(except for Chapter 13 of Night & Day!)

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hey!

This email is going to be short--not because I have nothing to share, but because I'm somehow running up against three deadlines at exactly the same time. 😱 Hopefully next week I'll have time to take a deep breath and send a better update. Instead of skipping this week altogether, I had to be sure those of you who are following along with Night & Day got your chapter. Scroll down to find it!

Have a great week!

xo,

Rachel

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Long Winter | Signs of Spring | Burning Season | As the Tallgrass Grows

Jaywalking | Sleepwalker

***

NIGHT & DAY

Chapter One | Chapter Two | Chapter Three | Chapter Four | Chapter Five | Chapter Six | Chapter Seven | Chapter Eight | Chapter Nine | Chapter Ten | Chapter Eleven | Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

From the other side of the booth where Ty was crowded between Sam and Sam's instrument case and backpack, Emily raised her milkshake in a solemn toast. "To Sam, our musical genius."

"To Sam," Ty echoed, raising his own milkshake, and when Emily dug her elbow into Danielle's side, she sighed deeply but joined in.

"To Sam."

They clinked classes, the contents of Sam's sloshing dangerously, and then sipped from their straws.

Ty had been pleasantly surprised to not even have to bribe Danielle into showing up for Sam's concert earlier that night. Maybe, he reasoned, she was finally outgrowing the petulant teenager stage, which she seemed to have lingered in well past her actual teenage years, a stark contrast to sunny Emily.

"Here, selfie," Emily instructed, swinging her feet over the edge of the booth seat so she could hold up her phone at the right angle to capture the entire table. Her selfie skills always mystified Ty. She was a true expert. He grinned obediently while she took the picture. "I have to send it to our benefactor."

Her boyfriend Kent had sent her to the concert with apologies he couldn't come too, and forty dollars for milkshakes. He clearly had no concept of how much milkshakes actually cost, but Emily had tucked the change into Sam's oboe case, a move that only Ty had seen her make, then caught his eye and winked.

"What's he so busy doing, anyway?" Danielle asked sulkily. She actually liked Kent, which was understandable, because Kent was even more of the human embodiment of sunshine than Emily, and cute, too.

"Oh, you know, just saving lives." Emily put her chin in her hand, her gaze going a little dreamy, the way it often did when she talked about Kent even after almost a year of living together. That move had made Ty a little nervous at first, but it had worked out great. He'd never seen Emily happier. "You know, nurses do all the real work," she added more seriously, giving them each a stern look as though they'd argued with her.

"That explains why you want to be a doctor instead." Sam took another long draw from her straw and made her eyes wide and innocent, then giggled when Emily kicked her under the table.

"How's school going, Emily?" Ty asked, and then gave Danielle a preemptive look, because every time he invited talk about school from their sister, Danielle acted put-out. Tonight was no exception, but at least there were no exaggerated sighs or rolled eyes. She just pressed her lips together very tightly and wrinkled her nose, like she was getting a headache.

Emily sat up a little straighter in her seat and her eyes gleamed. "Great! I'm really loving chemistry. It almost makes me rethink going into research, you know? But if I did that, I'd need a PhD before my MD."

"And an ABC before your DEF?" Danielle murmured, blinking guilelessly at Emily, who scowled at her.

Emily narrowed her eyes, then seemed to consciously shake off any irritation. "Remind me which letters stand for the noble tasks of threading eyebrows and bleaching assholes, again?"

"Hey, you two," Ty said sternly. "Cut it the fuck out."

"Yeah," Sam echoed, always his little deputy. "Kent wouldn't want us to waste our milkshakes," she added, only half-sarcastically, and Ty snorted, then couldn't believe it when the wise-ass remark actually worked, and his two older sisters turned away from one another and back to their straws. He gave Sam an incredulous look and she shrugged with a quick, smug smile. "What can I say?" she murmured to him. "I'm not just a musical genius." Then she lifted her glass again. "I think we should toast Ty. For general excellence, and also for getting into UMKC."

They toasted again, Ty's ears burning a little. "It's not that big of a deal."

"When are you going to send pics of the house?" Danielle wanted to know. "It has to be fancy as fuck, right? I saw the street address."

“Danielle,” Emily hissed, censorious.

“It’s pretty fancy,” Sam confirmed. And when three pairs of eyes turned her way, she shrugged. “Am I the only one with Google street view, people?”

Ty groaned as Emily and Danielle whipped out their phones.

“Holy shit,” Danielle exclaimed.

“Ugh!” Emily gave her phone a frustrated shake. “The browser crashed.” She peered over Danielle’s shoulder and gasped. “Holy shit!”

“What did you expect?” Sam asked placidly. “He has so much money he doesn’t even have to raise his own kid. You thought he lived in a dump?”

"Fair point," Emily said, and Sam nodded.

Ty narrowed his eyes. "He's raising his kid. But he's all by himself, and he has to work."

Emily looked amused. "Aw, you're defending him. That's cute."

"It's a sign of brainwashing," Sam corrected. "A man made grateful for his opportunity to humbly serve."

"Don't listen to them," Danielle said brightly, her grumpy demeanor from a moment before vanished. "I'm dying to see inside," she added in a pleading tone, then grinned and leaned forward, tucking a piece of hair behind her ear. "Is he... cute?"

"He's pretty cute," Sam volunteered before Ty could think of anything to say, and as her sisters turned sharply to look at her in surprise, she added, "I found him on LinkedIn. Here. I'll just text it to you."

"It doesn't matter what he looks like," Emily said, but halfheartedly. "You're being gross," she added primly as Danielle furiously swiped past Sam's text.

Ty put his head in his hands and didn't bother getting in the middle of it.

"Oh, fuck," Danielle breathed, and Emily's restraint broke. She looked over her sister's shoulder again and her eyes got wide, as Ty observed between the gaps in his fingers.

"Wow. Maybe... he's just very photogenic?"

Danielle snorted, but turned her phone toward Ty with an inquiring look. The picture was a good one. Jonathan looked gorgeous, but because he was Jonathan, not because the picture was a fluke. In fact, he was a little stiff and uncomfortable, Ty noticed the longer he looked, and his smile was strictly polite.

"Well, Ty?" Danielle asked. "Is he a dog in person?"

"No." Ty sighed, resigned. "He's better looking in person."

His sisters exhaled in collective surprise.

"You should introduce me," Danielle said. "Hot, rich, and will definitely die before me? Yes, please. If he let me move in, I'd watch his baby for free. And offer some other perks too."

Emily glared. "Well, Ty has higher aspirations than being some... trophy."

Danielle snorted. "I think Jonathan would be the trophy in that sitch. No offense, Ty." Then her eyes widened. "Wait, is this trophy even a prize for my league? Or are you the only one in the family who's eligible to play for it, if you know what I mean?" She waggled her eyebrows.

"Stop!" Emily elbowed her hard enough that they started batting at each other, and Ty was too relieved that they were distracted to stop them.

Looking askance, he caught Sam's eye. She winced. "Sorry. I fed the beasts."

"Yeah, you should be sorry," Ty muttered. He glanced at his phone. "Come on. It's time to get you home. School tomorrow."

"Oh, I'll take her," Emily said, then hissed, "Ow!" when Danielle seized the advantage of her brief distraction and yanked one of her braids.

"Sorry, sorry," Danielle said, holding up her hands. "I was caught up in it." She slowly lowered her hands again when Emily rubbed her head but nodded in grudging acknowledgement of the cease-fire.

Ty rolled his eyes at them then focused on Emily. "Why would you take Sam? You're on the other side of town."

"So are you," Emily pointed out.

"But you have class tomorrow."

"And you have work." Emily rounded abruptly toward Danielle. "You don't have practicals until the afternoon, right?"

Danielle nodded with a puzzled frown. "How did you remember...?"

Emily swung back to Ty and smiled. "Danielle will take her."

Ty restrained the urge to laugh. Danielle would volunteer to do a favor when hell froze over. But before he could dismiss the suggestion out loud, Danielle shocked him by nodding—albeit reluctantly. "I'll take her," she agreed.

That left Ty and Emily walking toward the same bus stop after he’d given Danielle and Sam both a distracted hug, still puzzling over what had just transpired. Emily walked alongside him with her arm tucked in his and a contented smile. "It's nice to spend some time together," she said, and when he gave her an incredulous glance, she laughed and forestalled the comment he'd been about to make with an insistent, "*Yes,* even with Danielle. We're not kids anymore, Ty. We're not at each other's throats constantly."

"Hm," Ty murmured skeptically, remembering that just minutes ago they'd been acting like they were approximately half Sam's page.

"Did you hear anything about your student loans?"

He grimaced. "Yeah. They think they should go through. But I haven't signed the application yet."

"Ty!" She squeezed his elbow. "Why not?"

He rolled his shoulders restlessly. "Oh, I don't know, just having second thoughts about having *thousands* of dollars of debt," he said lightly.

"You've got to spend money to make money," Emily said confidently. "By the time I finish med school, I'll have..." She wrinkled her nose. "Honestly, it's better not to do the math. Do you think I shouldn't do it?"

"No!" Ty said, appalled. "But that's different."

"Why?

"Because you're... you. And it's med school! Of course it's a good investment. But I'm... me."

He expected her to disagree. Emily and Sam both had a habit of overestimating him, thinking he was capable of almost anything, and he knew they'd think college and a real career was no exception. But she didn't immediately argue, just looked thoughtful, which caught him by surprise to such an extent he wasn't sure whether to be offended.

Then, she pulled on his arm until he stopped and faced her, apparently heedless of the other pedestrians on the sidewalk that then had to edge around them to get past.

"I know it's a risk. You could borrow that money and it could take forever to pay back. Maybe you won't even be able to."

He had the sudden urge to rub his prickling arms. "This is not the pep talk I expected," he said wryly.

"No, it's real talk," Emily said with a smile. "You should do what feels right. But, Ty, if you're not willing to take some risks, how are you ever going to get the things that you want?"

Ty stared at her as the huffing engine and growl of brakes behind her announced the arrival of the next bus. She broke eye contact to glance over her shoulder.

"Oh, that's mine," she said, turning back to him and clutching his shoulder so she could rise on her toes and kiss his cheek. "Love you."

"Love you too. Say hi to Kent," he said as she stepped back.

***

Emily's words wouldn't leave Ty, repeating themselves in his head so many times, he wasn't hearing them in her voice. He wasn't hearing them at all. He was *seeing* them, *feeling* them, and so focused inward that when he walked up to the townhouse from the bus stop forty-five minutes later, down a dark and empty sidewalk, he didn't notice that the door to Shay's townhouse was standing open until he did a doubletake.

He looked right and left, hesitating for only a moment before he jogged up the stairs to the front door, his heart beating hard as he cautiously looked through the dark opening. There were no lights on in the house that he could see. Should he be trying to call the police?

Even as he wondered that he  was stepping over the threshold, no weapon but the single key to Jonathan's front door, already clutched in his hand from the moment before, when he'd been preparing to use it.

"Shay?" he called tentatively, blinking as his eyes adjusted to the dimness. He was taken aback by the emptiness of the house. He'd never seen inside before. There wasn't a stick of furniture in sight and nothing adorned the bare walls. Had Shay moved? Been robbed? His head spun with possibilities as he took a few more slow steps through the foyer.

Then, as he came in line with a doorway into a kind of front room, he paused. In the otherwise empty space of the room, there was a piece of fabric spread over the hardwood floor, spattered with paint. An easel was positioned in the middle of it, supporting a canvas streaked with paint that looked grayscale in the dim room, which was illuminated only by the indirect light of the streetlamps outside.

"Ty?"

He spun around at the sound of the voice behind him, half-startled, half-relieved. Shay stood there, for once not swallowed by a hoodie but in a t-shirt and jeans that revealed smooth, slender arms arms covered in almost as much paint as the drop-cloth under the easel.

"Fuck, sorry," he stammered. "I--your door was standing open. I just wanted to see if you were okay."

"I'm fine." Shay looked past him at the canvas, then away, restlessly, like he was standing in the middle of more than just a house.

"I'll... leave you to it, then." Ty awkwardly headed back for the door, and Shay only watched him go in silence, almost like he'd interrupted a ritual. Maybe that's what art was. He hadn't realized that's what Shay was--an artist--but it fit the general air of mystery pretty well.

Ty had half expected to encounter a thief in the dark of Shay's house, which begged the question as to why he'd impulsively gone inside in the first place. But he hadn't, and the comedown of adrenaline made his steps feel light, his brain and body buzzing.

His hand shook a little as he unlocked the front door, the high of the past few minutes merging with the little spell he'd been under all the way from the bus stop across town to the one a few blocks from here.

*If you're not willing to take some risks, how are you ever going to get the things you want?*

In Jonathan's townhouse, there was a soft light blooming from the table in the foyer; the one that Jonathan always left on when Ty came back late and that kept him from having to fumble in the dark. The sight of it warmed him. He switched it off as he walked past and continued into the house toward the bedrooms, where another light beckoned from the open door of Jonathan's bedroom.

And there was Jonathan himself, leaning in the doorway with a tentative smile.

"I heard you come in," he said softly as Ty approached. "Just wanted to say hi."

"Isabel?" Ty asked, glancing toward the nursery.

"Down for the past hour." Something in Ty's intent stare must have clued Jonathan in, because his smile turned questioning. "Everything okay?"

"Yes. I wanted to—" Ty faltered, and as soon as he hesitated, he felt panic well up. Panic that if he didn't ride the momentum of the past hour, he'd lose it altogether. He never reached for the things he wanted. He was always too scared. The bravery he’d grabbed onto might never return to him if he let it get away from him now.

So he strode the last few steps up to Jonathan, placed his hands flat against his chest for balance and rose up onto the tips of his toes to kiss him.