Jacked

Emily nodded and smiled the weakest of smiles before turning over and pulling the covers up around her neck. Hunter flipped off the light then closed her door most of the way then headed back to the living room where he finished his drink and poured himself another as he replayed the evening's events in his mind.

It was a little after midnight when he finally laid down and within minutes he was out.

Blackman was dreaming he was back in Shewan and was watching some Afghan kids playing with sticks and a goat when he realized a child was talking to him.

"Are you gonna paint my room?" he finally heard.

Blackman opened one eye and saw Holly standing there just as sweet and innocent as could be.

"Hey, there," he said trying to open both eyes.

"Can I lay down by you?" she asked.

"Oh, um...no, I...I should probably get up and get going," he said knowing she was too young to understand why that wouldn't be such a good idea.

"Did a bad man get hurt last night?" she asked just as innocently.

Blackman sat up, ran his hand through his hair then tried to smile.

"A bad man? No, you must have had a dream." He leaned down then said in his best spooky voice, "A very baaaad dream!"

Holly giggled then said, "Can I have something to drink, please?"

Blackman was fully dressed so he stood up and said, "Okay. What does your mom usually give you?"

Holly grabbed one of his fingers and took him into the kitchen.

"Sometimes I have milk and sometimes I have apple juice."

"Well, which one would you like this morning?" he asked her as he found a cup in one of the cupboards.

"Um...apple juice!" she announced.

"Apple juice coming up!" he told her.

He poured half a cupful then set it in front of her at the island where she'd climbed up on a barstool.

"Hey, how'd you get up there?" he asked looking the chair over like he was looking for something. "Are you part monkey or something?" Blackman pretended to be a monkey and scratched under his arms and made monkey noises.

Holly laughed loudly and pointed at him, "You're silly!"

"Yes, I am!" he told her. "Don't tell anyone though, okay? It'll just be our secret."

He had no idea Emily had been watching him for the last 30 seconds or so.

"I won't tell anyone!" she assured him.

"It's too late," Emily said. "I saw the monkey man myself."

"Oh, wow," Blackman said. "Please tell me you didn't see me doing...that."

"Oh, yes I did," she told him. "I only wish I'd had my cell phone to record it."

"How are you feeling this morning?" he asked her getting serious.

"I think I'll be okay," she said. "I'm still a little shaken up over it, but I think I'll be fine. Now if you hadn't there..."

"Well, I was there and I'm glad you feel better or at least optimistic. Oh. Holly had a dream about some bad man getting hurt last night."

Emily understood exactly what he meant and said, "Oh, that's funny. I had the same dream."

"It isn't really real, Mommy," she told her authoritatively. "Do you want some apple juice, too?"

"No thank you, honey. I think I could use some very strong coffee, though."

"I should probably be going anyway," Blackman said. "I'll just grab my things and call a cab."

"No, please stay and have a cup of coffee with me. I mean, if you have time."

"I've imposed enough already, I'm sure," he told her.

"Imposed? I feel like I owe you my life," she told him. "Please stay?"

"Um, okay. Sure. That'd be nice." He walked passed her, bent down, and whispered, "And don't be so melodramatic. Saved you life. Sheesh!"

Emily finally smiled a real smile and Hunter returned it.

"How strong is strong?" he asked.

"Oh, no. You are not going to make coffee for me, too," she said. "I can't cook, but I can make coffee."

"I have no doubt you have the necessary talent to make coffee—good coffee, at that. But I'm already up so if you'll just point to where you keep the coffee I'll brew a pot for us."

Holly didn't want anything to eat yet and went to play when she was finished with her juice leaving Hunter and Emily to talk.

"Is it true you were a Navy SEAL?" she asked when they were finally alone.

"It is," he told her.

"So...last night wasn't the first time you ever..."

"No," was all he said.

"Were you scared?"

Hunter had heard many combat vets answer that question, "Hell, yes!"

He never doubted them, all he knew was he'd never felt that way. He'd trained and trained and trained and knew he would have to kill people and that they would be trying to kill him. Each time he'd been in a firefight—there were only four of them—he hadn't been afraid. He'd felt...detached. Like he was watching himself firing his weapon or being shot at. Even so, he didn't tell Emily the whole truth.

"Yeah. A little, I suppose. In all fairness, they weren't exactly well-trained soldiers or anything. Just a couple of punk thugs looking for a cheap thrill—at your expense."

"Why would anyone do that to someone else?" she asked.

This wasn't the time to get into a deeply philosophical discussion about human behavior or evil. Hunter just said, "Sometimes it's nothing more than being in the wrong place at the wrong time. There's no other way to account for it unless you believe there's Somebody 'up there' pulling strings."

"I don't, but then not believing that makes life seem so...random and so...fragile," she said. "I mean, it could end at any time."

"That's true," he agreed. "But it's always been true, Emily. And yet, unless we have a brush with our mortality, it never really hits us. Sure, we all know were mortals with a finite time on earth, but we bury that certain knowledge somewhere deep in our minds and live under the illusion that we're really not so fragile. Safety and security are relative terms, I suppose. We do our best to create an environment where we feel safe, but many things can happen to us. Since they rarely ever do, we don't give much thought to events like last night."

"True. Until they do, huh?" she replied. "Even when you read about something like this or see it on the news, it still doesn't register because it isn't you or someone you love."

He smiled at Emily then said, "I don't mind talking about this, but would you maybe rather talk about something a little less intense?"

Emily ignored his question and said, "I can't believe you're 24 years old. I don't think I've ever met anyone of any age who has such a clear-eyed view of life."

She kept looking at him then asked him, "Why did you decide to get out of the Navy?"

Hunter sighed then said, "It's kind of a long story. Are you sure you want to hear it?"

"Yes. I'm sure," she told him. "Would you mind sharing it with me?"

He spent the next five minutes giving her the Cliff-Notes version of what happen in Shewan and Emily was even more amazed.

"You've seen more in that six months in combat than most of us see in an entire lifetime," she mused. That was true, but what she didn't know was that with the exception of maybe 3-4 hours of very intense action out of the entire six months, it was mostly gawd-awful boring.

"War let's you see the darker side of life. Most people thankfully never have to. Police officers do. EMTs see it. They respond to the murders, rapes, suicides, fires, and car accidents. Terrible stuff. All that is a part of life, but it's not life. Holly is. Having a purpose of some kind is. Loving someone more than yourself is. That's the bigger part of life and you've already experienced many of the good things I haven't but still hope to experience. Like having been married to someone you love or having a child."

"Are you saying you've never been in love before?" she asked him.

"I guess I am," he told her. "I had a pretty serious relationship in high school, but I was so obsessed with physical training in college, I never did get serious with anyone else."

"It just seems so odd," Emily told him. "You're a truly unique and interesting guy, Hunter. And as I said, you're also quite good looking. It just seems hard to believe no one's caught your eye yet, so to speak."

He smiled at her and said, "That's not quite true."

"Oh? Is there someone you haven't told me about?" she asked having no clue to whom he was referring.

"No. There's no one special in my life. Well, that's not exactly true. There is someone I think is very special and she is, at least to some degree, in my life."

She still wasn't getting it until he smiled and raised his eyebrows a little.

"Who? Me?" she asked genuinely surprised and pointing to herself.

"Yes, you," he told her. He was no longer smiling and Emily could tell he was serious.

"Well, not after seeing me like this, I'm sure," she told him.

Emily was in a plain robe and although she'd washed her face, she didn't look anything like she had last night. And yet Hunter thought she was every bit as beautiful this morning as she had been 12 hours ago.

"You looked beautiful last night, and you look just as beautiful this morning, Emily. You really do."

She sat there and stared at him for a few seconds before responding. "You make me feel very confused, Hunter. And please don't ask me to explain what I mean by that because I'm so confused I can't."

He smiled again then said, "I really do need to run. I've gotta get home and shower and change so I can get back to rule my kingdom. Paint doesn't mix itself, you know." No, he didn't have to hurry in, but there was no way he was going to take advantage of the offer to take his time once he felt Emily was okay.

Emily covered her mouth as she laughed.

"You see, that's why I'm so confused," she told him. "Just since I walked into...your kingdom...last night, I've experienced this huge range of emotions. I've been literally scared to death, felt happy, flustered, playful, and foolish. And those are just the emotions I can name."

"I've been feeling a few things, too," he told her. "Maybe we can talk about them over dinner."

"Oh, my gosh. I completely forgot. I guess that's what getting scared out of your mind can do to you."

She smiled at him then said, "Last night, when I agreed to have dinner with you, it was almost on a whim. As I said, I went back and forth and finally agreed to say 'yes' but it was more out of curiosity. I really never have gone out with a younger man. I just decided if I was going to try this, why not try it with someone who wasn't...hard to look at. But now...now I find myself genuinely interested in getting to know you."

"I'm glad to hear you say that because I'm very interested in getting to know you," he told her.

"And it doesn't bother you at all that I'm well, a lot older than you?"

"Not one bit," he told her. "To be perfectly honest, I prefer older women. And the fact that you're also very easy on the eyes doesn't hurt."

"Hunter?" she said.

"Yes?"

"Would it be okay if I hugged you before you go?" she asked in a way that told him she needed to hug him.

"Of course," he said politely.

Emily stood up and embraced him. It wasn't a romantic hug nor was it anything like the way two people who didn't know one another might hug. It was as if she had to hold him next to her to sort of transfer her gratitude through a kind of spiritual osmosis. She held him tightly for a very long time while neither of them spoke. They just stood there with their arms around the other person sharing this unspoken bond that had formed between them.

Emily finally let go then said, "I sound like a broken record, but thank you again from the bottom of my heart."

"I'm just glad I was there to help," he told her again. "So...I'll give you a call on Friday to set up a time for Saturday?"

"Sure. Yes. Please do," she told him smiling her normal smile again.

"And if you find yourself needing to talk about this again, please don't think you're bothering me. Pick up the phone and call. I know from personal experience how important it is to talk this stuff out."

"I will. I promise," she told him. "But I honestly believe I'll be okay. I...I won't ever be the same again, but I think I really will be okay." She smiled then put her hand on his face and said, "Thanks to you."

"Ah, shucks, ma'am," he said in his best John Wayne voice.

"And now you've just made me feel happy again," she told him with a smile. "You really are a unique young man, Hunter Blackman. And just between you and me? You're my hero."

"Oh, sure. Today I'm you're hero, tomorrow I'm your hoagie."

Emily laughed out loud this time at his nonsense.

"Okay, maybe you really should get out of here. That was bad, Hunter. Really bad."

"Anything that makes you smile isn't bad in my book," he said.

He called a cab then told her he'd wait on the porch as the cold air would help clear his head.

They stood there staring into one another's eyes as he got ready to leave. Adding to her confusion, Emily felt a kind of emotional stirring she hadn't experienced in a very long time and then it got even worse when Hunter leaned down and softly kissed her on the cheek.

"Bye," was all he said.

Emily stood there and watched him walk out the door and realized she was very, very wet. Holly's voice broke her free from the hypnotic-like state she was in.

"Oh, okay. Sure. I'll get you something to eat right now, honey," she told her daughter, unable to stop thinking about this amazing, interesting, handsome younger man who'd very possibly saved both of their lives.

Emily called in sick that day not knowing her supervisor had seen what happened on the local news the night before. He told her she could have as much time as she needed and Emily thanked him sincerely.

She spent the day at home either playing with or just being near her daughter. Every time Holly left the room Emily was in, she wanted to follow her just to make sure she was safe.

At some point during the day, Emily had an epiphany of sorts. It hit her out of nowhere that it would have useless to call 911 had those thugs let her out and driven off with her daughter. It took the police several minutes to respond even when they knew shots had been fired. In the minutes it took to arrive, anything might have happened to Holly, and the other thing that hit her was that only someone armed with a gun could stop a criminal with a gun.

She thought about the ban Ms. Duncan was calling for and realized a ban was nothing more than a piece of paper with ink on it. Criminals had no respect for ink on paper or any other law for that matter. The more she thought about it, the angrier she got with this Duncan...woman. If she had her way, she and/or her daughter might very well be dead because she knew intuitively the bad guys would have guns—ban or no ban. It would just be the good guys who wouldn't.

Emily had only been at work a few minutes on Friday morning when her phone buzzed. She stopped looking at the report she was reading and saw it was Hunter. She smiled as she swiped 'Accept' and said, "Hello, my...hoagie."

Hunter laughed quietly. "So you do have a sense of humor. Nice," he said obviously joking.

"I told you you make me smile," she said.

"I'm glad," Hunter told her truthfully. "So when would you like me to start painting tomorrow?"

"Anytime you like is fine with me," she told him. "Can I get anything done in advance to help you out?"

"You don't have to, but it would be nice if you could take down anything on the walls and move things into the middle of the room. But please don't try and move the bed or the dresser by yourself, okay?"

"No worries. I know my limitations and brute strength is one of them."

Hunter laughed again then said, "Is 8am too early?"

"No, of course not. I'll have coffee ready when you get here."

"I go right by a Dunkin Donuts. Can I possibly bring you something sweet or do you always watch your girlish figure?"

"Oh, that's a laugh," she said. "I'm always eating junk food of some kind. Watching my figure. That's just funny!"

"Okay," Hunter replied. "But I have to confess I've kind of been watching it, and I can assure you there's nothing to be concerned about."

This time Emily laughed. "There you go again making me laugh again!"

"You sound good today."

"I...I feel good," she told him. "Talking to you seems to have that effect on me."

Hunter chuckled then told her, "I felt like a kid on Christmas morning just dialing your number."

"Well, you are kind of are a kid, you know," she said.

He heard the playfulness in voice and said just as playfully, "Hmmm. Okay. I think I can accept that from you. You know, with you being the much-older woman and all."

"Ouch!" Emily said. "Thanks for the reminder."

"Speaking of reminders, don't forget I like older women and I'm taking you to dinner tomorrow night."

He could tell she was smiling as she said, "I haven't forgotten. Trust me."

"I guess I'll see you tomorrow morning then."

"I'm looking forward to it," she said. "And to having dinner with you."

"Me, too. Bye, Emily," he said before hanging up.

Emily put her phone down and just sat there staring into space unaware she was still smiling.

A co-worker walked by and said, "I haven't seen you smile like that in forever."

"Oh, hi," Emily said. "Yeah, he puts a smile on my face every time I talk to him."

"I don't who this guy is, but any man who can make you smile and laugh is a man you don't let go," the other woman said. "And if he's reasonably good looking, do not let him get away!"

"Oh, he's reasonably good looking all right," she said almost absent-mindedly.

Emily was wide awake at 6am the following morning, and by seven, she was in the shower and by 7:30, when Holly got up, she was dressed and had her makeup on. She alternated between feeling silly and downright giddy as she debated what to wear for 'her' handsome young man even though he was just painting her daughter's room.

She wanted to look nice, but not as nice as she intended to look that evening so she went back and forth for several minutes. She settled on a pair of jeans and a very dressy-looking, light-green, long-sleeved sweater with a ribbed look. The only other question was whether or not to wear a white blouse underneath it.

In the end, she told herself there was nothing wrong with showing off the curves God gave her and a blouse would tend to understate them, and she didn't want any understating of any kind. She even took a second look at her butt and liked the way it looked in the jeans then turned sideways and liked the way the soft, form-fitting sweater showcased her very nice, C-cup boobs.

"Are you going to work today, Mommy?" Holly asked when she saw her mother.

"No, not today, honey. Today is Saturday."

"Then why are you so pretty?" she asked innocently.

"Oh, well, we have someone coming over today to paint your room, remember?"

"Hunter!" she said excitedly. "Can I paint, too?"

"Um, well, that's up to Hunter, but I think he might let you help," her mom told her.

Emily poured some Honey Nut Cheerios in a bowl and added a splash of milk.

"Breakfast is served," she told Holly. It was a quarter 'til so she put on a pot of coffee then sat down next to her daughter but couldn't take her eyes off of the driveway.

Hunter pulled up right at eight, but it seemed to Emily like she'd waited all day. She jumped up then told herself to calm down and took a few deep breaths as she saw him get out of the car. She went to the door and waited for him to get close then opened it and smiled.

"Hi! Good morning!" she said happily.

"Good morning to you...beautiful," he said admiringly. "I knew you looked good first thing in the morning but...wow!"

Hunter had a small box from Dunkin Donuts and asked where he should set it down as he walked in.

Before she could answer, Holly called out, "Hunter!"

He walked over to the table, set the box down, then grabbed Holly out of her chair.