Alone as always.
“Screw this,” I said to no one. Grabbing my phone, I wrote a text to the one person I absolutely shouldn’t be contacting right now.
Me:i dont undersyad yoi
Me: why did you rum
I tossedmy phone onto the coffee table, not wanting to watch and see if he’d respond. I ended up staring at it anyway, my head in my hands. The screen went black, and I knew then I’d screwed up by saying anything. I should’ve just left it and pretended nothing happened. But then the screen lit up. A gasp shot out of me, and I snatched the phone off the table.
Don’t Text Him:Where are you?
I shookmy head at the phone, scoffing. “Nowyou give a shit? Fuck you,” I ground out, typing furiously. And he didn’t even answer my question! What an asshole.
Me:whhy do you caree
Me: emmett
Don’t Text Him: Delilah. I’m not gonna ask again.
Christ,why was that so hot? I imagined him saying it with the same deep tone he used in my office, asking if I wanted him to fuck me on my desk. My eyes drifted shut, and I fell back againstmy couch. The phone buzzed in my hand again, right as I was starting to doze.
Don’t Text Him:Delilah.
Me: i hone
I watchedwith blurry eyes as the text bubble came and went, but I couldn’t keep my eyes open long enough to see what he said, and passed out.
When I woke up the next morning with a splitting headache and blue raspberry-flavored cottonmouth, I blindly reached for my phone. It wasn’t until I saw an unread text from Emmett that my eyes shot open.
“Oh no,” I groaned. “What did you do?”
I opened the text with shaking hands, my heart in my throat. There was no telling what I said. Butnothingcould have prepared me for what he said.
Don’t Text Him:I don’t understand myself either.
4
Ch 3 - Emmett
I was digging holes for fence posts for the new outdoor arena, doing everything I could to stop agonizing over Delilah, when Beau came over. “Let’s go get lunch.” It wasn’t really an invitation or a question or even a request.
I wiped the sweat off my brow, setting the post hole digger down. “You sure there’s time for that?”
He huffed a laugh and placed his hands on his hips. “We’re the bosses—we make time.”
I brushed my hands on my jeans, shifting on my feet. “Fair point.”
“There’s somethin’ I wanna talk to you about anyway.” Unease twisted in my stomach as I followed after him, wondering what on Earth he could have to say. Out of all of us guys, Beau was the nosiest. I knew it came from a good place, but I was never one to talk about my problems. Exactly why my last therapy session ended with me quitting and kicking a feed bucket across the stables after Delilah stormed off.
It’d been three days since she texted me wasted. Three days of us avoiding each other like the plague. She didn’t have to sayit; I knew she was pissed that I chickened out of kissing her. I was pissed, too.
I just didn’t understandwhyshe was pissed. She wasn’t the type to have a fragile ego, but maybe I did embarrass her by leaving. It was a really big risk for her to have offered that in the first place, and I owed her an explanation beyond sorry. I just didn’t know how to get the words out.
The ride to the Wild Creek diner was pretty quiet. We just talked about things that needed to be done around the ranch. By the time we sat down in the old leather booth, I was almost sweating from nerves. If my Army buddies could see me now, they’d be laughing their asses off. I was trained to handle torture, but having lunch with my sister Claire’s boyfriend was the thing that nearly made me crack.
I lasted through ordering drinks and food before I caved. “What did you wanna talk about?”
Beau shifted in his seat across from me and cleared his throat. His eyes met mine, that frosty blue full of focus. “I wanna propose to Claire.”
