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“Hi, I’m Hattie,” she says, giving the blonde a little wave.
“Oh, right, sorry,” Kasey says, shaking herself. “This is Emery. Emery, this is Hattie, and this is the guy I was telling you about, Shep.” Hattie stiffens ever so slightly beside me.Oh. Ohhhh. Fuck.Kasey had mentioned setting me up with one of her friends a week or so ago, but I didn’t think she was going to bring hertonight. I don’t want to be rude, so I extend a hand and smile.
“Nice to meet you, Emery.”
“You too. Kasey has told me a lot about you.”
“Well, you should only believe about half of it.” We all laugh a bit and I glance sidelong at Hattie. She’s smiling, but it’s…off. Brittle. It’s the fake one that she puts on sometimes when she’s not in the mood to deal with people, but she’d never be outwardly rude or cruel to anyone. Does it bother her that I’m apparently on a blind date right now? Is it wrong of me that I’ll take it as a good sign if it does? I don’t have any desire to be on a blind date tonight, especially not when I’m almost certain that things were about to change between Hattie and me. What was she going to say? What did she need to tell me? I don’t really know how to escape the situation in the moment though, so I just go with it, telling myself that I’ll talk to Hattie about it all as soon as I can get her alone.
“So, what do you do?” I ask Emery, starting on the small talk.
“I’m a doctor over at Mariners’ Memorial.”
Kasey rolls her eyes and interjects. “She’s being modest. She’s a surgeon. Apediatricsurgeon. She literally saves sick kids daily.” I think Hattie turns a bit green at that. Emery smiles demurely, waving it away like it isn’t a bit deal.
“Wow, that’s amazing,” I say, honestly. We do a lot of work with the children’s hospitals in the area, I’m surprised I’ve never seen her before. Answering my silent thought, Kasey explains that Emery just moved back to the area a couple of months ago.
“And she has a son, about Ollie’s age,” Kasey adds, grinning like she’s just won the Matchmaker of the Year award. “I bet they would have a blast together.”
“Oh, I—"
“I’m so sorry to interrupt, y'all, but I think Bobby and Nat just walked in, I’m going to go say hello,” Hattie says, her tone is sweet as always, but her voice is tight. “It was really great meeting you, Emery. Kasey, Shep, I’ll see y’all in a bit.” With that she hurries off and I can’t stop myself from staring as she goes, my fingers flexing at my side, remembering the feeling of her soft skin beneath them.
Chapter Sixteen
Hattie
Seeing Shep on a date is like a punch to the gut. It shouldn’t be, but I can’t stop the feeling. It isn’t even jealousy, though I guess that’s a part of it, it’s just…well it fuckinghurtsto see him with someone else. He’d seemed surprised when Kasey and Emery had walked up, so I don’t think he knew that he was going to be set up tonight, but some ridiculous, illogical part of my brain is mad at him for it. I’m well aware that it makes no sense.
I try to keep my distance at first, but we just kind of keep getting thrown together—we’re friends after all and everyone knows it, so it’s only natural that we hang out all night. Me, Connor, and his freaking date.Joy.
Just as I try to sneak off to get some fresh air on the patio, Rizzo yanks me over to a table with him and a handful of other people while Connor and Emery standing on the other side of the high table. Rizzo studiously tries to ignore Nat, but fails miserably, and despite my sour mood, I can’t help but smile. She meets my gaze, mouthsshut up, and then tries to hide her own smile in her drink.
“And I think we need a toast to the newest member of the Vipers’ Sin Bin!” Rizzo says to the table, raising his glass. Everyone else joins in. “You may talk funny, but we like ya anyway.” Everyone laughs and I elbow him in the ribs. “Seriously, I think I speak for everyone here when I say that we are so glad that you took this job. We love you and thanks for keeping us out of Jersey!” Voices ring out around the table:
“Hear hear!”
“To Mac!”
“Fuck Jersey!”
“Pleasesay darlin’!”
“Noteverythingis bigger in Texas!” Rizzo adds with a waggle of his brows and everyone laughs and cheers, clinking glasses and sloshing liquid all over the place.
I meet Connor’s eyes and he smiles one of those heartbreakingly beautiful smiles that makes my breath catch. He raises his glass at me, and I smile back, something passing between us that I can’t explain. Despite being surrounded by people, it feels like Connor and I are the only ones here.
But then, Emery leans in and whispers something in his ear, resting a hand on his arm in a flirtatious way, and the moment passes.
I do my best to act normal after that, to smile and laugh and give the guys shit, but inside I’m feeling like I want to cry and scream and muss Emery’s perfectly polished chignon. I know I’m being ugly, can practically hear my mom’s voice in my head telling me just that, but I can’t seem to stop it.
I’d been about to tell Connor…well, I don’t know what, exactly. It’s not like I’d rehearsed anything or planned it, but when I’d seen him there, looking devastating in his dark suit, hair styled in that not-quite-messy-not-quite-sleek way that looks perfect on him; when he’d held me close as we’d moved to the music, our bodies perfectly in time; when I’d seen the way he’d looked at me—something had just snapped inside, the dam completely collapsing. I wanted to tell him that I wanted him, that I wanted more than just friendship with him, hell, maybe even that I love him, but then Kasey and Emery had shown up.
And Emery is perfectly sweet and beautiful and she’s a single mom so she knew exactly the type of struggles that Connor goes through sometimes raising Ollie alone and she’s a former college soccer star and a freaking pediatric surgeon saving babies left and right and I can’t even hate her if I want to!Damn it!Kasey had been right: they were hitting it off. They’re both smiling and laughing and Emery’s even doing that subtle flirty thing where you touch the guy’s arm ever so lightly while you give himthatlook. She’s most definitely interested in him—I mean, who in their right mind wouldn’t be?—but is Connor interested in her? I can’t make myself study him too closely to find out. I think I’m scared to see it if he is. Ithinkhe’d been caught in that spell with me on the dance floor, had been feeling the same thing I had, but he’d recovered so quickly after Kasey and Emery showed up, that maybe I’d been just seeing what I wanted to see.
I know Ishouldbe happy for him. I mean, it’s not like he and Emery are getting married tomorrow or anything, but if this could be the start of something for him, I should be happy. We’ve talked about how he’s been thinking about getting out there and trying dating again,reallytrying it now that Ollie was settled into her new life with him. Hell, I’ve even played wingman for him at bars, getting him numbers and hyping him up. It hadn’t bothered me to think about him hooking up or dating any of those girls…but that was different. That had beenbefore.Now, the thought of it makes me clench my hands into fists, feeling so green with jealousy you may as well call me Shrek.
Despite feeling terrible and wanting nothing more than to go to my room and curl up in bed, I make myself laugh and crack jokes and make toasts with everyone like it’s any other day. And the party really is great and I am having a good time, but I’m also barely keeping it all together.
