Livy: Screaming face emoji
Telly: Laughing emoji
Bryna and Jessa both came back with the sad face Emoji.
Ariel: Are you seriously going to do this without us?
Emma: First of all, Ariel you're not here. Neither is Jessa or Penny, so yeah, sorry.
Jessa: Hey, I'll be there in a week. If you can wait a week I can help.
Why was this so hard? I'd grown up most of my life with my brother away and my mother half of her former self. And always alone. Now I had family I couldn't get rid of. I sighed.
Emma: Anyone have ideas on how to ditch my security?
Amelia: Screaming face emoji
Livy: Side eye emoji No. You're not ditching them. Whatever you have to do has to be in plain sight. No more risks remember. Bridge wouldn't survive that.
Shit. Everyone had just gotten over the fact that I'd gone to meet his dad. There was no way I was going to be able to do this without security.
Telly: Well, you could tell them you were meeting a particularly cagey client and they needed to keep a little more distance. So while you are still protected as much as possible, you could meet and speak to them alone.
I chewed my bottom lip. That was a possibility. Because Livy was right, I couldn't do that to Bridge again. I deserve his ire for meeting with his father. I did. I knew that. He deserved mine for kidnapping and terrifying me. I understood why he was doing this. For the same reason he was always doing everything. A promise he’d made to my brother.
You know he loves you.
I was not thinking about that right now. We had a whole slew of other issues.
Emma: Okay. I have a couple of ideas. Sorry Team Winston Isles, Jessa unless you can be here within the next couple of days, I'll have to do this without you.
Jessa: I was supposed to be there on Friday. But if you have to do it without me fair enough. I want to hear all about it though.
Emma: You got it. Anyone in Team London Lords have ideas for how the hell we're going to flush this guy out?
Nyla: Tell him you're unwilling to move anything forward. Your life is in danger. You have to meet face to face so that you know you can trust him.
Could it be that simple? Demanding a meeting or saying that I wasn't doing this anymore? But he apparently knew me well enough to know that I would do it, didn't he? After all, I’d gone this far. But maybe he’d believe that after marrying Bridge, the stakes were too high for me now.
Emma: That might actually work. No way I would agree to meet him alone.
Amelia: I'll come. I'm not as in the mix as the others. Tell him you and a friend are coming, otherwise, the deal's off.
Emma: I don't even know how to reach the guy.
Nyla: He’s obviously watching you, paying attention to your moves. He'll find you. And when he does contact you next, be really clear.
Emma: Isn't there a way to exacerbate this. Move it faster?
Livy: I don't think so. You have to wait until he contacts you again. That's the play. We'll keep the guys off your back. But you actually have to talk to us this time.
I winced. Yep, she was still mad.
Emma: Okay, I guess I'll figure out where the hell to buy some patience. In the meantime, no blabbing.
Telly: Straight faced emoji.
I felt better with even a small semblance of a plan and knowing my friends had my back. The one part I didn't like was having to wait on someone else.
Fifteen
Bridge
How was it that I had no idea what to say to my wife except lift up your skirt? Even worse was that she knew she had my number.
“You're staring at me, Bridge.”
I smirked at her as she looked up from her monstrous burger and grinned when I saw she had the secret sauce in the corner of her lip. “I just like the view.”
Her brow furrowed. “And that's what we're doing now? Secret glances, come-hither stares, the two of us pretending like we're not dying to jump each other’s bones?”
“So, you wanna jump my bones, do you?”
She sat back, the secret sauce still there on the corner of her lip. “Only since I was old enough to know what jumping bones meant.”
That simple phrase. Her telling me that she wanted me all that time twisted me up inside.
You were a fool for never seeing it, for never taking advantage of it.
“Well, that makes two of us.”
She shrugged. “I honestly thought you hated me.”
“I just knew I shouldn't touch you. Toby trusted me with you.”
Emma rolled her eyes. “Don't start making that face.”
“What face?”
“You know, that one where you start locking everything down and thinking, ‘Wow, I should honor his wishes.’ Toby's gone. Besides, he’d be thrilled in all honesty.”
“I know that. He really would have been. Mostly because even if he was here, we wouldn't have been able to keep it under lockdown. Eventually, something would have happened that made him see it, and then there would have been an awkward conversation, but he’d have been happy for us. Sooner or later, we were inevitable, Emma.” I could see that now. I’d wasted so much time.
She grinned at me then. “I'm so glad you see it that way. I really do love being right you know.”
I rolled my eyes. “Don't gloat.”
“But gloating is so sexy on me, haven’t you noticed?”
All I could do was shake my head. She leaned forward and took another monstrous bite, and I chuckled to myself.
“Okay, what's so funny?” she said with her mouth full.
Instead of telling her, I stood up and walked around my desk with my napkin. When I approached, her gaze flickered down to my zipper, which gave me all kinds of other ideas. But I was behaving myself. I reached out for her chin and lifted it gently, using my napkin to wipe the corner of her mouth. “Emma, you've had secret sauce on your lips for the last ten minutes.”
She frowned up at me. “You're terrible. You should have told me.” Her eyes studied me seriously for a minute. “What gives, Bridge? You've been walking on eggshells. Tell me what's wrong.”
I sat against my desk instead of indulging in what would have been the easier thing. Kissing her would have been easy. Melting into our connection would have been simple. My mother was right. I couldn't let my past dictate who I was and what was important to me. How I maneuvered. “I’ve just got a lot on my mind. Given everything that we know, I'm worried. The last thing I want to do is let you go back to Middleton. I want to go back to plan A and put you on a plane to the Winston Isles.”
“What happens to Mum if I run? To our plans? Obviously, nothing would happen to Francis Middleton.”
“I'll figure something out,” I muttered under my breath.
“We.”
I frowned down at her. “What do you mean, we?”
“We are a team now, remember? This isn't all on you. We're trying to figure it out, and we will as a team.”
I couldn't hide the smile that tugged at my lips. “It takes getting used to.”
Emma put her burger down on her plate and stood, sashaying over to me. When she slid her arms around my neck, my gaze immediately flickered to her lips. “I'm part of that team, Bridge. I'm strong enough to do my part. Please try not to worry.”