Cattail Ridge by T.L. Haddix Page B

which was no surprise. But Sydney was curled up in front of him, also sleeping. One of his arms was around her protectively and as Emma watched her daughter gave a soft snore. The picture they made devastated her.
    After the poignancy of the moment eased a bit, her fingers started itching to get a camera and capture the moment. She padded back down the hall and then hurried downstairs to get the camera she kept at the farmhouse for just such occasions.
    “Everything okay?” Amelia asked as she started back up the stairs.
    “Yes. They’re both asleep. I have to get it on film.”
    She wasn’t unaware of the speculation she left behind her but she didn’t much care. She figured if she couldn’t be vulnerable in front of her parents and sister, then there wasn’t much hope for her.

    In the living room, Amelia was smiling widely, feeling a little misty as she thought about the burgeoning relationship between two of her favorite people.
    “I told you. They’re matched. They just had to get to the same place at the same time,” she told her parents. Owen looked pleased but Sarah seemed concerned. “Don’t you approve, Mom?”
    “Oh, I absolutely approve. I just know Emma. And I’m afraid she’ll end up getting scared and running. Not physically running, but mentally.”
    Amelia could understand that concern. “That’s one of the reasons I think he’s so perfect for her. He’s patient. She may run but he’ll wait for her to figure it out. I think he knows instinctively where to push and where to not with her. Of course he is a man, and I’m sure he’ll need some guidance along the way,” she drawled, casting a look at Owen, who made a face at her.
    “Now, now. I resemble that remark.”
    “But you love me anyhow,” she teased. “In all seriousness, I think Mom’s right. Emma’s going to have a hard time with this. And I think Archer’s ready to make his move on her. He’ll shake her up, but she needs shaking up.”
    Now Owen frowned, and Amelia figured hearing that a man was getting ready to move in on his daughter, even if he liked the man, wasn’t something he was crazy about knowing. “Have you talked to him about it?”
    “Not much since everything’s been so crazy the last few weeks. But I’ve lightly touched on the subject several times in the past so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that we’re all supporting him.”
    Almost as soon as she’d met Archer she’d known he was for Emma. One of Amelia’s gifts, her abilities, was knowing when a couple was a good match for each other. There was a certain hum in the air, a vibration around them when they talked to each other that Amelia could pick up on. The hum was stronger with some people than with others. For example, her parents had a very strong harmony.
    Even when she was a teenager she’d been able to pair people up. Her family and friends teased her, saying she was a Cupid, but Amelia didn’t mind. Watching people fall in love was something she enjoyed.
    The trouble came when the harmony wasn’t there and the vibrations didn’t blend. Amelia’s best friend, Lori, was married to a man who was so wrong for her, it worried Amelia. She tried to put it to the back of her mind, knowing that Lori had made her choices, but letting go was hard.
    With Emma and Archer, though, there was an electrical spark to the hum that had been present for years now. Amelia almost got a charge of energy from being in the same room as the two of them. When it recently started settling down into a more regular pattern Amelia had known it was time. So she’d started pushing them both just a little bit, as she believed it wouldn’t take much to spur the romance.
    Although she was close to Rachel, Emma was the sister Amelia had always looked to for advice. Emma and Archer had gotten Amelia through some of the darkest days of her life, after a devastating loss when she was nineteen. If she could repay them somehow for that, she’d do whatever she had to