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“I gave up the best thing that ever happened to me. But I did it because I would never make her choose between her family or me. I’ve never loved someone the way I love her. Like she’s my sun. My reason to wake up. Warmth coming at me from all angles. Without her I’m in the shadows and so cold... She loves me, too. She told me and then I had to let her go.”
“Tell me it’s not because of what I said.” Chase’s shoulders sagged.
“Don’t feel bad about that. Your threat that I’d lose your family—that you’d choose Stefanie—was exactly the reminder I needed. My losing you was what I had to do to make sure she didn’t lose you.”
“Emmett.” Chase’s expression was chagrined.
He raised an arm, but not to deliver another mind-clattering punch. Chase palmed Emmett’s shoulder and squeezed, the move almost...brotherly.
“I was angry when I said that. I would never blacklist you from the family any more than I would Stefanie. You could never do anything that would warrant it.” He gestured at Emmett’s face, where, no doubt, a bruise was forming. “A black eye, sure, but that’s different. You are family, Em.”
He blinked, taking in what Chase had said and trying to wrap his grieving mind and heartbroken soul around it.
He was family.
“Family doesn’t run out on each other,” Chase said.
“Mine does.” The words were rusty, but no less true.
“Mine doesn’t. Especially when my sister’s heart is on the line. I came here to knock some sense into you. About the resignation from my team, and about the way I know you feel about Stef. Once I stopped seeing red, I realized why you were doing this. You were always loyal to a fault. You’re the guy who dives in front of bullets and keeps everyone around him safe. But no one is firing at you, Emmett. You’re safe.” Chase shrugged like it was a simple realization. Like he hadn’t just brought Emmett’s world back to center. “You’re home.”
Since he was a little boy, Emmett had wanted a home. Not only the physical place to lay his head but also a family who would live in service to one another—who would stand by one another no matter the rift. He’d found that in the Fergusons, accepting that if he couldn’t have it for himself, at the very least he could be in proximity to it.
“When are you planning on delivering this big speech of love to my sister?” Chase asked.
Then a dash of blond caught the corner of Emmett’s eye and he turned to find Stefanie standing in his kitchen, arms folded.
“How about now?”
Miriam stepped in behind her, arms folded as well, her expression speaking for her. Make it good, buddy.
“Mimi. Stef.” Chase turned, clearly surprised to find his fiancée and his sister here.
A second look at Stefanie told Emmett that his wife was as sad as he felt. Her arms might be crossed, her voice might be strong, but her cheeks and nose were pink, her eyes red and tired like she hadn’t slept well outside the circle of his arms.
“What are you two doing here?” Chase asked.
“I suggested we stop by and see how the intervention was going.” Miriam snapped her head over to Emmett. “Nice shiner.”
“Well?” Stefanie asked, her heat-seeking gaze landing on Emmett. He was aware of Chase and Mimi stepping off to the side.
“How much did you hear?”
“Oh, something about how I was your sun and your reason to wake up in the morning.”
He swallowed past a thick throat, not sure how she felt about his admission. She’d heard it all.
“We’ll be outside.” Chase took Miriam’s elbow but before they left, he gripped Stef’s shoulder. “If you need me—”
“I can handle him.”
She wasn’t wrong. And now that Emmett had a second chance staring him in the face, he’d be more cooperative. Once Chase and Miriam were gone, Stefanie strolled to the center of the wide kitchen, leaving several feet between them.
“How did you go from wanting nothing from me to feeling everything?”
“Those two can coexist.”
“Not in my book.”
