by Hughes, Maya
“Ha ha, very funny. I want it to be a place she feels comfortable.”
“I’m sure she will. All right, we’re heading out to a club. Olivia’s dragging us all there, and a vein in Colm’s forehead is about to explode.”
“I’m sure. She gives him more shit to deal with…”
“Half the time it’s because she knows he likes to go into big brother mode. Please just tell us if a petting zoo or trapeze artist is showing up for this party.”
“It’s only a couple of goats and some puppies, nothing too showy.”
“Like you know the meaning of the word.”
“Have fun.”
“You too. The place is definitely a lot quieter without everyone trying to outdo the Emmett and Avery show night after night.”
“Bye, Declan.” I ended the call. Shifting my body, I slid my hands under her legs and kept her cradled to my chest, her head resting perfectly in the nook of my neck. She hated when I carried her, always swore she was too heavy. It was like she forgot I was a professional athlete.
Putting her in bed, I climbed in after her. In the morning she’d be at the bakery, up super early. I hopped out of bed and made a call to the front desk to order some food she could take with her, complete with Skittles and a bacon and egg sandwich.
My phone rang again. Squeezing the bridge of my nose, I answered the call. “Hi, Mom. Why are you up so late?”
“We just got back to the house.”
“Our house?”
“Yes, our house. We need…wanted to see you and didn’t want to waste any more time. How about breakfast?”
I looked toward the hallway leading to the bedroom. “Avery’s working early at the bakery. What about dinner? We can meet you at Vetri Cucina at 8.”
“Earlier would be better.” The desperate edge to her voice sank a pit in my stomach.
“Is something wrong with Dad?”
“No, your father is fine, but we need to talk about something that will affect us all.”
“I can meet you earlier.”
“Will you be at the penthouse tomorrow?”
“I don’t have anything else planned. How about lunch at the same place? At noon?”
“That will be great. See you then.” She ended the call.
I stared at my cell and shook my head. What the hell was up with those two?
The next day, I’d get to see my parents and have dinner with them and Avery like a real couple. Next, we’d have to go out with her dad, let both our families know we were officially back together. Nervousness bubbled in my stomach at the thought of sitting down with her dad and asking for his blessing. Wasn’t that how it was supposed to go? I’d never thought of doing that before. Maybe my parents would come with me. We could have a dinner somewhere nice, let them meet each other.
Slow down. We’d start with lunch. Once my parents knew things were serious with me and Avery, they’d stop trying to set me up. They hadn’t spent much time with her, but I knew they’d love her. Who wouldn’t?
* * *
AVERY
Our brunch was a welcome treat after my morning at B&B. Sore feet did not disappear after six hours on them, even if you owned the place—well, co-owned the place—but coming home to a spread of all my favorite foods fed to me by my favorite person had a way of soothing my aches.
“Do you want to go shopping?”
I raised an eyebrow.
“Not for anything big. Let’s start small. How about some throw pillows?”
I eyed him with suspicion. “Only pillows?”
He held up his hand and curled down his pinky and thumb. “Scouts honor.”
“You were never a scout.”
“I know.” He laughed and stole the fruit from my fingers with his mouth.
I sat on the edge of the table with Emmett’s hands on my hips. The cool glass under my ass had warmed during our feast, and not just because of the food.
The whipped cream and strawberries were everywhere except the bowl at that point. Crossing my eyes, I spotted some cream on my nose. I rubbed my hand across it and came away with lots. Taking his fork, he splatted me with even more.
“You’re making a mess.”
He grinned up at me. “You started it.”
My feet swung back and forth on the edge of the table, my knees on either side of him. His hands had full access to my body, and he’d used them liberally.
“I merely suggested that maybe we take this bowl with us into the bedroom. You’re the one who said we shouldn’t wait.” He tried to look the picture of innocence, but I saw the dirty smile under it all. He pulled me down onto his lap, his fingers sank into my stomach, and my unknown-until-now kung fu skills kicked in as I tried to get away from him.
“I give up! I give up!” I yelped, trying to hop off his lap and landing a solid blow to his chin.
“Going for the knockout?” He laughed and stopped his fingers of death.
Laughing so hard I had tears in my eyes, I pushed at his shoulders. It was a happiness so free and joyful even I couldn’t find any rain clouds hovering around it.
“You have to pay the toll if you want to get up.”
I stared into his eyes. He was gorgeous, better now than he’d been before. There were so many layers to him I hadn’t been able to see, but I could see him now, and I wanted more of him.
“I think that could be arranged.” I reached up and ran my hand along the side of his face. My future was crystalizing, becoming so clear I could hardly breathe, and it included him—every single piece of him. I’d tried to deny it before, but I couldn’t. I needed him.
And he needed me.
He closed his eyes and leaned into me. Dipping his head, he took my lips with his, parting them. We tasted each other—strawberries, cream, and a joy so keen and sharp it turned the moment into one we’d remember forever. At that exact second, I was no longer afraid of everything I could give to him and what he’d return.
His arms loosened so I tugged on them, making him redouble his grip.
“Oh, it looks like the toll just went up.”
“I’m happy to pay any price.” I grinned.
“So, are you officially a part owner of B&B?”
“No, not yet. They haven’t cashed my check yet because Franklin had to go out of town for a few days. I can’t wait to sign those papers. I hope I don’t pass out when I do it. It’s going to be crazy seeing my bank account with, like, no money in it.” The excitement vibrated off her.
“You know, I could—”
I clamped my hands down over his mouth. “Don’t even think about it. It’s my money to do with what I want. I’m going to be a partner. It’s my responsibility. Do you understand?”
He nodded, and I slowly let go of his mouth.
“But I know you’d pay me back. Think of it as an interest-free loan you won’t have to pay back.”
Letting out a frustrated sigh, I got up. “Let’s not talk about this now.” I grabbed a towel from the kitchen. The cream had left big streaks on the table.
“It’s not like I don’t know you’re good for it.” He wrapped his arms around my waist from behind.
“I know, but I don’t want something like that coming between us. Just let me do things my way, okay?” I glanced over my shoulder.
He grumbled into my back before letting me go and smacking my butt.
“Hey!” I rubbed the spot and stuck my tongue out at him.
“I’ve never known someone more stubborn. All I’m saying is let me give you enough to make the place over. You can do some amazing things with B&B with a proper setup.”
The front door opened and both our heads whipped around. I tugged at the hem of his button-down shirt. There was nowhere for me to hide unless I climbed into the freezer—probably not the best idea. At least all the most important parts were covered.
“Emmett?” The voice, like nails on a chalkboard, filled the apartment I’d started to think of as a place I could relax in with a toxic venom
.
“Mom? Dad? What are you doing here?” He glanced between them and me.
I stood frozen in place.
“You said you’d be home all day, so we thought we’d come to you before lunch.” His dad’s voice bounced off the tiled entryway, and my stomach did its best balloon animal impersonation.
This wasn’t how I wanted to see them for the first time. We weren’t supposed to see them until dinner. Emmett had sprung that on me and placated me with bacon and strawberries. Taking a deep breath, I told myself this would have come sooner or later, so I rounded the island corner and stood beside Emmett.
“And I see Avery is here.” His mom’s icy tone sent a shiver down my spine.
Emmett draped his hand over my shoulder, his smile wide and completely oblivious to the uncomfortable undertone in the room.
My stomach turned as their gazes shifted to me.
“What were you talking about? Something about doing amazing things?”
“Avery is buying a bakery.”
“Em…” I pressed my hand against his chest. Please stop talking, I silently pleaded.
He looked down at me with confusion in his eyes. “Well, part of a bakery. I told her it could be an even better place if she let me give her some money for renovations and other improvements.”
His words dropped into the room like lead weights. I couldn’t breathe. It was like everything moved in slow motion as his words registered on his parents’ faces.
“It seems she’s back for even more.” His mom crossed her arms over her chest, looking every bit like a woman clinging to her youth.
My chest constricted, and I looked to Emmett, wide-eyed. I’d wanted to tell him, but not now, not like this.
“What are you talking about?” His brow furrowed as he glanced between me and his parents.
Bile rose in my throat. A churning, being-tugged-into-the-depths dread had me around the ankle and pulled me farther into the blackness. My mouth opened, but no sound came out. How did I explain this? How did I make it all make sense with his parents standing there? I was exposed in more ways than one.
“We made an arrangement with Avery back in high school—a hefty sum in exchange for breaking up with you. Maybe we should have been clearer that this deal didn’t have an end date.”
There it was, like a rogue wave that comes out of nowhere and knocks you on your ass. For some reason I’d thought I’d have more time, thought I could figure out a way to explain it to him, or thought maybe his parents would want to protect his happiness. I’d been wrong, like I always was.
I was kicking for the surface, trying to break through the water burning my lungs, but it was no use.
Emmett’s gaze darted from me to his parents, his hand briefly tightening around my arm before loosening.
“What the hell are you talking about?” His nostrils flared as he glared at them and glanced down at me. My stricken expression must have registered, because his outrage turned to disbelief. The pleading in his eyes sent the first crack to my heart.
I was losing him.
30
Emmett
“You took money from them in exchange for breaking up with me?” My gaze bolted to hers. I was nearing my personal brink.
The look of horror on her face told me everything I needed to know.
“Emmett, please. It’s not like that.” She grabbed my hand, grasping, pulling, holding. The punches kept on coming. Someone threw a left hook right into my gut. My lungs struggled to function.
I wrenched myself away like her touch burned—not the kind that set me aflame with a pleasure so intense I could barely stand, but the kind that threatened to leave me a charred pile of ash.
Tears filled her eyes, tears of guilt…the same guilt I’d seen in her gaze before and had tried to reason away. I’d been blind to it this whole time, not wanting to see the reality of the situation. I’d wanted to have her back so badly I’d pushed everything else aside.
“What is it like, Avery?” The acrid bitterness seeped out of my words.
“You don’t understand. I needed it.” Her lips snapped shut.
“Tell me the truth.” I was ready to dismantle this place brick by brick.
“I…my dad…” Her words died again, like she was incapable of just telling me the truth—the whole truth.
“You tell me I don’t know who you are, who you really are, but how can I if you won’t tell me? So many times you’ve told me there was nothing else to tell me. Nothing important that couldn’t wait, but there was always more.” The bottled-up rage within me threatened to explode. “You want me to believe this is real, want me to believe you ever loved me, but you keep fucking lying.”
“I’ve always loved you. I never lied about my feelings for you—never.” There was a fiery conviction in her voice.
I wanted to clamp my hands over my head and bury it in the sand, but that was what had gotten me into this mess in the first place.
“Even when I pushed you away, every second we’ve been apart, I’ve thought about you.” Her voice was winded and choppy like she was having trouble catching her breath.
Welcome to the club.
“Or about what you could get from me.” She was just another opportunist. I squeezed my eyes shut. Never her—I’d never wanted to think that about her.
“Never! Never, Em.” Her voice cracked as tears crested down her cheeks.
I tried to steel myself against them. I’d promised myself she wouldn’t cry tears of sadness again, but that was before the knife had gone straight to my heart.
“My dad is an addict, a junkie. I needed the money to get him into rehab, to get him clean so he didn’t OD again and he could keep his job, keep Alyson in school.”
I almost laughed from surprise. “What?” I knew her dad wasn’t the most reliable, but she’d never even mentioned that he drank, let alone used drugs.
She wiped her nose with the back of her hand. “He was spiraling, not showing up at home, forgetting to get Alyson when I couldn’t… Fischer’s locker—that’s what he stole: drugs. I couldn’t let him keep going and get hurt—” Squeezing her eyes shut, she wrapped her arms around her waist. “Or end up dead. That was what happened with me and Fischer. He wanted me to get down on my knees and beg him not to call the cops.”
“What happened with him? Tell me everything.”
“Emmett, maybe it would be best, if—” Harold came out of fucking nowhere, stepping beside my parents.
“What did you do?” I shouted, cutting off his attempt to interrupt. Their machinations had been fucking up my life since I’d taken my first breath. I clenched my fists at my sides, a blanket of red slowly descending on the scene. I couldn’t trust anyone. Everyone was using me, manipulating me, hiding things from me for their own ends.
“Emmett—” My mom tried to put on her tv sitcom mother voice.
“Tell me now!” I jabbed my finger toward the ground.
“That’s not the way we raised you to speak to us.” My dad’s words came out like he was talking to a toddler having a tantrum.
“You’re right, you didn’t fucking raise me at all,” I ground out. This assault was hitting me from all sides. “Get out!” I roared so loudly my throat screamed for relief.
They both backed away and the door closed behind them. Silence punctuated by the sharp erratic breathing behind me was all there was. I whipped around to face Avery.
She pleaded with me with her red-ringed eyes.
“What happened with Fischer? I want all of it. Tell me all of it.”
Bending at the waist, she wrapped her arms around her tighter and sucked in some air. It got caught in her throat. “It was drugs. That was what happened with my dad and Fischer’s locker. He…my dad found Fischer’s stash and stole it. I went to Fischer to ask him not to tell anyone. He could have made up anything, saying my dad stole money or something so he wouldn’t get in trouble and my dad would get thrown in jail.” She squeezed her eyes shut. “I went to confron
t him at the party.” Her breathing was erratic. Bottom lip wobbling, she rocked back and forth like she was on the edge of a breakdown—and, well, so was I.
So many lies. So many things hidden from me. From my parents, I’d expected nothing less, but from her? After everything we’d said to each other, the promises and plans we’d made… That dull ache was raw and ragged now.
“What happened?”
“He wanted me to beg, all right?” Her eyes shot open, the burning anger lighting the room on fire. “He told me if I wanted to make sure he didn’t make up some shit about valuables being stolen out of his locker, I had to get down on my knees and beg him.”
My stomach turned. Swallowing past the boulder in my throat, I pushed on. “So you did.”
“Yes, I got down on my knees like he fucking asked, and he wanted me to crawl closer, so I did. He grabbed my hair…that’s when you walked in. What choice did I have? What was I supposed to do?”
“Tell me!” I roared. “You should have told me what the hell was going on so I could help, so I could fix it.”
“How were you going to fix it? You didn’t even understand why I was so protective of Alyson. ‘You’re not her mom’ was what you always said to me. How was I supposed to tell you everything else going on? That I’ve been keeping my family afloat since I was thirteen? That my dad was never the same after the accident and I’ve been the one trying to hold it together? That I was scared every day until she was eighteen that my dad would fall off the deep end and someone would take Alyson away? I got down on my fucking knees and begged Fischer to protect my family.” Sadness warred with anger in her eyes.
That yawning cavern sucked me in. I was clinging to the edge by my fingertips. “I thought I was part of your family.”
Her eyes got wide. “You were—you are.”
“How can I be when you don’t trust me with things like this? When you’re taking on things that affect both our lives and shutting me out?”
“I didn’t want to be that girl with you, okay? I didn’t want to be Avery, the daughter of a junkie and surrogate mother to her little sister. I liked who I was with you. That’s the real me as much as any other part of me, but it was an Avery without everything else heaped on top of her.” She stepped forward, raising her hands to my face.