Running Into You

Chapter 14

Emma

The rest of the ride into the city is quiet. We head down a long driveway with trees that line both sides until we stop in front of an old plantation house that looks like it came straight off the set of Gone with the Wind. I look at him skeptically, "This is where you live?"

"Hey, don't judge. This is Georgia."

"What does your daddy do?" I ask as we walk up the staircase to the front door.

"He's a lawyer. Have you heard of Barnes, Barnes, Clark, and Associates?"

I stop dead in my tracks and the blood rushes out of my face. He turns around and looks at me.

"What's wrong?"

"That's where my mom works."

"Really? I might know her. Who's your mom?"

"Regina. Regina McAllister. Do you know her?"

"Nah, the name doesn't ring a bell, but he has around fifty employees in 3 different firms in Georgia, Alabama, and Florida. I might know her face if I saw her. My granddad is a lawyer and him before him and so on. This was his house before my grandmother died about fifteen years ago and he got an apartment in the city. He hated the commute and he spends all his time at the office anyway. So he went ahead and gave it to my dad. He would have given it to him when he died anyway. It's been in the family for over a hundred years now."

I didn't have time to respond before he opened the door. The foyer had a grand staircase in the middle of the room that split at the top to rooms above. Every inch of wall space is covered in paintings and there are tables against the walls with vases and statues on them. He was right it did look like a museum. I look over at Henry with his wavy blond hair and scruffy beard in blue jeans and an old T-shirt with holes in it and then this grand house with more art then the small museum in the city and I wonder how could he have come from this. He looks over at me as I take it in. "What are you thinking?" not 'What do you think because that is obviously written all over my face.'

"I've never seen anything like it. Your home is beautiful."

"Would you like something to eat?"

"I'm famished. I forgot to eat before I left home."

Holding my hand, he pulls me along to the back of the house where there is a large modern kitchen. I run my fingers along the granite countertop and look at him confused.

"I know. I know. It doesn't belong in this house, but can you imagine what a hundred year old kitchen would look like. Also Dad added on a bit. They didn't make kitchen's this big back then."

"You got a point there."

He opens one of the doors to the massive refrigerator. "So what will it be? Do you want breakfast or lunch?"

I look down at my watch and see it's just after nine o'clock. "I'll take breakfast."

"Pancakes? Waffles?"

"How about eggs and toast?"

He takes out two eggs and lays them on the counter before he opens the other side and pulls the bread out of the freezer. "Would you like bacon or grits to go with it?"

"I'll take bacon, but no grits."

He turns back around and opens the fridge side again and takes out a pack of turkey bacon. He takes down a frying pan from a hanging rack above the island and lights up the gas range that's built into the island. He sprays the pan and with the egg up in the air he asks how I would like it. I'm studying him as he cooks like he's a wild animal at the zoo. As different as his life might be there's still only one way to fry an egg. Once he's finished cooking he sets down our food on two plates and walks around to sit beside me at the bar. Just then a young woman walks in the room. She has a short blond pixie cut that emphasizes her petite face. Her eyes are huge and round and the same hazel color as Henry's. If there ever was a living tinker bell this is what she would look like. To bring that point home she is wearing a pair of green running shorts and a tight green tank top.