HAPPY BIRTHDAY EJ!

Thank you for everything.

Emily caressed the words with a finger as if it was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen. Taking her eyes from the book she met his and he could see the wonder in them as she gave a small smile and turned the page.

Her gasp made his smile, he had always hoped to meet EJ and give him the book. Deep down he realized that if EJ had indeed been a guy, like he had been telling himself all those years, the gift would have been extremely awkward.

Emily was staring at the first page, tears were glistening in her eyes as she took in the first picture. The smile ever so present on her face.

“My mom used to scrapbook, and she said that after running around cleaning after other people it was nice to come home and cut something up.” Blake informed her with a smile. He wasn't sure why he was telling her that since it had nothing to do with the book she was holding, but he felt the need to offer her some sort of explanation as to why it was a photo album and not something extravagant. When she didn't reply he felt slightly disappointed and fear began to course through him, was she expecting an expensive gift? Surely she wasn't expecting anything, but after being handed a gift from someone like Blake Redwood, he was sure she was disappointed with the outcome.

Emily continued to smile at the first image, it was a copy of the first letter she had written to Blake all those years ago, next to it was a print out of the social media image he had posted shortly after and the page next to it had newspaper clippings from that same month. As she continued to flip through the pages she realized that his biggest risk were all done days after her letters arrived.

“I had put the original letters in there at first, but I had this habit of reading the old ones in anticipation for the new month, that I just photocopied them and put those in here instead.” Blake admitted as Emily continued to flip through the pages. The tears in her eyes were the only thing he needed to know she loved the gift.

“ I thought that you were mad at me for a while, but then you thanked me for giving you a job, so I made it my mission to figure out which of the guys was you. Only I should have listened to Daliah and everyone else when they insisted EJ was a girl. And I think that I was afraid that if  you were a girl you would only want me for my money.  It was safer for me to believe I had a young man out there who wanted to be like me, than to think you had written it.” Blake explained as she closed the book backup. 

His explanation made perfect sense to her. If he had thought that EJ was a girl there was always the risk of developing feelings for someone he didn't know, only to be at their mercy if they ever met. She would have done the same had she been in his shoes and held no grudges. Instead her heart was filled with even more joy at the thought that Blake had asked her out without knowing she had written all that to him. His feelings or whatever they had was definitely real.

“How did you know I wrote the letters for the magazine?” She asked, curious to know his answer.

“I don't know, I just did. It was more sarcastic than usual, but then I remembered how you had written about “loving” road trips and it had a similar vibe to it.” Blake shrugged his shoulders “ Maybe I'm reading too much into it, but whatever it was I knew it was from you.”

She nodded in understanding and the two continued to sit quietly. Neither knowing what to say but both full of thoughts.

“Every year since you mentioned your birthday, I wrap up the book and carry it around in the odd chance I ran into you. Then afterwards when the newest letter came in  I would unwrap it and wait for the next year. It's stupid now that I say it out loud but I didn't know what else to give you.” Blake explained quietly, he knew she liked the book but he needed to make sure she wasn't disappointed in his gift.

“I love it, thank you. Do you..umm...would you like to join us for dinner?” Emily asked, nervous he would reject her offer.

Blake paused his nervous hair racking and turned to her once more, a smile and glint of surprise evident on his face. Too nervous to reply he nodded and took a deep breath only to be interrupted the next time he tried to speak.

“Papa Jones! There's a stranger in your driveway tell your wife to grab her gun!” Claire voice echoed from the front door.

Footsteps were heard up on the second floor followed by the stomping of someone running down the stairs.  Emily and Blake both got up from their seats and hurried to the foyer where the sound of footsteps and locks turning was most prevalent.

Dan, or Papa Jones as Claire liked to call him, was wearing a half buttoned shirt, dark slacks and no socks, his hair was still wet from the shower. None of it seemed to deter him from locking the doors and turning the safety lock on the windows.

Ethan was a little more put together than he had been forty minutes earlier. Gone was the lumberjack beard, in its place was a tastefully groomed short beard that resembled a five o'clock shadow more than anything else. His suit was pressed to perfection and the only thing missing from the ensemble was the tie that was hanging off his neck. He was barricading the door with a side table that had originally been resting under the window.

Sandra was calmly walking down the stairs, her blond hair in a high bun and only wearing half a face of makeup. She held her long blue dress up with one hand while the other wielded a shiny black handgun.

“Mom is a bit trigger happy” Emily whispered to Blake. He nodded in understanding, eyes traveling back and forth between the family before him.

“Mama Jones! There's a sexy hot stranger sitting in your driveway shoot him!” Claire encouraged pointing to the front door.

It took Blake a second to register Claire’s words. His cousin was sitting in the car, waiting, and about to be used for target practice.

“Umm... That's my cousin and chauffeur” Blake spoke up. His statement was drowned out by Emily’s family, who was now bickering and pointing fingers at each other. Emily looked over to him then back at her family, Ethan was sitting on the small table, Claire was still pointing at the door while Dan tried to reason with his wife. When nobody answered or paid them any attention Emily walked over to a light switch and began flickering the lights on and off.

“We done? Mom, put away the gun, you can't shoot him he's Blake's cousin. Ethan, get off the table, you're going to break it. Claire, stop being dramatic and invite him in, his name is Calvin. Dad go put shoes on, you're going to get sick.”

Everyone's eyes narrowed towards Emily, their supposed anger forgotten when they finally noticed Blake was standing next to her.

“Who is this man?” Dan questioned taking a step towards them.

“I don't believe you've mentioned a man before, honey. We would like to ask him a few questions” Sandra added as she slowly followed behind her husband.

Emily saw Blake pale and visible gulp. Her parents were something else, that was for sure. She turned to Claire and Ethan who had terrified looks on their faces and made a move with her head for them to help.

“Mom, it's not necessary. She's just been too busy to tell you guys. But Claire and I have gotten the whole “getting to know you” part checked off. Isn't that right?” Ethan added turning to Claire for help.

“Yeah, he's come over to the apartment and I've chaperoned several dinners and an aquarium trip” Claire chimed in hoping to help her friend.

Her parents turned to face the two liars as they continued to explain how amazing and great Blake was.

“So, you've met him before Claire?” Sandra asked with a raised eyebrow, the younger woman nodded quickly, Sandra then turned her attention to her son. “Her I believe, you I don't.”

“Why not?”

“Because less than an hour ago you looked like a starving lumberjack” Dan teased ignoring his wife and making his way over to Blake.

“Sorry about the whole introduction, my wife likes to shoot things and any excuse she gets she takes. I'm Dan Jones, pleasure to meet you Blake” 

“Pleased to meet you too sir, sorry about about  showing up unannounce, we had a bit of a situation.” Blake greeted shaking hands with Dan, who simply nodded in understanding.  Their moment was cut short by the sound of an alarm going off.

“Great, we're late. Again” Dan mumbled as he turned off his cell phone notification. He looked up at the half ready group he called family. “Ten  minutes! I will leave you behind if you are not in the car and ready to go in ten minutes! ” He announced running up the stairs.

As soon as the words were out of his mouth the remaining four bodies began running out of the room as well, leaving Blake alone in the foyer.

“Uhh, I'm just going to go get Calvin?” He asked the empty room, before heading to the door.

•~~~~~•~~~~~•~~~~~•

Super late, I apologize. In case anyone was wondering why, due to the California Wildfires I was evacuated from my house last week. (Got to go back the next day though,) But then my beloved cat decided to get sick and I had to come up with a bunch of money to get him help otherwise he was not going to make it and THEN my mom's car broke down and the Next day was my birthday so I didn't get a chance to finish writing.

In other news the next chapter is most likely the last.