Her eyes flick up, sharp and a little sad. “Makes,” she echoes flatly.
“What?” I snap, even though I already know what she’s getting at.
“Makes.” Talia’s brow arches. “You saidmakes—present tense. Notmade, like you’re reminiscing. What am I missing here?”
I push my lips together and fold my arms across my chest.
“Emma,” she says firmly, dropping into that no-nonsense older-sister tone.
“We’ve just been talking a lot,” I say, hating how small my voice sounds. I feel like a teenager caught sneaking out past curfew.
“A lot,” she repeats, still in that dead tone.
I nod, curling inward for a second before I force myself to stand straighter. I’m not a kid anymore. I’m a grown woman, and I can make my own damn choices.
“We still care about each other. We’re still attracted to each other. We owe it to ourselves to see if there’s still something there. I owe it to him, because I just left, Tal. I left with no explanation, and he has a son who deserves a father.”
“Is that where this is going?” she asks. “You tell him he’s got a kid?”
“Maybe.”
She makes a noise that I can’t decipher. “Whatever, Emma. It’s your life.”
“It is,” I say, as confidently as I can muster. “And I may not be home tonight, so don’t wait up.”
I stomp off to my room to get ready, feeling like a petulant kid, but also like a grown woman who’s tired of being treated like one.
I’m not really mad at Talia.
Notreally.
She’s always been protective of me. Always there when everything fell apart. She’s my best friend… and, honestly, Laddie’s co-parent more than she ever signed up to be.
She’s supported me through everything, so it stings that she isn’t supporting me now.
Liam is Laddie’s father. They deserve to know each other, don’t they? We all deserve to have a life together, if that’s where this leads, right?
Still stewing, I hop in the shower and try to rinse off the tension. By the time I’m getting dressed, my nerves are buzzing.
Liam suggested dinner at a small, unassuming Italian restaurant that’s closer to his place. I don’t get the impression from the reviews that it’s fancy, but I still want to look nice and date-worthy.
I chose a dark green maxi dress with a plunging neckline that accentuates my cleavage, paired with wedge heels and a denim jacket. I pile my crazy curls on top of my head with a cute clip, then add a pair of gold hoop earrings.
I stare at my reflection in the mirror, and I look… casually sexy. Put together, but not trying too hard.
I try to calm the flutter in my stomach. I don’t even know why I’m so nervous. Maybe it’s Talia’s warning echoing in my head. Perhaps it’s the phone sex—how intimate things have gotten so fast.
Or perhaps it’s the bigger fear, the one I won’t say out loud: that I’m about to make the same mistake twice.
Because this time, Liam and I can’t just fall back into bed. We need totalk.
Serious talk. About what happened. About what comes next.
Because physical attraction is one thing.
Forgiving the past and facing the truth are crucial steps.
16
