Emma's Deliverance by Susan Vance

to handle any raw meat either. I mostly cook vegetarian for myself and only order chicken when I’m out. I could do without it completely. Well, except for Thanksgiving. My mom makes the best turkey, ever. Her gravy is so delicious. My dad loves to carve the bird and he kinda butchers it, but we don’t care. What about you?”
    “ I eat very little chicken, but I like fish. My whole family thrives on fish. My parents didn’t eat red meat so I guess we just grew up thinking it wasn’t a good idea. Even in my teens I never tried a burger. Some of my friends gave me a hard time about it, but, for the most part, most of my friends were okay with it. It’s just that when everyone wanted to go out for burgers sometimes I was stuck with just fries.”
    Emma wondered what his family was like. Was it large or small? Did he have sisters or brothers or both? As she began asking him about his family something caught her eye out the window. She was startled to see the figure of a man that reminded her so much of that man who was standing outside her shop last month. He was on the sidewalk outside the restaurant looking in. Just then a woman with two children got out of the car and joined him. The lady gave him a kiss and he pi cked up one of the kids. As the family came in the restaurant Emma could plainly see it wasn’t the same man. She felt foolish and tried to shake it off. Maybe buying the shop was stressing her out. She decided not to mention it to her mom or the rest of the family.
    Jason had been telling her about his two brothers and one sister, but Emma hadn ’t heard him. She had been focused out the window. She brought her attention back to Jason who was rattling on and on about his family. “Jason,” she said, embarrassed, “I’m so sorry. Can you start over?”
    “ Start over? Which part didn’t you hear?”
    “ All of it, I guess. I was somewhere else. How embarrassing, don’t you think? I’m so sorry. I guess my mind was wandering. I thought I saw someone I knew, but it wasn’t, sorry.” She tried to read his face. Did he think she was rude?
    “ It’s okay. I’ll start over, but pay attention this time okay?” he teased.
    She smiled and tried to relax.
    “ I have two brothers and a sister. David, John, and Karen. David’s the oldest. Then me, then John and Karen, in that order. David lives in Germany. He’s been in the Army since he was eighteen. He’s thirty-two now. He and his wife Joanne have a little girl, Rachael, who is named after our grandmother. John’s twenty-four and single. Karen’s twenty-one and still in college. I’m twenty-eight and still single,” he said smiling.
    He had this cute little look on his face that Emma seemed to be drawn to. She liked the way the corners of his mouth would curl just before he laughed. He was wearing a tee shirt and blue jeans. Over the pocket of his tee shirt was the name of some Mexican restaurant in Montana. “When were you in Montana?” she asked, trying to be clever and impress him.
    “ How did you know I went to Montana?”
    Emma smiled what she hoped was a sexy smile, but didn ’t answer him. She just continued to smile.
    “ Come on, Emma, how did you know that?” he asked looking intrigued.
    Emma thought she had him, but he proved too clever for her. She noticed the curls at the corner of his mouth again just as this huge smile came across his face. He looked down at his pocket then reached across the table and took her hand in his. He pulled her hand to his chest and placed it on his pocket. Her face went flush.
    Jason must have noticed because he quickly put her hand back where he had found it. He looked at her tenderly, but th en with a little laugh he said, “For a few minutes I thought I was having dinner with a psychic. You had me going.”
    This tickled Emma. “If I had some tea leaves I could read your fortune.” She picked up her glass of iced tea and swirled it around looking into the liquid. “Wait just a moment. I