Page 90 of The Sound of Harmony

Kendrick took a step away from her, and then back. Mitch held the door, trying to wave him in.

“Go,” Emma said.

Kendrick set his jaw and walked back to the auditorium.

Gwendolyn and Brooke immediately closed ranks, huddling around her, rubbing her back and giving her tissues.

“That jerk,” Brooke said.

“Absolute bastard,” Gwendolyn said.

“How dare he?” Brooke asked.

Emma looked at them in disbelief. “You don’t even know why I’m mad.”

“We don’t need to know,” Brooke said.

“Because we’ve got your back no matter what,” Gwendolyn added.

“We warned him,” Brooke said.

Emma reared back to look at them. “You what now?”

“Shh,” Gwendolyn said. “Now is not the time.”

“What did you do?” Emma demanded.

“Nothing bad,” Brooke said. “We talked to him. Not at the same time. We didn’t gang up on him. But we both had words with him.”

“Remarkably similar words,” Gwendolyn said. “We compared notes later.”

Emma pressed tissues to her eyes. “Why?”

“We were looking out for you,” Gwendolyn said.

Brooke put her arm around Emma’s shoulder. “We told him you were fragile. We told him to be careful. We were trying to protect you.”

Emma shrugged off Brooke’s arm. Why was everyone in her life trying to protect her? And how was it protecting her if people were talking behind her back and keeping things from her?

She’d been working so damned hard to get over what Jonah had done to her, and she was there! She’d made it. She was completely fine. But Brooke and Gwendolyn kept pulling her back to her past. Would they ever see her as whole? Or was she just some broken thing they had to take care of?

“Hey, weirdo, we were trying to help,” Gwendolyn said.

“Stop.” Emma sucked in a big lungful of air. “Stop talking for me. I’m not some porcelain doll. I’m not a baby bird you have to nurture back to health before she can fly. I’m tired of everyone else making decisions for me, stealing my voice, not letting me talk for myself. And you know what else?” She pointed a shaking finger at Gwendolyn’s face. “I hate the color pink.”

She shoved the tissues into her purse, slammed her arms into her jacket, and charged outside.

It was cooler out here. Quieter, too. And dark. She needed that. She needed a moment to breathe, to think, to figure out what to do.

One thing she wouldn’t do was ride home in Theo’s car. Like a smart man, he’d hung back, staying out of it while she was talking to Gwendolyn and Brooke, but there was no way she could get into his car. Not with those two. She’d have to get home another way.

She put her address in the Lyft app. She was on the verge of accepting a ride when the theater door opened and Mitch walked out.

Unlike his usual barrel forward, this time, he stepped with caution. His usually shrewd eyes were now wide and compassionate. He stood a respectful distance away. “Hey,” he said. “Are you okay?”

“No.”

“I’m sorry.” Mitch stood in silence with her, for once not trying to fill it.