Matters of the Heart

Chapter 26: In the Eyes the Heart Abides

Chapter 26:

In the Eyes the Heart Abides

She jerked away from the person holding her arm and spun around, swinging the umbrella furiously at her attacker. She was moving so fast that all she could see were the shadows on the porch. She heard shoes scuffling against the ground and then cussing.

"Whoa!" Someone exclaimed.

The voice sounded familiar. It caused her to pause in her attack. Her eyes adjusted to the dim light on the porch being cast outside by the lights inside the house. She saw Aria and Hanna stumbling back several feet.

"Jesus, Emily. It's just us." Hanna threw her hands up defensively.

"Oh my God." Emily dropped the umbrella and pushed the palm of her hand against her forehead. "Why didn't you say anything? I almost took your head off."

"With an umbrella?" Hanna looked almost amused. "What were you going to do with that anyway, Mary Poppins? Shove it down our throats like a spoonful of fricking sugar?"

"I thought you were A." Emily forced herself to calm down.

"So you rushed out to do a dance number from Singin' in the Rain?" Hanna asked. She bent over and picked up the umbrella.

"I just grabbed the first thing I could find."

"I have heels sharper than this thing." Hanna frowned in disapproval.

"We didn't mean to scare you," Aria said. "We were getting ready to ring the bell and then we heard something back here and were worried someone was trying to break in. We weren't expecting to find you in full Braveheart mode."

"After the day we've had you're lucky I didn't attack first and ask questions later." Emily breathed a sigh of relief.

"Actually, that's exactly what you did." Hanna pointed out.

"Excuse me for not being prepared for a house call at ten o'clock at night." Emily rolled her eyes.

"Oh, wow, is it really that late?" Aria glanced down at her watch and shook her head. "Sorry. We've been holed up with Caleb and Ezra at Spencer's place in DEFCON mode. We've been meaning to swing by and check on Ali for hours now. How is she?"

"Miraculously still standing." Emily glanced towards the house.

"How are you?" Hanna questioned.

"I'm going to start charging a dollar every time someone asks me that."

"You looked pretty rough in the car, Em. We thought..."

"I know what you thought." Emily interrupted Hanna. She couldn't go five minutes without someone freaking out about her health. It was starting to stress her out. "I'm fine, guys. Really."

"If you say so," Hanna muttered under her breath.

Emily and Hanna exchanged a glance as they walked around the corner and up the stairs to the front door. Emily knew that Hanna wasn't buying the fertilizer she was trying to sell her. Hanna had always had a unique way of knowing when Emily was being less than honest with her. But Hanna didn't push it.

"Sorry I took off on you guys earlier." Emily walked through the front door, the girls following.

"No judgment here." Hanna shrugged. "I bolted on one of the most important work meetings of my life a few months ago when I got a phone call that Caleb had an accident and wiped out at work. I got all the way to the hospital only to find out someone took down the message wrong and he'd just called to let me know that he'd accidentally wiped out the hard drive on my old laptop." She frowned. "I could have killed him."