i gave her a quick hug, telling her happy thanksgiving and thanking her for a great dinner before i asked about doug. "um, mom? we need to-"

she pushed me toward luke with a smile and wave, shouting, "happy thanksgiving! thanks for coming and spending the day with us, come back soon, okay?"

i shouted to be heard over her. "mom! we need to get doug! remember? the dog you fed at the kitchen table?"

"he's fine, emma. bye now!" with that, she turned and shut the door in our faces.

i turned to luke, a bemused expression on my face and nodded as he sputtered, "did? did she just-? she just stole my dog!"

i grabbed his hand and brandon's, pulling them towards the car as i said, "yep. she did. we'll come get him tomorrow. let's go home and watch a movie or something, okay?" we got in and luke started backing down the drive. "besides," i continued, "she fed him eggs with dinner, remember?"

luke nodded his head as he drove away from my parents' house and doug, a slow grin spreading across his face and brandon started laughing. "oh, yes. she did, didn't she."

my phone rang around one in the morning when luke and i were snuggled up together in bed. when i answered, my mom shouted, "emma! come get this dog! oh, god, he keeps farting and its stinking up the whole house! seriously! your poor dad is wearing a clothespin on his nose!"

i just laughed and simply said, "goodnight, mom. happy thanksgiving!" before i hung up on her and cuddled back up to luke.

chapter 17

"good morning, floyd grim's office, how can i help you?" it was the monday after thanksgiving and everything was back to normal. well, as normal as could be with the wacky people in my life.

"hey, sweetheart. did you have a good thanksgiving?"

that weird raspy voiced creepy guy was calling me again! "can i help you, sir?" i asked, hesitantly. although i had told him about the weird hang up calls and the other calls creepy had made to the office, floyd wasn't in the office with me at that moment. he was down in domestic relations court on a custody case that was scheduled for a half-day trial, which meant he wouldn't be back in the office until around noon, unless they settled early. given the case that it was, i had no hopes of that happening.

"just wanted to check on my beautiful girl and to wish her a happy thanksgiving. did you get the rose i left for you last wednesday?"

oh. my. god. he had been to my work? that was him? i tried to keep my voice calm as i asked again, "sir, is there something i can help you with?"

"don't ignore me, emma. i asked you a question. did you get my rose?" his voice began to rise, still retaining its raspy quality, and becoming even more creepy, if that was possible.

"um, i'm not sure what you are talking about, sir. now, if-"

"no! you lie, emma. you lie and you got my rose because i saw you get it. i saw the way you smiled when you held it up to your nose and smelled it. it smelled beautiful, just like you. why did you lie to me, emma? why?" his voice was plaintive, almost whiny now.

i took a deep breath, panicking as his words began to sink in. he'd seen me pick up the rose? he was watching me? oh, shit... "sir, if there's nothing i can help you with or you aren't calling for an appointment, i must insist that you not call here anymore." i couldn't mask the shakiness of my voice, and i prayed that he wouldn't pick up on it, wouldn't know how much he was affecting me.

i replaced the phone onto its cradle, trying to make myself believe that the man wasn't shrieking in rage when i'd done so. the phone rang again immediately after i lifted my hand from it and i jumped, jerking my hand back and letting out a shriek. i didn't want to answer it, but i had no choice.

"hel-hello? floyd grim's office?" i stuttered into the phone.

"emma?"

allie's voice rang through the line and i shuddered in relief. "allie! oh, thank god!"

"what's going on, sweetie? what happened?" she asked, her voice rising with concern.

i explained quickly about the phone call i'd just received and she hung up as soon as i was done, telling me she'd be at the office in minute before she clicked off the phone. when she got there (she must have broken land speed records getting there) i was still shaken. i picked up the phone at her urging and called the police to make a report. they weren't very helpful, the officer on duty only reluctantly taking a report down to have on file and gave me the report number quickly before hanging up on me.

i turned to allie, shaking my head in disbelief and rage.

"what's wrong now? they took the report, right?" she asked.

"yeah, but he didn't want to. he just kept telling me that there's really nothing that they can do because he didn't threaten me and hasn't caused me harm in any way. i explained that he'd been calling repeatedly, but he said the same thing basically. i have no number that shows up on the caller id to prove that all the hang ups were him and blah blah blah...grr!" i threw my hands up.

allie stayed with me, saying that she had had her mom go take over at her store so she could be there with me. when floyd came in the office, looking tired but satisfied (he won his case), i filled him in. he was concerned and told me that he'd be getting me some sort of recording device for my phone system.

the next morning, he'd left a box sitting on my desk and i hooked everything up, impressed by the gadget that allowed me to record my phone conversations by pressing a little button on the little box that i attached to the hands free/headset outlet on the phone. it made me feel a little more secure having that option, but i didn't get any more calls for the rest of the week.

on friday night, i had luke swing me by my house to check on it. i'd finally moved out everything that i wanted and told leah that she could live there as long as she had the utilities switched over into her name and made the mortgage payments on time. she'd been pretty good about it so far, and for being such a ditz, she really was responsible.

i grabbed the few pieces of mail that hadn't been forwarded to luke's house and we headed home. i thumbed through the mail, most of it junk, as luke drove us home. one of the envelopes was plain white with my name typed on it, no address, and no return address. i felt a chill skitter down my spine as i turned it over in my hands a couple times before i took a deep breath and opened it. my breath whooshed out on a sigh of relief when i pulled out a brightly colored piece of paper with birthday party information printed on it for an old friend of mine and allie's son's third birthday.

shaking my head at myself, i tossed all the mail into my purse and reached over to grab luke's hand. when we got home, brandon and allie were sitting on the couch with doug laying at their feet and jackson was in the kitchen making microwave popcorn.

i grinned at jackson before trotting over and giving him a hug. "hey! when did you get back? did you have a good thanksgiving?" i asked him.

luke walked over and did the one-armed-macho-man-hug thing with jackson while he replied to my questions. "i got in about an hour ago and yeah, it was okay. not as fun as yours sounded, though!"

i grinned at him and we spent the rest of the evening trading stories and watching movies. i curled up with luke in the oversized armchair and allie sat between brandon and jackson. i could have sworn there was a few times that i saw allie slap hands away from her. i'm not sure whose hands they were, but judging by the red creeping over allie's cheeks, she wasn't totally against them touching her.