Maybe it was time to seriously start considering him. As cliché as it sounded, he wasn't the same guy who had left six months ago. He was more open and supportive. He seemed to actually give a damn if she was doing alright or not. A complete one-eighty to how things used to be. He had said he was interested. He had said he would be there. Essentially, waiting. Until she gave him a second chance. Until she realized he was a better man.
And they had history. It would be easy. Easy to fall right back into his arms. He knew all her weird little quirks. She knew which buttons not to push. Or which ones to push for fun. They could be good for one another. Would it be wild about each other, cant eat without you, cant sleep without you love? No. No it wouldn't. But that love probably didn't exist. And even if it did exist, she was not the kind of girl who got to have that.
So what would be wrong with their kind of relationship. She remembered hearing once that love was friendship set on fire. Well, they had the friendship. And when they had sex, there was definitely fire. Who could really expect more than that?
But, the thoughts she kept coming back to weren't about the inn. Or Dane.
They were about James.
When Aiden had left and she said she would call someone, the face that popped into her mind was James. Which was so stupid. Because he couldn't care less if she was even alive. Let alone hurt. But regardless of the rational side to things, she wanted him there. She wanted him to hold her hand while she got stitched up. She wanted him to pack her into that stupid car of his and drive her back to the inn. She wanted him to snuggle into bed with her for days until she felt better. Then, when she was, she wanted him to fuck her into next year. Literally. She wanted to stay in bed from Christmas to New Years.
When she wasn't thinking about wanting him, she was replaying all the events of their little fling. The foot-in-mouth meeting. The first kiss in the apple orchard, the sheer perfection of that moment. Then the making out in the haunted corn maze. Then the lodge. Oh, the lodge. She replayed those scenes over and over. And then, lastly, the image of them in Hannah's kitchen.
As Shay snipped her thread and moved to toss the used goods, Emily had an acute sense of sadness. Not akin to the funk she had been in. This felt different. Final. Like it was something she would always have to feel. Like it could never be overcome. It would always be there, like her own personal gray cloud.
She had a one that got away.
“So you need to keep those clean, but don't use anything harsh on them. No alcohol or peroxide. They will eat away at the healing skin. Just a mild soap. Maybe a salt water rinse the first day or two. But very diluted. Don't be surprised if you feel a little nausea or light headedness. That is natural.” Shay shrugged a shoulder. “I'm sorry I cant give you anything for the pain. You can call the dentist when you leave here. He might make an exception for this kind of situation. Or have someone take you to the hospital when you feel up to it.”
“Okay,” she said, forcing a smile. “Thanks, Shay. I really appreciate this.”
“Hey, it's nice to have a patient who doesn't bite me every now and again.”
“You took care of Mr. Green yesterday,” Emily reasoned.
“Your point?” she said with a smirk. “So who can I call to come get you?”
“No one,” at Shay's objection, she held up a hand. “It's not that far. It's a ten minute walk from here.”
“A ten minute walk with two head wounds and a possible concussion,” Shay clarified.
“Exactly. No big deal.”
Shay rolled her eyes, taking off her gloves. “Emily, please be reasonable.”
“Look, I will call you when I get to the inn, okay? Then you'll know I'm alright. Besides,” she said, jumping off the table. “this is Stars Landing. If I pass out on the side of the road, someone is going to see. And then tell everyone... and their mama.”
“Alright,” Shay conceded. “I am gonna drop by to check on your stitches in a few days.”
“You're the best Shay,” she said, walking toward the door.
The staff at the front desk and the people in the waiting room perked up when they saw her, taking in her odd outfit with mild distaste until they saw the blood on her sweatshirt and the damage to her face. She could read the sympathy there, but their respect for her privacy kept them from asking. She could tell that by the time she got to the sidewalk, they would all be on their phones. Texting and calling. Because someone somewhere was sure to know the story.
Tomorrow there would be baked goods everywhere. Normally, it would be casseroles and soups. But they knew Emily and her sweet tooth. There would be every sort of dessert you could imagine at the inn tomorrow. People would linger, hoping to catch sight of her so they could tell her that if she needed anything, anything at all, that all she had to do was give them a call. It would then segway into the whole awful ordeal. Shocked faces. Accusatory whispers.
She planned on spending the entire day in bed, out of sight. Meggie was just going to have to deliver all the food to her.
Judging by the blinding migraine she was nursing, she was going to be in no mood for the townspeople's good intention jabbering.
She pulled her sleeves down to cover her hands as she walked into the center of Main Street.
“Jesus, sweetheart,” Eric's voice hissed when he saw her. “what the fuck?”
Emily winced at his loudness and shrugged. “Do me a favor and ask Dane. I don't feel like talking about it,” she said and walked faster, her head ducked down.
The pain seemed to be spreading, through her brain, into her jaw, down her neck, and into her spine. She just wanted to fall into bed. She wanted to curl up and take four aspirin. She wanted privacy to sink into her misery all by herself.
She had just stepped onto the front lawn of the inn when she couldn't take it anymore, the pain was everywhere all at once, too intense to allow her to keep moving. She fell to her knees in the cold snow and waited.
It wasn't long before Devon and Alec ran out, each taking one of her arms over their shoulders and half-carrying, half-dragging her through the inn and into her room. They placed her down on her bed, forced pain medicine and water in her mouth and left to allow Meggie in to help her change her clothes. Whatever they had given her (and she had been in too much pain to care to ask), knocked her quickly into sleep. Each time she woke, there were two more little round white pills that looked like aspirin, but weren't aspirin for her on her bedside table. She took them, and dozed back out. On and off for a day and a half.
Until the smell of brownies dragged her groggily out of bed.
Twenty-Five
She stared at herself in the mirror for a long time. Her black eye was impressive, all deep purple and blues with a slight smattering of yellow at the edges. She showered slowly and redressed in gray leggings and a black long-sleeved t-shirt that came half-way down her thighs, pulled her hair into a loose braid, and went in search of her treats.
Devon was at the check-in, the desk piled with two cakes and a stack of chocolate chip cookies. She reached for one of the cookies and started eating, finding her stomach gnawing with hunger.
“Hey there sleeping beauty,” Dev said, his voice low.
“Speaking of,” she said over a mouthful. “where the hell did those little miracle pills come from?”
Dev smiled slyly. “My mother has half a dozen bottles lying around from all her plastic surgery. I figured you needed them a lot more than she did.”
“Thank you,” she said, never really meaning it more than she did right then. There was a dull ache in her head still, but one she attributed to lack of food and caffeine withdrawal. It was nothing compared to the pain she had been in before those pills. “So has it been a complete zoo here?”
“You have no idea,” Dev said, shaking his head. “You have a huge pile of food and presents in the kitchen. Everyone showed up after they saw Aiden hauling Molly in. He and Dane personally drove her all the way to Monroe
to get locked up. Then slowly, but surely people started to get bits and pieces and then trickle in. By dinnertime, you couldn't walk in here.”
“You poor things.”
“How's your head?”
“Better. A little sore, but better.”
“Good. You should get some food and coffee in you because in about...” he looked at the clock. “an hour... Hannah is going to be barging in here demanding some answers. And asking why you didn't call her to tell her you were okay.”
“What? Why? How would she find out?”
“She's in town. Seeing her mom and dad for Christmas.” He looked at her, seeing the confusion. “It's in three days, Em,” he told her.
Emily groaned. She wasn't ready for that. She didn't feel at all ready to spend hours wrapping the presents she had, at least, had the good sense to order online a few weeks before.
“We have everything all planned out,” Dev told her. “It's gonna me you, me, Meggie, Alec, and Dane. One big, happy family Christmas. We'll eat tons of Meggie's dinner, stuff our faces with desserts, drink eggnog, and watch endless hours of A Christmas Story.”
She smiled at him. “That sounds like a great plan.”
“Yeah, all of us orphans gotta stick together.”
“Literally none of us are orphans,” she snorted.
“True, but our family isn't our family, you know? We're our family.”
Emily smiled to herself, walking behind the desk and wrapping her arms around Dev's waist. He stood there still for a long moment before his arms went around her, squeezing tightly. “I like the near-death experience Emily. She's nicer than our normal Emily,” he said, chuckling. “Now go get that belly full before your dearest friend shows up to make you wish you could crawl back into the codeine coma.”
In the kitchen, Meggie was making a thick strew that made Emily's belly growl angrily. “Oh, Em,” she gushed as soon as the door swung open. “Thank god. I was telling Dev this morning that we needed to ease up on those pain pills. You have barely been able to get up and go to the bathroom. You haven't eaten anything...”
“Don't worry, Megs,” she said, going over to the coffee machine. “I am done with those. I have a lot to catch up on around here. I think I should probably be conscious to do that.”
“It would help avoid the lawsuits,” Meggie agreed.
“So are you alright? I mean aside from just your like concussion and cuts and stuff... are you okay?”
“Yeah,” Emily said, nodding. It wasn't a lie. She was going to be alright. As soon as she could throw herself back into work. She reached into one of the gift bags on the counter, pulling out a bright purple robe made of the softest, fluffiest material she had ever felt in her life. “Oh my god, I want to live in this,” she groaned, slipping her arms in.
“Yeah,” Meggie said, her brows drawing together. “That's from Maude. She said to tell you she's sorry. That some times bad things happen so love can conquer or something like that. I don't know. It was cryptic. I think she's losing her touch.”
“Did you seriously think it would be okay to not call me and tell me you had your head bashed in by some lunatic employee?” an angry Hannah called from the door.
Looked like Dev was a little off with his time line. She had that new mother look. That ethereal beauty mixed with soul-sucking exhaustion. Her long hair was pulled back and braided to one side, her face pale and her eyes puffy from lack of sleep.
“Look,” Emily said, sending Hannah a smile. “Dev had me all drugged up for like eighteen hours. I couldn't call anyone.”
“Well,” Hannah said, struggling for something she could grasp hold of to give her indignation validity. Finding nothing, she dropped her arms at her sides. “fine. But the next time you end up at the vet, getting stitches and being interrogated by the cops, I want a phone call. Right from the exam table. It takes friggen forever to drive here.”
“How's Isaac?” Emily asked, reaching for the pile of brownies that had pulled her out of bed in the first place. She knew without asking that they were Lena's.
“He's a little shit,” Hannah said, making Emily choke on her food. “I'm joking. Partly. I love him. He's just.. got these lungs on him. And, oh... and... he doesn't cry at all when his father is holding him. It's like some bro code or something.”
Emily nodded. “It starts early,” she agreed.
They visited for a while until the threat of needing to either nurse or pump had Hannah rushing out the door, full of promises to get together before she headed back to her life.
After the word got out that Emily was lucid again, it was an endless parade of well wishers. To the point that Devon had them all start to line up to talk to her. She was hugged and kissed. She was offered a dozen different remedies for scars (because apparently there was no doubt about it- she was going to scar). There were invites to Christmas dinner, all of which she declined.
But it was her last visitor that had her eyes widening.
Elliott Michaels came to see her.
“Hey, Elliott,” she said, sending him an odd smile.
“Emily,” he said, nodding. “you look like hell.”
“Thank you!” she exploded, holding up her hands in the air by her chest for a second. “All I have been told all day is how great I look. And about how if I apply vitamin e to this mess,” she said, waving at the side of her face. “I will be as good as new. I know I look awful. It is good to hear someone else say it.”
“Anytime you need an insult,” Elliott said, smirking. “you just let me know.”
Emily laughed. She was really starting to like him. “So what can I do for you?”
“Nothing,” he said, stepping closer. “I just wanted to check on you. Also, I should probably remind you that your health benefits kicked in from EM Corp. So any doctors bills should be sent to us.”
“Vet,” she responded, holding back a smile.
“Excuse me?” Elliott asked, looking genuinely perplexed.
“Vet bills. We don't have a doctor in town. I was taken to the vet.”
Elliott looked like he was dangerously close to laughing. “Can I say it?” he asked.
She knew what was coming, and found herself smiling. “Go ahead.”
“Did you have to go to the vet because you're such a bitch?”
They both laughed, a short but thoroughly amused laugh. “I like this Elliott Michaels,” she told him. “not so stiff and intimidating all the time.”
Elliott shrugged. “I'm afraid James got all of the good humor and laid back genes.”
She knew she flinched at the mention of his name. She had known it was bound to come up eventually, though Hannah had expertly sidestepped the subject while they visited. She knew he was going to be mentioned eventually. She thought she had her unaffected face down pat. Until she heard his name. She felt herself cringing from it. Like the can or worms it really was.
Elliott let out a short, humorless chuckle. “Yeah, you know he gets the same look when I say your name.”
“I don't know what you're talking about,” Emily insisted, standing up straighter. Did he really? He flinched? Wasn't that a good thing? Didn't that mean there was still some residual feeling left there? Even if it wasn't necessarily a good feeling... something was better than nothing.
Elliott pursed his lips for a second, nodding his head. “You know the strangest thing happened the day after James left here,” he said.
“Oh?” Emily asked, hating herself a little for wanting to know.
“Yeah, he came to work,” Elliott said, chuckling. “With no flair. No prancing around my floor flirting with all the secretaries. No announcements over the sound system saying Mr. Michaels is in the building.”
“That sounds like him,” she murmured.
“Yeah that's the thing. This new James in my office getting work done, wearing suits, and not making nightmares for HR with his flirting... this James isn't my brother. So I was curious about
what might have happened here,” she opened her mouth to deny something, but he cut her off. “between you and him I mean.”
“Elliottt...”
“Don't worry... I'm not going to send you to HR with a copy of the interoffice fraternization clause of your contract. I really don't care who screws who so long as things don't get ugly at work.”
“Nothing much happened,” she said and it was true enough. And she certainly was not going to be telling him that she had wild sex with his brother... in his kitchen.
“Nothing much, yet he's a ghost of his former self?” Elliott nodded, like everything made sense. She wanted so badly to understand what he understood. But she'd be damned if she would be weak enough to ask him. “I thought so,” he said, watching her. “You know you don't get very far in business if you don't learn how to read people.”
Emily raised her brows at him. “Are you reading me?”
“Yeah,” he said, nodding.
“And?”
“And it's just like I suspected. You're in love with my brother.
“No... I'm...”
“Maybe just as much as he is in love with you,” he said, cutting her off.
Emily felt like she'd been punched in the stomach, or like she had fallen off a swing onto her belly. Like all the air had been knocked out of her. Was that possible? Was it possible he had feelings for her? Not love, obviously. That was pushing it. But maybe he wasn't as indifferent to her as she was worried he was getting.
“Elliott I don't think...”
“Look I get it,” he said, then dipped his head lower to look her in the eye. “I get it. You and I aren't that different. We're very self-sustaining. We take care of ourselves. We don't need anyone. We keep romance out of sex. We think love is some abstract notion that people like us don't experience.” He paused and there was a smile toying on his lips. A smile that Hannah had put there. “But then someone comes along and turns all that on its head. All of a sudden your usually very selfish brain cant stop thinking about them. And when they aren't around, we feel that absence. Our lives, very quickly, stop being about ourselves. Trust me, I know how terrifying that is.”
What The Heart Knows Page 20