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Gorgeous, he was so fucking gorgeous it was hard to watch.
I press my lips together as I push the images back, trying todull the ache that I’ve been fighting ever since I laid my eyes on him.
I couldn’t deal with this. Not now that I was running on coffee, sugar, and sheer determination.
I turn on the balls of my feet, going back into the kitchen. Work. I needed to immerse myself in work and forget that the last twenty-four hours had ever happened.
Not that Emmett gets the memo; that man’s relentless. “You don’t want to talk about him. At all.”
His words have me pausing for a second. I glance over my shoulder and glare at him. “So it’smyfault?”
“Shit.” Emmett raises his hand and runs it over his face. “I didn’t say that.”
“It sure sounded like you did.”
For a moment, an uncomfortable silence settles over us, and I hate it with every fiber of my being. Emmett and I have been best friends since diapers, and I couldn’t take fighting with him, but damn it, his words hurt.
My throat bobs as I swallow. I’m not sure if Emmett can see the emotions battling on my face. He curses softly, and the next thing I know, his strong arms are wrapped around me. “I’m so sorry, Becky,” he whispers gently, and some of that resolve I’ve been holding onto cracks.
I hug him back, burrowing my nose into his flannel shirt. The scent of sandalwood, horses, and hay clings to him like a second skin. The smell of home.
“I should have told you he was coming back. I thought I had time to figure out how to broach the subject. Time to prepare you, but… I just didn’t knowhow. Every time I even try to say his name, you close off, and I don’t know what to do. I don’t know what happened with you two or how to fix it, Becs. I just… I don’t know. And if that makes me an asshole, so be it.”
I take a step back. “He’s your best friend.”
“So are you.”
“Exactly. I’d never take that away from you.Eitherof you. You shouldn’t have to choose between the two of us, Emmett.That’swhy I don’t talk about him. Because whatever happens between us, you’ll always be friends, and I don’t blame you for it. But I had the right to know he was coming back.”
Maybe if I did, it wouldn’t have hurt so much.
Seeing him like that.
Maybe if I knew, it would have been easier.
Or maybe I’d just hide in my house until he left to prevent myself from running into him.
“I really am sorry, Becky.”
“I know.” I let out a sigh. “I just need… time.”
To figure this out. To deal with this. To find a way so I don’t hurt so much every time I see him.
Because let’s face it, there will be no avoiding Miguel Fernandez, not in a town the size of Bluebonnet.
“How long is he staying?”
“A couple weeks. Until the wedding.”
Shit, the wedding.
“Right, the wedding.”
Because our joint friends are getting married. So I’ll have to sit with him through the bachelor and bachelorette party. And the wedding itself. Easy peasy.
“I’ll just try my best to avoid him until then.” I nod, more for my benefit than Emmett’s, as I grab my coffee cup. “Shouldn’t be too hard.”
“He’s not just coming to the wedding, Becs.” The gentle tone of Emmett’s voice has the fine hairs at the back of my neck rising. It’s like he’s tiptoeing around the ticking time bomb, and the time bomb is me. My fingers tighten around thecup, the lines of my vision turning blurry as I hold my breath, waiting for him to finish. “He’sinthe wedding. He’s my best man.”
