proof of a tomorrow | {emberlowe fam}

Maybe he'd truly just been busy. Maybe he'd just been neglectful and called it busy to make himself feel better. Truthfully, he was busy. Busier than ever, in fact. He'd cleared off ten acres of overgrown woodlands and put up a fence and bought some cattle. An investment that he was certain would begin paying off soon, but hadn't yet. At the very least, it was an attempt to be his own man, to stop relying on his father and his mother and their names and their titles. Maybe that was why he'd distanced himself in the last few months. That, tied in with the fact that once his work outside was done, he was teaching Emerson how to spell, and desperately trying to rid Elonna of her lisp, and cooking dinner, and making sure everyone was bathed, and making sure clothes were cleaned, and dishes were cleaned, and-

He'd been busy. But it was an excuse he was quick to rely on, weight of the gift tucked under his arm nothing compared to the awkward air surrounding him as he and his wife and children climbed the steps onto the porch of his father's house. Paige seemed to be having another good day; they came more frequently in recent times.

"He's gonna say somethin' Paige. I'm telling you."

Him. Mace. Kieran's father, who probably would have very much preferred it if Kieran had never moved out in the first place, who had sacrificed so much to give him and his siblings a good life, who asked for no more than a simple conversation here and there as payment, and who Kieran had dodged phone calls from for almost two weeks now. Not because he was angry with him, that was just it: he feared that's what Mace would think when Kieran missed a play date for the kids or didn't stop by on his way to town. He wasn't mad. He was just tired, and over-worked, and... busy.

But it was Quinn's birthday, the youngest of his siblings, and he wouldn't let the awkwardness he'd created keep him away. At the very least, Emerson and Elonna were excited. Elonna had woken him up that morning demanding to wear her new dress because she thought Quinn would like it, and Emerson simply missed his grandpa.

He almost considered knocking, then scoffed. He wasn't a stranger, for God's sake. He pushed the door open and called, "We're here!"

Smells of Aunt Reggie's cake and the eternal warmth of the house flooded him. Just up those stairs, second door on the right, had been his room, with the window that was just too high and just too far away from the oak tree next to it to climb through. Part of him missed that time, when he had to risk climbing down the stairs if he wanted to sneak out and see the woman he would one day marry. Time had a funny way of changing things when people weren't looking.

Emerson burst forward, running as fast as he could toward the living room, Elonna toddling after him from the moment she was free of Paige's grasp. He let his wife step inside before closing the door, then wrapped his free hand around her waist. He flashed her a look akin to saying here we go and cleared his throat.

"Where's the birthday girl?"