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He didn’t wait for her to answer. Calen leaned in and gave her a kiss to remember. It was one of those long, slow ones that was no doubt a little too long and slow, considering how many eyes were on them right now. But the advantage of a great kiss was that it fuzzed her head enough that she decided not to think about that either. She just melted into the kiss, and when Calen finally ended it, she melted against him with a satisfying sigh.
“Interrupting anything?”someone asked.
There went her satisfying sigh, but Emmy bit off the groan that bubbled up in her throat because she knew the snarler was Owen.
“As the sheriff, shouldn’t you be working on getting our mail released?” Owen went on. “Mail that your father hid and didn’t deliver.”
“It’s my night off,” Calen said, and though he didn’t groan or snarl, it was obvious he was annoyed by the interruption.
“You’re making a spectacle of yourselves,” Owen accused.
Calen and she huffed in unison and turned toward the pest that she’d once agreed to marry. In hindsight, she had really dodged a bullet there. “You mean like the spectacle of you having sex with Sasha?” Emmy countered. She leaned in, narrowed her eyes. “Because you don’t get to lecture me about anything. Understand? Understand?” she repeated in a louder, meaner tone when Owendidn’t respond.
Okay, so she apparently still had some pent-up anger, but it wasn’t about Owen’s cheating. It was because he apparently thought he still had the right to inform her of his opinion. He didn’t.
Emmy had to do some mental head-shaking because clearly this mean, cheating streak had been in Owen, and she’d never seen it when they’d been together. Of course, she’d known he was ambitious, and often he’d let ambition drive him to work long hours and make big plans. Owen had wanted her for his wife because she fit his image of the woman he wanted beside him as he climbed up the political ladder. But in hindsight, she had to wonder if she’d ever been truly in love with him. Had she accepted his proposal only because Calen was getting on with his own life? With someoneother than her?
Her shout had caused the room to go quiet again, and Owen’s assistant, Tate, moved in to take hold of his boss’s arm. Always the diplomat, Tate muttered an apology to no one in particular and tried to get Owen to back away, but her ex held his ground and shifted his attention to Calen.
“Don’t hurt Emmy because you’re trying to get back at Sasha and me,”Owen insisted.
That was just the wrong thing to say, and now it was Emmy who took hold of Calen’s arm when she felt the anger rev through him. “Just remember my smutty underwear,” Emmy told him. And it worked. Her words stopped Calen from moving in to punch Owen’s lights outs.
Emmy put her fingers on Calen’s chin, turning his head to make eye contact. “This is our date, and I say that on this date Owen doesn’t even exist. It’s just you and me.”
She didn’t exactly hold her breath, but she waited anxiously for Calen’s reaction. Obviously, his deputy, Mick, was concerned too, because he set his drink aside and came closer.
“You need help?” Mick asked Calen.
“No,” Calen assured him, and he gave Owen one last glance before he turned back to Emmy. “Let’s finish this dance.”
And that’s what they did. Thankfully, Calen made some moves that put distance betweenOwen and them.
“I don’t want any part of what Owen just said to be true,” Calen stated. “I’m not here tonight to get back at—”
“I know,” Emmy interrupted, and because she thought they could both use it, she brushed a kiss on his lips. “But you’re still worried the hurt can happen. It can,” she admitted. “But I think we’re past the point of no return here, don’t you?”
Calen looked her straight in the eyes. “Yes. I just don’t want to lose you.”
“Then we’ll take it slow,” she said, though Emmy immediately frowned. In some ways, they’d been on the slow route for over two decades. In other ways, though, in ways that involved smutty underwear, they were going full speed ahead.
When Calen cursed, it took her a moment to realize the bad word wasn’t in response to their dilemma but because his phone had buzzed. He whipped it from his pocket, and she saw his pissed-off expression fade when he glancedat the screen.
“It’s Nessa,” he relayed and answered the call. Since both the music and conversation were back to normal levels, he put his finger in his ear, no doubt so he could hear. “What?” he said to Nessa. “Whyare you here?”
Emmy glanced around, expecting to see his sister, but she wasn’t there, and Calen cursed again. The moment he finished his call, he took hold of Emmy’s arm and steered her toward the door.
“Nessa wanted to see Christmas Creek in the snow,” Calen explained as he grabbed their coats. “But her water broke. She wants us to go to her right away because the baby is coming.”
Chapter 6
Apparently,right awaywasn’t a hard-and-fast guideline for labor and delivery. Calen was learning that firsthand. Emmy, too, as they waited for news of the baby’s arrival. Something Emmy and he had been doing for more than six hours since they’d made their frantic rush to the hospital.
This was hardly the hot date night they had planned, but then Nessa probably hadn’t anticipated delivering her baby three weeks early at a hospital where she didn’t know any of the doctors. It was both of those things—the early labor and the unfamiliar surroundings for Nessa—that were causingCalen to pace.
And worry.
Emmy had joined in on that pacing until her party shoes had sidelined her to fidgeting in a waiting room chair. She’d also done searches on her phone to figure out the risks of Nessa delivering early, but both the internet and the nurses on duty had assured them that all would be well. Calen hoped it wasn’t just lip service.
