Emmerson's Heart Read Free

the boots when Ben snorted and made her jump right back to her corner.
    Swallowing hard, I glanced over my shoulder to see the dark eyes looking right back at me. I should have seen anger in those eyes, yet there wasn’t a speck in them. It was almost….almost as if they were red and puffy, wet, and wiped a thousand times. Had he been crying?
    Jackson Huck never cried. Jackson Huck was a man that everyone in town bowed down to. Seeing this was….scary. I wasn’t sure if I should grab Emmer and take off running or drop to my knees and beg for forgiveness over….something. Hell, I wasn’t even sure I should move. Maybe this was a ploy. Maybe he was waiting for one of Emmer’s smart remarks that always riled him up. Something…..
    My stomach knotted as those eyes stayed on me. Tho se eyes of the man I looked exactly like, only twenty-five years younger. His dark chocolate hair received those grays that washed through since Emmer was brought into our home. It wasn’t that she was a handful, but my dad had such an overprotectiveness over her that no one dared to even look at Emmer wrong. Even with us, his own children. If one of us argued with her and said something about her scars, he would go after us and not her. 
    But…Um…..My dad was crying?
    Six-foot-three built with rancher’s muscles, the man everyone backed down to, had been crying. He had to have been. For as many times as Ben was in the house or even tried to come into the house, my dad never backed down from that. That was what got Emmer in trouble all the time. Ben.
    Now, Ben was in the house, the kitchen was a disaster, and he just stood there without an ounce of anger inside of him. Those glassy eyes shifted around the room at the bowls, papers, mail, and everything on the counter that was scattered across the floor, Mom backing into the corner, Rob and Will just standing there, and Marc rubbing his forehead while standing at the kitchen door. Nothing. Not a word, no anger, and no red face from trying to hold back because it was Emmer’s day.
    “Surprise!” Emmer’s voice blasted through the silent room and her hands were raised as high as she could. The tears rained down her face as she belted out the song Happy Birthday at the top of her lungs.
    My heart caught in my throat and the air in my lungs escaped, leaving me gaping at her and unable to say anything. Really? Oh, if Emmer was allowed to her own party tonight, I would be shocked. Having her screaming out surprise as if it was a secret party of his was a risk that none of us would have taken. But Emmer had to break the silence. It was how she was. She didn’t want anything to do with the eerie silence, and I didn’t blame her. An eerie silence meant bad things. And my dad’s eerie silence wasn’t something all of us experienced before. 
    At the end of her little song, she shoved past me to launch herself straight into my dad’s arms and burying her face into his broad chest. The cries wailed from her so loud and so heartbreaking, there wasn’t an elephant….or a horse….standing in the room. Not when Emmer was crying like that. Those cries were very rare, but when they were there, no one tended to anything other than Emmer.
    Holding her tightly, the largest of the Huck men sobbed a little and mumbled something into her shoulder , causing her to nod. When she backed away from him, she turned to Ben and the smile came back to her face. Not a word was spoken as she walked the horse out of the house. Mom finally relaxed enough to take the boots back as Rob slipped his phone back into the pockets of his new dark blue jeans. Will bent down and started picking up the mess that Hurricane Ben left behind, with Marc’s help.
    Me. I just stood there unsure of what happened there. I was the one who Emmer came to when she needed comforting. I was. Always. Well, until Ben came in and stole her away from me. And when she went to my dad, that was something not one of us understood, nor did we