I prop my forearms against the fence, appearing as though I’m considering, but I’m not. Riley is a straight shooter, though, so I give her the truth. “No.”
She grins bigger at me now, white teeth flashing as her green eyes do the same. “Fair. Emmett will appreciate that, considering how he follows you around sporting big heart eyes and all.”
My cheeks flare. It would appear the news of him crashing my date has made it to the rest of his family. All I can do is chuckle and press my lips together. Because what am I supposed to say to his sister?
He’s done a lot more than that?
I think I might have heart eyes too?
We’re really complicated and really horny?
“I don’t know about that.” I laugh awkwardly and push off the top board of the fence to turn away.
“Julia?” The earnest tone in Riley’s voice brings me up short.
I tilt my head to look back up at her, caramel-colored braid spilling from under her black helmet. “Mm-hmm?”
“Just… be careful with him, yeah? Underneath all that snark, he’s a lot more softhearted than he seems.”
I blink once, processing her words. She’s right. Because the Emmett I know is not the Emmett I’d been warned about.
I nod and say, “I promise.”
Then I turn and walk into the barn, knowing that I don’t make promises I can’t keep.
CHAPTER 30
Julia
ALOUD VOICE STOPSme in my tracks as I wander down the barn alleyway.
“What is wrong with you?” The question booms from the office, setting my heart to racing as I carefully step closer to the wall.
“Nothing,” Emmett’s voice responds. It’s even but… dead. Not heated, just completely flat and detached. “I’m doing what needs to be done.”
“What needs to be done?” I flinch at the harshness in the other man’s voice, flattening my back against the wall and edging quietly toward the open door.
Peeking around the corner, I see the back of a man I don’t recognize. Gray hair pokes out from under a ball cap, the tank top he’s sporting revealing a boxy build.
Emmett sits against the edge of the desk in the corner where I know Parker often spends many hours working. Filing cabinets and mismatched shelves line the wall. The linoleum is scuffed to hell.
Which is what I’m looking at when the man steps closer and kicks Emmett’s booted foot.Hard.
My body goes taut, immediately on alert. It’s not the challenging nudge I’d given him behind that cheesy western bar, but seeing this now still fills me with guilt.
“What needs to be done is you training. Not fucking around. Missing qualifiers to fly off to Florida to do god knows what.”
My stomach sinks. Then the man slaps Emmett’s shoulder, and my ire rises. “Now you’re playing a bachelor on TV? Like people give a fuck about you?”
“Nope, they don’t,” Emmett bites out, but his eyes drop. His shoulders round forward just slightly even though his arms are crossed.
A man who has looked nothing short of cocky and prideful every time I’ve seen him looks utterly humiliated. And based on what I know, there’s only one person this man could be.
He leans closer, towering over Emmett, and my eyes sting. All I can think about is a ten-year-old boy losing his parents and then being forced to endurethis.
“You’re a fucking embarrassment. No woman is going to stick around for you, especially not now that she knows you’re some beta Hollywood phony,” the man spits, more hissing than yellingnow. Emmett shrinks again, and the bridge of my nose burns. “You’re a waste of fucking space—”
I want to cry but instead, I spring into action, refusing to let the man who saved me at my most vulnerable endure this vitriol. I sprint back down the alleyway and turn to walk toward them once again, but this time I’m extraheavy on my feet.
