“You could come to a meet-up with me and see what it’s like to have dozens of people fantasizing about you at the same time. It does wonders for the ego.”
“I think I’m okay with the bread,” Audrey replied.
“Whatever makes you happy, love,” Jamie said. “I just want you to know there’s someone out there who wants to butter that bread of yours.”
“You really are a good friend,” Audrey breathed.
“It’s one of my many gifts,” Jamie said.
Ryan cleared his throat. “Anything else you need?” he asked me.
“I’m sure there’s more,” I said, though I could hear the slur in my words now. Did I really drink that much? I didn’t think so. Those glasses weren’t especially big. There’d been some refills but—and what time was it? “We have really important things to talk about, you know.”
“I know it, baby, but it’s late and I want you to get some rest.”
I bobbed my head. “If you say so.”
“You’re following directions now?” I felt his lips on my forehead. “That’s new.”
“Just like my shoes,” I drawled. “And everything else because my house is a watery grave.”
He pulled me to my feet and steered me toward the door as I called out my good-byes. When we reached the front steps, he said, “I love these shoes, Em, but you’re gonna roll an ankle if Ilet you take another step. I’m going to carry you to the car. Hold on.”
I tried to summon an argument for this but my eyelids refused to stay open and my mouth was like limey cotton. I felt him scoop me up, and then a blink later I heard the seat belt click around me. Another blink and the highway was flying past my window.
I turned my heavy head and stared at him. Myhusband. His jaw was like granite again. “Are we exclusive?”
He looked over, his brows pinched together and his forehead creased. His scowl was a harsh, irritable line dug into his face. “We’re fuckingmarried, Emmeline. Yeah, we’re exclusive.”
“Okay. Were we exclusive before that? Before last night?”
“We’ve been exclusive since the night I asked you to marry me.” He shook his head. “Why would you even ask me something like that?”
I sank deeper into the seat and tucked my arms close to my chest. My eyes drifted shut again and I couldn’t fight it off. “Because I learned two things today and one of them is that people will cheat unless you tell them not to.”
chapter twenty-three
Ryan
Today’s Learning Objective:
Students will reevaluate information once considered fact.
Emme dozed mostof the drive home which gave me plenty of time to tear apart everything I knew about the woman I’d spent fifteen years telling myself never wanted me as more than a friend.
I always hoped he’d slip up so I could make him admit he’d noticed me like that.
I glanced over as a snore trilled out of her. “I noticed. I always noticed.”
All this time. All those years I’d told myself to push it down and shove it aside so I could be a true, decent friend to her and not some entitled dude waiting for any sign of an opening. All those years and she’d been waiting too?
I almost couldn’t believe it.
If she’d said this two weeks ago, Iwouldn’thave believed it. Would’ve shrugged it off as the silly ramblings of a woman who liked to forget she couldn’t hold her liquor.
But after what happened on the plane last weekend, after everything last night—I saw those moments in a bright new light.
Maybe this plan—thismarriage—wasn’t going to end in the ruin I’d imagined after all. There was a chance we could figure this out. Together.
