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So when it came time to sell Stanton Family Seafood, it seemed obvious that buying the company was my chance at finally and fully winning his heart.
And while there was an initial excitement, it eventually waned – especially when I opened my restaurant. Especially when it started doing well. Gaining press. Earning glowing reviews. He’d said the restaurant was pointless – a waste of money – but then orders started piling back into the warehouse.
And instead of being proud, or happy to be proven wrong, Dad was bitter.
“He’s not proud,” I muttered as Emmett held me against his chest. “He’s just embarrassed that his daughter did what he couldn’t. And I think he hates me for it.”
“He doesn’t hate you,” Emmett whispered, tucking a lock of hair behind my ear.
“I don’t know,” I said tiredly, staring out the rearview window. “He definitely doesn’t love me. I don’t know if he ever did.”
“Well, I do,” Emmett said easily, drawing my wet eyes to him fast. He smiled at my look of surprise. “Loving you is the oldest memory I have,” he said as I stared through my tears at him. “You were a part of my life for as long as I can remember. All my best memories were with you. I know I messed with you a lot, but in the end, I always loved you, and I don’t think I really knew it till that day I found you after school,” he said softly, the lights from outside moving over his features. “And trust me, I’ll never regret what I did that day, but I’ll always regret the fact that I lost you after. I missed you so fucking much, Aly. I had no idea what you meant to me until you were gone.”
I took a moment to soak in his words. To revel in them, really. I didn’t know I could feel this high right after feeling so low.
Actually, I didn’t know I could feel this high at all.
“Well, you’ve got twelve years on me,” I murmured in return. “Because I don’t think I knew what you meant to me until I came back.”
I felt bad saying it, but Emmett hit me with that classic grin of his, so I couldn’t help but smile with him.
“Hey, I’ll take it,” he said, leaning in to brush his lips against mine. “As long as we both know it now.”
18
ALY
I woke up probably an hour after I’d drifted to sleep.
That was pretty much par for the course, but what wasn’t was the fact that I’d woken alone in Emmett’s bed, his TV still on the same channel we’d left it.
The blue glow lit the room as I sat up and remembered the fact that I’d cried a bit longer after we’d gotten into the house. Nothing crazy. Just leftovers of the tears I’d started in the car. I needed to get the rest out of me, so sitting on the steps in Evie’s nicest dress and shoes, I let it all out.
And as I did, Emmett sat beside me, draping my legs over his lap and every so often pulling my forehead to his lips for a kiss.
It was so sweet I couldn’t believe it was real. I could finally admit to myself now that as a kid, I’d seen Emmett as the highest prize – something completely unattainable. I couldn’t be as good as him. I definitely couldn’t have him. He was the ultimate jock reserved for the prettiest girls.
So I told myself I didn’t want him.
It was a defense mechanism, but honestly, what teenage girl didn’t want a boy who put Abercrombie models to shame?
I wanted him then. Badly. I just hated myself for it. I wouldn’t even let myself fully enjoy the times that he and I laughed together on the weekends, because on Monday, we’d always wind up back at school, and he’d always wind up mobbed by pretty girls and teammates while I sat alone in some corner.
Alone in the flickering blue light of his room, I laughed at myself.
Now that all my skeletons were out of the closet, I had the capacity to think about silly things – like the fact that I was in the bed of the prom king from my high school.
I wish I could’ve told you that you’d somehow wind up here, I thought, talking to my sixteen-year-old self just as I heard Emmett’s voice at the door.
“Hey.”
I looked up to find him standing there, holding a glass of water from the kitchen. The light of the TV draped over his pecs and his abs, emphasizing his athletic build as he walked slowly over to me.
“You’re awake,” he said.
“And you’re naked,” I countered.
He looked down at himself and laughed.
