She nodded and looked up, opening her mouth and then thinking better of it.
“What?” Tyler asked, his heart still hammering in his chest.
“Do you . . . I mean, are you okay with this?”
“Okay with what?”
Emma motioned to the house. “With me working for your dad, being at your place of business, if he decides to hire us.”
Tyler inhaled and nodded for them to walk back to the front of the house. “It’s a good job. You’d be perfect for it.”
The corner of her mouth lifted before she pulled it back down. “But—”
“Don’t overthink it. You’re still recovering from a traumatic experience.”
She flashed him a look, and he had to touch her. His hand moved before he gave it permission, and he quickly pulled it high and ran his knuckles over the toque on her head.
Emma ducked away from him. “Okay, I know my hair isn’t much, but it looks half decent when it isn’t matted.”
Tyler laughed and rounded the vehicle, slipping back behind the wheel. Emma tore off the toque and looked in the mirror to straighten her part.
Tyler hesitated before starting the engine, his fingers resting on the ignition as he glanced down at his phone.
“What is it?” Emma’s voice in the dead air of the cab sent shivers down his spine.
He swallowed hard and stared at the text from Brett.
Bud, heading to Cowboys if you want to join
His blood raced, everything inside him feeling like pop rocks fizzing against his tongue. He needed to do something to blow off steam.
“Tyler, is—”
“Do you want to go home or—?”
Emma watched him, and he could see the wheels turning in her head. “Or what?”
“Some of the guys from the team are heading to Cowboys. You want to go?”
She glanced down at her outfit. A button-up that cut low enough, he’d glanced at the swell of her breasts at least three times tonight. Dark jeans that hugged her hips and tucked into the space between her butt and her thighs. He’d noticed that, too.
“You look fine.”
Emma glanced up with a look that said,fine?
Tyler started the truck. “I can drop you off at home if—”
“I’ll come. Sounds fun.”
ChapterTwelve
Emma twistedher hands in her lap, questioning her decision to go out with Tyler and the other Snowballs. For sure, Country and Brett would be there, probably André and Darcy. The only reason she’d said yes was that Kelty had mentioned on the family chat that she and Sean had tickets to see Josh Groban at the Saddledome tonight, so there was no risk of an awkward encounter there.
But why was she going?She had to head to the studio in the morning, not crazy early, but it was already close to ten o’clock. It was the look in Tyler’s eyes when he’d asked if she wanted to go home. Something had shifted in him tonight, and she couldn’t figure it out. It was like an itch in the centre of her back that she stretched for but couldn’t quite reach.
Tyler turned onto Crowchild, and Emma felt like she’d dropped down a playground slide.You look fine.She’d seen him glancing over at the V in her shirt during dinner and that dark flicker in his eyes when he said it.
It was straight poison. And Emma wanted to bottle every last drop and drink it in.
