She dropped her fork onto the table and glared at me before she laughed.
“Yes,” she said, an easy smile spreading her mouth as she tilted her head. “I missed you. A little.”
For the first time tonight, the silence between us was comfortable and familiar as a deep relief washed over me.
“So now that that’s sort of straightened out, tell me about yourself.” I poured cream into my coffee. “What have you been doing since high school, other than becoming an editor successful enough that Sharon wants to have lunch with you?”
“Right?” Emily chuckled. “That’s a big claim to fame, you know.”
“For sure,” I said, lost in her pretty gaze for a long minute before I tore my eyes away. I wanted to be friendly tonight, not flirty. I couldn’t afford flirty, even if her beauty still distracted the shit out of me.
“I’ve been good. I lived in Manhattan for a long time when I worked for the publishing house, but then I went out on my own and did most of my work at home. I moved back when I couldn’t justify the rent for the sake of a commute I didn’t make anymore. Plus, I wanted to be closer to my mother.”
“Is she okay?”
“She is. Slowed down with age, which is kind of hard to see, but she’s holding her own. She found an apartment in an over-fifty community not too far from St. Kate’s. It’s just her and me, so I wanted to be closer and be able to visit more. But she’s still exactlythe same as you remember her.”
“I am very glad to hear it.”
“You are?” She laughed as she poured sugar into her coffee. “After all the shit she used to give you?”
“I liked that about her. She made me work for it, and I appreciated that. She knew that her daughter was special—and nevereverlet me forget it.”
Another easy laugh slipped out of her. I hadn’t needed any reminders to know how special Emily was, then or now.
“She probably really would have killed you had I given up my scholarship,” Emily said around a mouthful of cake.
“And don’t I know it,” I said, the relief filtering through my veins relaxing me enough for an easy smile to coast across my mouth. The regret still clung to me like a shadow, but for additional reasons now.
Emily was halfway through her cake, and I’d hardly touched mine. After years of wondering about Emily, I wanted to takein every detail. The auburn highlights in her chestnut hair, her long lashes, her eyes that were even more beautiful when they crinkled at the corners.
She’d saidInotwewhen she’d mentioned moving, and she’d said she was single when Caden pressed earlier tonight. But I couldn’t help trying to clarify.
“And no boyfriend for a while, or husband or whatever?”
“Smooth, Jesse,” she said, wiping her mouth with a napkin. “And no, none of those for a while. I might get a cat, though. Embrace that over-thirty single life.”
I wanted to know everything about her now, and I didn’t want to stop at just tonight. And if things turned out differently, maybe I wouldn’t have to. Feelings long buried had bubbled up, thanks to the memories that had bombarded me the second my eyes had landed on Emily again.
Memories screwed with you. They made you think that the past still lingered in the present.
I had enough to worry about in the present.
Her gaze landed on my phone, focusing on Maddie’s picture on the screen. I had a feeling Emily had heard enough of my conversation before we’d left the reunion to assume whom I may have been speaking to. But she’d be wrong, and I didn’t have the energy to correct her and explain.
Tonight had been filled with enough emotions and old heartbreak. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to tell her. In fact, in a weak moment during the worst of it all, I’d almost called her. She knew more than anyone how much Tessa had meant to me and would have understood how broken I’d been after losing her.
But after hurting Emily the way I had, no matter why I’d done it, I hadn’t deserved her comfort then and felt wrong about seeking it now.
I’d done what I’d come here to do, and it was amazing to have Emily with me tonight for a little while, even though I still couldn’t keep her.
“This was nice,”Emily said as I pulled up in front of her house. “I’m glad you ambushed me on the way out.”
“I wouldn’t say ambush. That’s a strong word. I more took advantage of an opportunity.” I turned to her after I parked and unlocked the doors.
“You don’t have to walk me to my door. I’m fine.”
“Yes, I do. What kind of guy just drops a girl off to walk inside alone?”
