Free Russell's Return by J.J. Ellis Page A

backseat. He had to agree, his daughter did look very peaceful - something
he didn’t see often enough.
    They drove the five miles
from the restaurant to Emily’s cottage in complete silence. It was a
comfortable silence though. And not just because they didn’t want to disturb
Miranda.
    Russell pulled to a stop
behind Emily’s little car.  “Here we are, safe and sound.” He turned and
smiled at her but it was so dark he wondered if she could even see him.
    “Thank you Russell. I really
appreciate dinner and the ride home.”
    “My pleasure,” he said as he
jumped from the SUV and walked around to the passenger side. He pulled the door
open for her. “I’m glad I could help, Em.”
    Emily looked at Russell with
a raised eyebrow.
    “Why did you call me that?”
    Russell looked a little
embarrassed. “Sorry, it just seemed to fit. I take it you don’t like it?” He
opened her front gate and ushered her though. 
    Emily’s smile lit up her
whole face. “Usually I hate it when people call me that, but when you said it,
I really liked it.”
    Russell nodded. “Then Em it
is.”
    “So, was Miranda
exaggerating when she said you thought I was pretty?” she asked, looking up at
him innocently.
    “Shit,” he mumbled. “That
child has no control over what comes out of her mouth.”
    “You’re not so bad looking
yourself, Russell. Hmm, now I think I’ll have to think of a nickname for you,
just to torture you,” she chuckled.
    “Shit,” he mumbled again. He
hoped she never found out what his family called him. Boy was he was in for it
now. His visions of friendship and stolen kisses were morphing into something
more. Running for his life and sanity is what he should have been doing. But
the other things in his life actually seemed to be moving nicely right now, if
only he could get a handle on Miranda’s problems. That reminded Russell of what
Emily had said after dinner and the mood suddenly changed. “At the restaurant
you said something about what might be going on with Miranda, what did you
mean?”
    Emily sighed. She needed to
choose her words carefully so she didn’t get into a long discussion about it
tonight. “I’ve taken what I know and done some research about it over the last
few days, and I have some ideas about what might be happening with
Miranda.  But it might take some time to go over it all so I think we
should talk about it at my office tomorrow.”
    “Okay,” he paused a moment,
“It sounds serious. Should I be worried?”
    Emily chuckled. “No, I
promise you will feel better when you hear everything I have to say.”
    Russell smiled and relaxed
just a tiny bit. “Okay then, I guess I’ll talk to you about it tomorrow. By the
way, thanks for tonight.” Before either of them consciously knew what was
happening, they were kissing. Not the soft, gentle kiss from earlier that day,
but a searching, almost teasing kiss. Russell thought he heard the soft chiming
of bells in his head. It was a happy, somewhat familiar sound, but he was
positive that a kiss had never affected him quite like that before. And
then as quickly as they had come together, Emily pulled away. “Russell, do you
hear that? Is that Miranda?”  It took him a few moments to realize what
Emily had said, but when it registered he quickly pulled away from her. Miranda
was giggling from the back seat of the SUV. He couldn’t believe they had
actually been caught kissing.  How on earth was he going to explain this
to his daughter? He had to think of a way to keep her quiet. His mother
couldn’t know about what had happened or she would run with it and the true
matchmaking would begin. His mother would turn into his Aunt Charlotte who had
set up all five of her kids a couple of years back.
    They both mumbled good
nights at the same time and Russell headed back to his car thinking of things
to say to Miranda as Emily quietly slipped into her cozy cottage. “God, how
embarrassing,” he muttered, opening his car