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Emma’s family lived in upstate New York. He was pretty sure by family, it meant Emma’s father and stepmother, her brother, James, and his wife, Selena. James and Selena had a daughter, Charlotte. He liked the fact that though Selena was an attorney and came from an extremely wealthy family, she wasn’t uptight like some of the people he came across as a kid. Emma had little to no relationship with her birth mother.
Man, he still remembered how hard it was to sit through the rehearsal dinner and listen to Emma’s mother insult his parents. If James hadn’t leaned over and told his mother to cut the shit or leave, he was pretty sure he would have. He wouldn’t have cared if he put a scene on either.
No one talked down to his parents that way.
Thankfully Emma’s mother decided not to attend the wedding the next day. He couldn’t imagine doing that to his family, but it did make the day more enjoyable.
“We are so excited,” his mother said. “How are you feeling? Tell me everything. Call me for anything.”
“I’m feeling good,” Emma said. “It helps to be able to work from home so if I’m moving slow it’s fine.”
Emma was a paralegal for a law firm in Albany. They loved her so much they allowed her to relocate and keep her job and work remotely. She went back to the firm a few times a year for things but used that time to visit with family and it seemed to work out well to only be about three hours or less away.
He remembered early on Emma and River had a long distance relationship. Maybe that was what he needed to find someone. It seemed in this area he was striking out.
Yet the sexy Ivy popped into his head again and he told himself no.
First, she was young, even if she was flirting with him.
Second, she was part of a case he was working on.
Third, shit, he didn’t have a third reason.
The first two were going to have to be good enough. Just because she was pleasing to the eye and enjoyable to flirt with, didn’t mean she wasn’t going to be high maintenance.
He didn’t do well with high maintenance needy women.
Been there, done that. Bent over backward for a few when he was younger and still got shit on for not being enough.
Ivy was dressed to kill in casual clothes last night. Black jeans with black pumps on her feet again. She had some sexy footwear for sure. Her shirt was purple and tucked into her waist. Not super fitted but feminine. That was how she came off. But she didn’t need a fitted top when her jeans hugged her ass every way to the moon and back.
Her hair was down and wavy, nothing in it this time pulling it from her face. He noticed she had a bit more makeup on than she did when she was in his office on Monday, but not enough for him to think she was hiding something.
He’d dated his fair share of women who took those layers of makeup off and he almost screamed with what was under it. Damn, he didn’t understand that and why someone would try to deceive so much.
He figured by now he had a good eye for how thick the layers of makeup were on a woman’s face. He started to think the more they hid their skin from the public, the more secrets they had inside.
“If you need to move slow, then do it,” Brooks said.
Those words made him think of Ivy again. Her slow and steady comment.
What the fuck was wrong with him? Maybe he just needed to get laid.
Yeah, that had to be it.
Except Ivy’s face popped into his mind and not the chick that was hitting on him in the casino last night he could have taken home and didn’t.
“Emma is good at listening,” River said. “Right, Emma?”
“Right, hubby,” Emma said, leaning over to kiss his brother. River put his hand on Emma’s belly and he felt the strongest form of jealousy known to mankind and hated himself for it.
He’d told himself to never be jealous of anyone who had something he didn’t.
If he wanted it bad enough, then he could work hard to get it.
This was just one of those things he wasn’t sure he wanted to work at in life.
8
