he? "Maybe you could me Miles, and my parents. They'd love you, I'm sure."

"Cool," said Emily. "Can I meet them tonight?"

"I think so," said Jesse. "In fact, if you ride Angel back to the stable with me, then you can meet them right after that."

"Great," said Emily. She wasn't sure why she wanted to meet Jesse's family so much, but she was just starting to get a strange feeling. It seemed all her strange feelings lately were triggered by the Tucks.

A/N: Yes, I did finally update. Sorry it took a little while. It might a while more before the next chapter, because I'm going to Europe, and I don't know how often I'll have a computer. Thanks to every one who's updated.

Oh, yeah… I have one idea about the ending to this story, but if any of you have really great ideas, preferably ones that don't involve killing everyone in Emily's family so she can join the Tucks, do tell. Much appreciated! Thanx!