“Okay, then. My work here is done.” I step away, nearly unsettling him. “Let’s get this stuff and load it up.”
Chapter Fourteen
True Love
Dylan
I’m certain I look as happy as a cat taking a bath. I attempt to channel my dad’s patience, something I never imagined myself doing. But women and furniture arranging is not a happy combo.
“What do you think about the rug in this direction?” Veronica looks at Emerson. Not at me or at Collin, even though we’re the ones who’ll be moving the two-ton sofa and the club chairs once she decides.
Emerson shrugs. “Looks good either way.”
Collin and I have good-naturedly moved the new furniture several times over the course of an hour and I’ve worked up a sweat. It’s nine o’clock and I can’t stop checking the time. Ace and Malerie left half an hour ago. It’s like I’m racing some clock and Emerson might disappear like Cinderella at midnight.
I need time with her. Alone.
“Can we finish this tomorrow?” I sit on the sofa arm. “I think I’ve pulled a muscle.”
Emerson smirks at me. “Poor baby. You’ll have to put some heat on it tonight.”
“That’s what I was thinking.” I give her a lascivious look. “You, me, heat. Easy therapy.”
She blushes immediately, telling me this girl isn’t used to being teased—or maybe she thought about it and liked it. “I’m sure you can take care of it yourself.”
Veronica laughs. “You guys are so cute.”
Emerson’s face grows pinker, a deep shade of rose. A ringtone sounds and she turns away to search the room. A second later, she grabs her purse and pulls her phone from it. Her voice is low and her chin tucked.
I look away so my interest in her call won’t be obvious.
Veronica and Collin have moved to the bar area where he opens a beer. Their voices are intimate and they move closer to each other while they talk.
I turn and grab my own cell to study my unopened email. There could be so many reasons for her to stay, and I deliberate over the best one to argue.
She puts one hand over her opposite ear as if to block out noise. “This friend you’re staying overnight with. I haven’t met her. Why not?”
Emerson studies the toe of her boot and shuts one eye. The voice on the other end is high-pitched and loud enough for me to hear.
“I didn’t say that,” Emerson says with a tiny hint of irritation. “I know you’re not making her up.” She pauses a beat. “You aren’t, are you?”
Emerson closes both eyes for a couple of seconds. “I was joking. Okay then. No problem.” She ends her call, notices me watching and turns her back to face the door. Her arms are folded across her chest in a protective gesture with the phone tucked tightly against her body.
“Everything okay?” I move closer to stand beside her.
“Um hmm.” She glances up at me. “Are we done with the decorating?”
“Hey, guys,” I say to Collin and Veronica, “we’ll help you finish up another day.”
“Sure,” Collin answers. “Thanks for everything. We’re not sticking around. I’m taking Veronica home.”
“Come on.” I take Emerson’s hand and lead her up the basement stairs. She doesn’t even resist my hand, which tells me how preoccupied she is. “Who was on the phone?”
“Gabby.”
I pull her with me to the living room and drag her down to the sofa next to me. There’s a sofa blanket hanging along the back, so I grab the covering and drape us both underneath it. Emerson automatically kicks off her boots and tucks her feet underneath her body.
“Want a coffee or tea?” I ask.
Emerson shakes her head and lets it fall back to rest against the cushion. “I should go home. I have an early class.”
“Okay. If you have to go. But I wish you’d tell me what just happened. I can tell something’s wrong.” I take her hand and study it, running my finger along the lines of her palm and up to the edges of her silver thumb ring.
“It’s nothing.” She waits a beat. “We could watch a TV show.” She motions to the television. I know she’s never watched anything at our house, and she doesn’t own one at her apartment.
It simultaneously concerns and pleases me that she wants to stay a while.
We both sit without moving for a minute. Finally, I grab the remote and put the sound on low. The room is dim except for a light in the kitchen and the flicker of the television.
Her body relaxes against me and I place an arm around her shoulders. “Is this okay?”
She nods instead of answering.
“You don’t have to talk, but you know you can tell me anything.” I say the words against the side of her ear in almost a whisper.
She waits a beat before she nods again, her silky hair moving against my chin. “Gabby and I have been through a lot together. She forces me to act like her mother and I’m not. But in a way, I am the only mother she’s ever known.”
I give her hand a squeeze. “I can tell you’re close.”
“She can be an immature little shit.”
I chuckle against the top of her head. “Yeah. I can tell that, too. But you know, we all grow up sometime.”
Her spine stiffens and her shoulders bunch. “It’s like a catch-22 for me. I keep waiting for her to make good choices and then I’m afraid to let her make decisions.”
“Not making judgments.”
Emerson releases a shuddering exhale. “I told you about my mother. Mom has been crazy a good part of my life. Most of Gabby’s life.”
“That must’ve been hard for both of you.” I’m searching my brain for the right thing to say, and maybe I should just shut up and let her talk. At the same time, I’m scared she’ll freeze up and lock this stuff away where she’s been storing it this whole time.
“I get overprotective and bossy, but I know why I do these things.”
“You worry about her. That’s natural.”
“It’s days like these when I’m so tired of guarding her from her mistakes. But I’m responsible for her. Or at least I am when she calls me to bail her out. Last semester, she was arrested for shoplifting.”
“Emerson,” I pause, trying to guard against saying the wrong thing. “You love her, but she’ll learn to take care of herself.”
“No, you don’t get it.” She pauses. “When we were kids, she was such a nuisance. Always in my stuff, following me around, trying to be me. Wearing my clothes. Taking my things.”
This time, I don’t respond verbally. Instead I draw her closer against my body.
“I’ve never told anyone what I’m going to tell you.” Emerson’s body pulls away until I slide my arm around her stomach, hugging her back to my chest.
I lace her fingers through mine and nod. “You can trust me.”
“You need to know how important it is that I look out for Gabby. That will never change.”
“I would never ask you for that. I know you guys are there for each other.”