The Earring

Book 6 Part 4

"Sure," he said.

At the same time, Teresa said, "I don't know."

She was afraid that they didn't have enough information.

"I want you to know what all of your options are before we talk to them," she said.

"But Teres, I don't need to have everything worked out before we meet them. Meeting them will help me clarify my options."

They asked Faith to stay while they talked over the pros and cons of having the meeting. She mostly listened, but asked a judicious question every now and then. The sound of the smoke alarm interrupted the discussion.

Teresa and Faith sprinted for the kitchen. Smoke billowed from the oven. Teresa grabbed an oven mitt and yanked the door open. Sputtering and coughing, she pulled a pan of charred cookies from the oven. Faith turned the exhaust fan on and opened a window. She was on the stepladder removing the battery from the wailing alarm when Aaron stepped into the kitchen.

"What the..." He stopped in mid-sentence when Teresa turned around with the pan of crisp cookies in her hand. "You shouldn't be taking cooking lesson from a woman whose mother kept this on her fridge," he said, grabbing a plastic magnetized sign and fanning smoke away from his face.

Teresa set the pan down and snatched the sign from him. She burst out laughing as she read, "Dinner is served at the sound of the smoke alarm."

Faith sent a mock glare from her perch. "What are you doing here so early?"

"I had to work through my lunch hour, so I left," the still grinning Aaron said.

"So, I don't need to call 9-1-1?" Jacob said from the doorway.

"Hey, what are you doing out of bed?" Teresa demanded.

"You expected me to lay there and burn up?"

The fine lines of pain were etched around his mouth and eyes.

"You look a little green around the gills," Faith said.

"Yeah, standing up seems to have allowed the pain demons back into my brain," he said.

Once he was settled back in bed, Teresa offered him a pain pill and some water.

"I don't want to take one of those," he said. "I want to be alert when we talk to the Jacobsons."

"Maybe tonight is not such a good idea," Faith said. "They're not going anywhere."

"Let me just lay here for a half an hour or so. If lying down doesn't lessen the pain, you can call Wade back and tell him tonight's not a good idea. If it improves, then I'd like to talk to them." His eyes were on Teresa. "Is that okay with you?"

"I guess," she said. "I suppose you're right. Meeting them should help us clarify our options."

We pulled the shades and left Jacob in a darkened room. Teresa set about fixing supper while I brought Aaron up to speed on developments. When she had the lasagna in the oven, Teresa went to Jacob's door and peeked in.

"He's sleeping," she announced when she returned to the kitchen.

She set about tossing a salad and preparing garlic toast.

"Leave the garlic off of mine," Faith said. "I'm mildly allergic. The taste returns and wakes me up in the middle of the night."

"Oh, no," Teresa said. "I put garlic in the lasagna sauce."