AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Does Burke know I’m over here?”
Emily shakes her head.
“Why didn’t you date more? You must be beating them off with a stick. Was Olive deploying the raccoons on them?”
Emily covers her mouth since she lets out a deep belly laugh. “I was busy with raising Olive and growing my jewelry business. I always said I would when she went to school. Then, my dad decided to open the brewery, and dating kept getting pushed out and pushed out. I went on a date here or there, but nothing stuck. Burke asked me to dinner, and that was that. I finally felt ready.”
An odd cocktail of emotions swirls in my gut. Burke seems like a nice guy, but I hate him. Maybe she didn’t want to have a relationship, and that’s why she cut me off. Still, this magnetism I feel between us can’t be a coincidence. She must feel it too.
Once I felt that with Emily, I knew I needed to break it off with Noelle. I’ve just been lying to myself for years. It’s obvious Emily doesn’t feel the same, and that’s fine. If it’s not Emily, I will work like hell to gain Olive’s trust and love and spend the rest of my life trying to find a woman who makes me feel the way Emily makes me feel.
Chuckling, I sip my wine. Maybe it was all in my head. “We were so dumb back then.”
“Yeah,” Emily says. “Who knows if we would’ve worked out.”
“Yeah, totally,” I say, laughing so I don’t spill my soul to this woman who doesn’t care. “I mean, you were nineteen, I was twenty-five…”
“Totally, I was so dumb.”
“I was dumb,” I say, putting my hand on my chest. “Remember when we skinny-dipped in the lake and got caught by that group of old ladies?”
“What would soon become the Bad Biddies Club,” Emily says. “Miriam Oliver is my nemesis.”
“What?”
“She was in that group that night. She overheard something…” Emily’s words trailed off and she rubs her eyes. “I’m really tired. We’ll see you tomorrow at the wishing well? Maybe ten? I’ll text you the address of where to park. I have a couple errands to run before.”
I stand up slowly, wishing I could stay longer. “That sounds wonderful.”
“Okay, good night.” We stand, staring at each other, and she offers a friendly arm for a hug. I hold my breath when I take her in so I don’t get lost in her scent and wish things were different. Here’s another place I want to stay forever.
She walks me to the door and flicks on the porch light. I step onto her porch and turn.
“Watch me in case the raccoons get me?”
A smile crosses Emily’s face. “Of course.”
I shove my hands in my pockets as I walk across the field to the tiny house. Looking back, I see Emily, her hand on the doorframe, watching me.
Damn, what I wouldn’t do to time travel back ten years and try like hell to stay in her life.
18
Emily
When I hear the slam of the tiny house’s door, I close the door and slide down it, hitting the floor with a thud.
His stepdad orchestrated everything, and Max didn’t have a clue.
Max was exactly who I thought he was. The what-ifs rattle in my mind as I realize I wasn’t going crazy. I didn’t imagine it or was wrong. Max was kind, sweet, unbelievably handsome, and he wanted me. If he’d known about the baby, he would’ve been here in a second.
Instead, his stepdad intercepted my news and bamboozled me into taking money, made me think Max was a douchebag who only left broken promises for women to clean up.
I wring my hands and push them into my hair. A thousand invisible pins stick my body. It’s almost nine o’clock, and I want to call someone, but I’m not sure who. My mother would find Fred Sawyer within the hour if I told her. Caroline is probably fast asleep. There’s only one person who is probably still up, gives great advice, and wouldn’t immediately find Fred Sawyer and pummel him.
“Hi, Emily, what’s going on?” Shiloh’s bright voice asks me when she picks up.
“Hey, Shiloh, do you have a second?”
