Page 15 of Upon an April Night
“I will. Can we talk about this later?”
She nodded, and he kissed her softly on the cheek then sat back.
Silence hung in the air between them. The warm glow of the evening sun was hitting the tops of the trees as a soft breeze rustled the leaves.
“Duncan.”
He loved the way his name sounded coming from her lips.
“Something’s bothering you. I can tell that much.”
“I’ve got a lot on my mind right now.”
“Can I help?”
He stood and kissed the top of her head. “I wish you could.”
Chapter 7
The house stood quiet and dark before Jamie. If only she hadn’t been in such a hurry to leave her apartment, she might have remembered the key to her parents’ house. Knocking or ringing the doorbell at two o’clock in the morning probably wasn’t the best idea since her parents had no doubt been asleep since eight. Maybe she should’ve waited until morning to drive the ten hours home to Hershey, Pennsylvania, but she needed to get out of Grand Rapids as fast as possible.
Jamie glanced back at her car then over at the lattice attached to the side of the porch. She’d climbed that more times than she could count to sneak out of the house when she was in high school. She walked across the lawn to get a closer look. Maybe it wasn’t as sturdy as it had once been. Maybe it wasn’t the best idea to climb up a rickety lattice in her … condition. Even if she was considering no longer being in that condition anymore, she didn’t want to end up with a broken leg or worse.
She cautiously placed one foot on the old wood and grabbed hold, pulling herself up. She paused long enough to jiggle it back and forth to test its sturdiness. She was still close to the ground, so if it broke and she fell, she wouldn’t have too far to go. But it didn’t give, so she continued onward and upward, gritting her teeth with every foot gained. She’d never felt more relieved than the second both of her knees were firmly planted on the porch roof.
As she began to crawl across the shingles, the sound of an approaching car gave her pause. To any passersby, she would surely look like an intruder, so she lay flat on her stomach, hoping she wouldn’t be spotted. Her heart beat rapidly as the car slowed, and she was only able to breathe again when it drove past and turned down another street.
Letting out a sigh of relief, she continued on toward her old bedroom window. Her parents knew by now about her sneaking in and out, but she had never told them the lock was broken or that she knew just the right way to jiggle the window to get it to release. She only hoped Dad hadn’t figured that out and repaired it after she moved out.
Please be broken. Please be broken.
Jiggling it without making noise used to be her specialty, but it seemed louder than she remembered. Or maybe she’d just lost her touch. She cringed with each thump and creak it made until it finally gave way as it always had.
She let out a sigh and lifted the window fully open, scooting forward to stick one foot through onto her …
What the?
Her foot normally would’ve found her bed by now, but instead, there was nothing but air. She stretched her leg farther, trying to touch something with her toe. Finally, she put her other leg through, ducked her body under the window, and dropped into the room. But rather than landing on a solid surface, she bounced, completely throwing off her balance, and tumbled face-first onto the floor.
The light suddenly flipped on, and she looked up at her father standing over her, holding a baseball bat.
“What is it, Harvey? Is it a burglar?” her mother cried.
“I’ll protect you, Sylvia!” Dad replied.
“It’s me!” Jamie grunted as she lay there, holding the side of her head that had hit the floor. A sudden fear shot through her body, wondering if her fall had harmed the baby, but she pushed that thought to the back of her mind.
“Jamie?” Dad lowered the ball bat. “What are you doing here in the middle of the night?”
Her mother scurried into the room. “Are you all right?”
Jamie pushed herself up to sitting and glanced at her mom, grey hair up in rollers, then at her dad, who somehow looked balder than he had last time she was home, even though his head had been smooth as a cue ball for years. They looked much older than their sixties, but they’d always felt ancient to her since they had waited until they were forty to have her.
As she stood, she looked around the bedroom that was once hers. It wasn’t much of a bedroom in its current state. In place of her bed were an exercise bike and the mini-trampoline that had landed her on the floor. A treadmill sat where her dresser used to be, and a small rack of weights was positioned next to her closet. “I see you’ve opened a gym.”
“We’re trying to stay healthy,” Dad replied. “We work out every day now.”
“I’m getting rid of my muffin top once and for all.” Her mother smoothed her pajama top down over her belly.
