Oh no.The last thing he wanted to do was ruin his most precious relationship.
He spotted a bench behind her and pointed to it. “Wanna sit?”
Emily nodded.
When they sat down beside each other, she seemed to study him. “I heard your mom say your dad has a broken arm. Is that right?”
“Yeah. They’re setting his arm.” He grimaced. “He’s in a lot of pain, but it could have been much worse.” He rested his elbows on his lap and placed his chin on his palms, thoughts swirling through his mind. It was all too much. His dad was injured and now—
“None of this is your fault.” Emily’s words broke through his thoughts.
He lifted his gaze to meet hers, and once again the compassion in her eyes blew him away. “It’s not my fault, I know that. But I need to do a better job of being in charge of things.”
“What do you mean?”
He sat up straight. “I mean that I need to forget our ideas for the market. We should just keep things simple. Just the way they are.”
“No.”
He lifted an eyebrow. “No?”
“No,” she repeated more emphatically. “We’ve done all this work, and our plans are finally starting to come together.”
“But the grand opening is in a week. How on earth are wegoing to pull that off?” He made a sweeping gesture toward the entrance to the hospital. “My dad is injured now. I can’t take care of himandget the orchard ready.”
“But you have me.”
He shook his head. “I can’t expect you to do everything.”
“Why not?” She lifted her chin. “You think I can’t handle it because I’m a girl?”
He snickered. “No, I know you can handleanything, but it’s not your responsibility.”
“What if Iwantthe responsibility?”
He shook his head as a smile snuck onto his lips. “You’re impossible.”
“No, I’m stubborn, and I’m determined. And that means I can do this.” She tapped her finger on the bench seat. “I have a week to bring it all together. And don’t forget that Vince, Andi, and Seth are helping us too. We got this. You worry about your dad, and I’ll take care of the orchard.” She set her hands on his, her soft skin washing his own in a wave of comfort.
“Let’s talk about this later, okay? I need to find out the extent of my dad’s injuries and see what my mom and I are dealing with. Then I’ll make a decision about the orchard.” He tilted toward her, and once again he worried that he’d somehow fractured their friendship by almost kissing her. “For now, I think we need to talk about what happened earlier.”
The emergency room doors whooshed open, and Claire stomped out. “There you are! I went to the ladies’ room, and when I came out, I found Diane sitting alone.”
Jake frowned at her. “What do you want?”
“We need to talk.” His ex gave Emily a haughty look. “Can we have a minute, please?”
Emily’s hand flew to her mother’s rings, moving them backand forth on the chain while she studied Claire with a dark expression. Jake wasn’t sure if Emily was preparing to tell Claire off or ignore her request.
He started to open his mouth to protest Emily leaving but then paused. The sooner he told Claire to beat it, the better. It was time to clear the air and put her in her place.
He turned to Emily and touched her hand. “We’ll talk later, okay?” he asked gently.
Emily winced. “Okay.” The betrayal on her face nearly broke his heart in two, but she quickly fled back into the ER.
He would apologize to her later when they were alone. Right now, he needed to deal with Claire.
He stood. “Why are you here?”
