What The Heart Wants

Chapter 26

When Emily arrived back at Alison's house an hour later, she left the three pregnancy test in the car until after her mother had gone.

Then she dithered for a while about where to put them. She ended up sticking them in the empty suitcase under the bed in the room where she never slept, ready in case she needed them.

Which, of course, she would not.

Her period did not show up that day, or the next.

On the day after that, Saturday, Hanna arrived home for the summer. She put her things away in her room, helped with the twins and pitched in to fix dinner.

When they all sat down to eat, Hanna said, "I'm leaving at seven. My friends are picking me up. I can't wait to see them."

Emily caught Alison's eye and gave her a minuscule shake of her head before she could even think about objecting. She did take the hint about Hanna going out - but she just had to ask, "Any luck on the job front yet?"

Hanna pushed a string bean around on her plate. "I'm working on it."

"I can put you to work at the front desk, answering the phones- and we can use a clerk in the Payables and Receivables."

Hanna left the string bean alone and went to work poking at a bite of oven-browned potato. "Thanks, Alison. I have something I'm working on, a job I think would really be fun and interesting."

"What job is that?"

"I'm going to need a few days to see if it pans out, okay?"

"Some reason you don't want to tell me about it?"

"Alison." Hanna set down her fork. "I want to work it out for myself. And then I'll tell you about it."

"Summer doesn't last forever," the older blonde warned in a ridiculously dire tone. She was close enough that Emily could have given her a good, sharp kick under the table. But she'd interfered enough. Alison and Hanna needed to figure out ways to get along without Emily constantly stepping in to referee.

"Just give me till Monday." Hanna ate a bite of potato she'd been torturing.

"Till Monday. And then what?"

"If I can't make it happen by Monday, DiLaurentis' Real Estate, here I come." The younger blonde sang sarcastically.

Alison made it a point not to say anything critical to Hanna through the rest of the meal.

She knew Emily had it right, that she was being overbearing and too protective, and she needed to give her baby sister her freedom as an adult. She had to let her make her own choices. Still, it got her all itchy and pissed off that she couldn't just make the right decisions for her.

The end of her school year had kind of crept up on her. She wasn't ready for it, for Hanna to be home all the time. And not only because she worried she would end up wasting her summer sitting around the house and hanging out with her friends.

There was also what she had with Emily. With Hanna living in the house, they either needed to tell her that they were together or sneak around.

Sneaking around wasn't something she approved of. It showed a certain lack of integrity. Sneaking around had seemed excusable back at Easter, when she and Emily had just found each other and Hanna was only home for three days.

But now?

No. Now, sneaking around was cheap. Unacceptable.

She and Emily hadn't said the words yet. But she meant to say them, and soon. She was her in the deepest way. She wanted what they had to continue. Forever, if possible.