AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Of course I’m right. I always am.” Emma flashed him another wink, and Patrick chuckled.
“Your record so far backs that up. So, were you a big pizza fan growing up, too?”
The conversation was drifting towards Emma’s history and personal life, however slowly, so she quickly brushed off the comment.
“Who wasn’t? Every kid loves pizza. Didn’t you?”
Patrick shrugged. “I didn’t eat much of it. A deficit which I aim to remedy now.” He took another bite. “But really. I feel like I don’t know much about you beyond your feelings on art and that you aren’t in close touch with your parents. And that you lived in San Diego for a bit.”
Emma winced internally at the mention of her relationship with her parents. Everything she’d told Patrick was true, which was a problem. Emma never shared details of her life with her marks — or with anyone for that matter. The more Patrick knew about her, the more likely it was that he could somehow see through her cover.
“There just isn’t that much to know about me.” She shrugged and took another bite of pizza. “I’m not all that interesting.”
“That’s where I’d disagree with you. Come on. Tell me something. Where did you go to college? Do you have siblings? What did you do before this?”
Of the three questions, one seemed to be the least incriminating.
“I’m an only child. And you?”
“I am, too. Although I have a few cousins who are close in age, and we were almost like siblings growing up. Especially my male cousins who were one year older and one year younger than me.”
Emma jumped on the chance to steer the conversation away from herself and to hear more about Patrick.
“I can imagine you three getting up to all kinds of hijinks.”
“We were very into pranks for some time. Once, my younger cousin, Sam, managed to attach a unicorn horn on a headband to a horse in our neighbors’ pasture.”
“I can’t imagine the horse liked that.”
“You know, I don’t think he noticed. But the neighbor’s daughter, whom Sam had a crush on, sure did. She loved unicorns.”
“So, was it really a prank, or a romantic gesture? Daniels men seem to be pretty big on those.” As soon as the words were out, Emma wanted to clap her hand over her mouth. Patrick just smiled, though.
“It depends on how much we like the lady involved. I’ve also known my cousins to take girls out to football games on dates — when the girl didn’t even like football.”
Emma winced. “That’s a bit rough. But I suppose we all did silly things for love when we were younger.”
“Did you?” Patrick grinned. He looked pleased to have steered the conversation back to Emma.
“Sure. When I was six, I ‘saved’ a toy lion from a toy store because I couldn’t bear the thought of him sitting on the shelf just because he had a little sewing mistake on one of his paws.”
“And by saved, you mean…”
“Stole.” Emma smiled sheepishly. Then she realized that, instead of an innocent and untraceable story, she was probably laying the framework for Patrick to suspect her of criminal intent. Relax, Emma. He’s not going to judge you based on a story from when you were six.
“That’s not exactly the kind of love I was thinking about, but I’ll take it.”
“How generous of you.”
“What happened to the lion?”
Emma furrowed her eyebrows as she thought back. “Let’s see. I named him Leo?—”
“Classic.”
“—and I kept him for a long time. I think I even had him at the beginning of college.”
But then she’d put him in a box at her parents’ house for storage and hadn’t been back to get him since. It was a reminder of how long it had been since Emma had seen her parents. She still spoke to them on the phone now and then, but actually flying out for a visit felt like a step too far. They’d only disapprove of her, and given what she was doing today, Emma could hardly blame them.
