Emmett made a face, but only because she wasn’t in the room. They were talking on the phone because he was at home, bored, and knew she didn’t have an appointment for another forty-five minutes, thanks to their shared calendar on his phone. “No, you know I haven’t. It’s only been two days.”
“Another way of saying that is it’s already been two days,” she shot back.
“Spoken like a true lesbian. You all only have one speed, don’t you?” He grinned up at the ceiling of his bedroom from where he was lying on his bed as she grumbled under her breath about what a brat he was. She didn’t mean it. She never did.
“I take back what I said about you becoming friends with CJ and Ollie,” she said, out of nowhere.
He sat up, his humor evaporating. “Why? Did they say something to you?”
“Oh no, babes. Shit, I’m sorry. No, I meant that you were getting as sassy as Ollie already. They both really liked hanging out with you on Sunday.”
She sounded really certain, and she didn’t lie, not to him. “I liked it too. It was a lot more fun than I thought it would be.”
“Of course it was—you went to a cookie-decorating party and got picked up by a hot daddy. Who even does that?”
He smiled again as he lay back down, the glow-in-the-dark stars on his ceiling still dormant in the low evening light. “I didn’t getpicked up. He just… flirted a little.”
Gosh, the fact that Grayson Bloom was not only a member of Roni’s motorcycle club and a daddy to boot was so crazy to him, but that he’d also smiled and flirted with Emmett…
If teenage him could see him now.
He’d had a crush on his brother’s best friend for as long as he could remember, but it was always just that. A crush. Gray had never looked at him twice, he and Erik being over ten years older than him. He knew that they’d drifted apart some when his brother had gone to a college a few states away on a football scholarship. Even after Erik moved back, they’d never been as close, and Gray’s visits to Emmett’s parents’ house grew less and less frequent.
Then, a few years ago, he’d heard that Gray had become an EMT and moved to Ridgewood. Had Emmett been hoping he’drun into the man when he took the job at Sunny Pines Assisted Living after deciding college wasn’t for him? He’d never tell.
But he never saw Gray, spending most of his time still in his hometown and living with his parents. Getting the chance to move in with Roni and put a little space between him and his family had been a godsend, honestly, even if he had given up on the idea of bumping into Gray and striking up a friendship.
The hour between him and his parents and siblings in Knotting Pine was like an ocean with how often he was invited home for meals or other get-togethers. He was pretty sure his parents forgot he was so close most of the time… if they thought about him at all.
Once he’d gotten settled at Roni’s, he’d let his long-held crush fall to the side and decided to focus on maybe finding himself a daddy. Someone who would love him and take care of him and do all the fun things daddies did with their little boys.
But he’d never been able to forget Gray’s smiling eyes and long, thick hair.
And now he was back, and it was like Emmett was sixteen again, doing his best not to stare at his brother’s friend when he joined them for dinner before he and Erik went out to meet friends.
“I don’t know,” Roni said, voice full of teasing. “You two looked pretty cozy when I joined you at the decorating table.”
Emmett squirmed in place, his belly heating at the memory of the way she had found them. He’d been leaning into Gray’s side, showing him a video on his phone, and Gray had put an arm around his back while he nodded and listened to Emmett’s explanation of what royal icing was.
“Yeah,” he said softly. “That was really nice.”
“So you’re going to text him?”
He sighed, some of the soft, happy feelings swirling through him beginning to dissipate. “What if he’s a daddy like Six is a daddy, and he doesn’t like… you know, what I do?”
She didn’t say anything for a moment, and he heard a noise in the background, followed by someone calling her name. “Shit. I’ve got to go. But Emmett?”
“Yeah?”
“Maybe give Rooster the benefit of the doubt, okay? Don’t write him off before you even give him a chance.”
He sat up slowly, eyes narrowed. “Roni… do you know something I don’t?”
“Tons of things, I’m sure,” she said, then laughed and hung up on him.
Emmett sighed and dropped his phone onto the bed next to him. He glanced at Snowball where he sat at the head of Emmett’s bed, the dragon’s green eyes and purple fur making him smile. “Maybe she’s right, Snow. Why assume the worst?”
Besides, it was going to be Christmas soon—maybe he’d get a miracle.
