Em smacked her hands on her desk. “What do you want, Frida?”
Frida’s chin trembled. “You’re my best friend. I want you to stop ignoring me. I want you to talk to me.” She leaned forward. “You’re upset about me and Finn. We kept it a secret from you, and we shouldn’t have. I know that. But I can’t change that now. All I can do is try to work things out with you.”
It was more than keeping it a secret though. They were the two people in her life that she thought she could trust, and they lied to her. Em fought back the tears that filled her eyes. They were not going to fall right now. She’d cried enough the last few days. She would not shed another tear.
Frida got up and walked around the desk. She bent over and wrapped her arms around Em. “I should have told you.”
Never mind.Her best friend’s words put her over the edge. Tears streamed down her cheeks. “Why didn’t you tell me? I would have been happy for you guys.”
Frida stood back up, and she smoothed out her skirt even though there were no wrinkles. “I wanted to, but I know you have your no-dating-athletes rule.”
That stupid rule was more trouble than anything else. She shook her head. “That’s my rule, not yours.”
“I know, but you’re convinced every athlete is evil. I wasn’t sure what you’d say.”
Not every athlete was bad, just the ones she fell for. Besides, Finn was her brother.
“I would have given you my blessing.”
Frida lifted her brows. “And now?”
Nothing had changed. Em still loved Frida and Finn more than anyone else. She wanted them to be happy. And she didn’t get to say whether or not they dated. At this point, she had to decide whether or not she would be happy for them. “I think it’s great.”
“Really?”
Em nodded.
“Oh, good.” Frida lit up. “Because I really like him. He’s so funny and sweet and he looks really good out there on the field with his muscles straining.”
“I might be okay with you two dating, but he’s still my brother. I don’t want to hear how good he looks or anything about his muscles straining.” Em lifted the corners of her mouth into a smile.
Frida laughed. “Fine. No muscles. But he’s one of the good ones. He makes me happy.” She paused. “It’s why I kept bidding on that stupid jersey. I wanted it so bad.”
Em’s eyes went wide. “You’rethe one who I got into that bidding war with?”
Frida’s cheeks turned a deep red. “It was right after that game that we started dating. I thought it would have been cool to have it. I had no idea you were willing to go so high.”
“Then it’s yours.”
Frida sat up. “Really?”
Em nodded. “I have plenty. And it means a lot to you.”
“Thank you.”
“You’re welcome. I’m glad you guys are happy.” And she was. But knowing how perfect Frida and Finn were for each other only made her failed relationship with Grant more painful. With time, it would get easier. It always did. But for now, everything was just a little too overwhelming.
“And things are okay between us?”
“Yeah.” Em smiled at her. “Just don’t lie to me anymore. You’re my best friend.”
“Deal,” Frida said.
“Good.” Em looked down at the stack of papers in front of her. “But now that we’re not fighting anymore, I really need to finish grading these papers.”
Frida grabbed a red pen from the jar on Em’s desk.
“What are you doing?”
