“Really, Em?” Trent looked at her, eyes full of hurt. “We were engaged for five months, and you introduce me as Cameron’s friend?”
Engaged?A hoof to the diaphragm couldn’t have knocked the wind out of Jake any more effectively than Trent’s words did. With everything she’d shared with him about herself, he thought he knew Emily. He knew there was a man in her past, but he didn’t know she’d been engaged. What other things had she neglected to tell him?
“Emily, can I talk to you? Alone?” Trent asked, shooting Jake another glance.
“I’m sorry Trent, I can’t.” Emily leaned into Jake.
Trent bent and whispered in Emily’s ear, but Jake caught the words. “I want you to know I’m getting help. I’m working on my... problem.”
“I’m glad. I’m sorry I couldn’t be the one to help you,” Emily said.
Trent’s eyebrows raised as he looked at Jake again. “So, you got to be the lucky guy to comfort her this time, huh? I hope you didn’t let those beautiful green eyes suck you in.”
“Trent!” Emily gasped, and a tremble shook her body.
Fighting the urge to punch Trent’s smug face, Jake put a comforting arm around Emily. “I was fortunate to be there for her during this difficult time,” Jake said, not liking Trent’s tone or his insinuation.
Emily’s green eyes certainly had sucked him in. Her eyes, her silky hair, her strawberry-flavored lips. They had all sucked him in. But he wasn’t about to let this jerk know it.
“You know my number, Em. If you need anything,” Trent said before departing.
“Goodbye, Trent.” The words were filled with sadness.
Jake’s family paid their condolences, and the crowd thinned, leaving Robert, who stood off at a distance, and the two of them.
Jake guided Emily back to her seat. “Take all the time you need.”
He stepped away to have a quick word with Robert and Ben before they left. Then he leaned against his truck, watching Emily.
She was engaged to another man.From Trent’s insinuations, he’d been the one to comfort her after her father died. Had they gotten engaged after her father’s death? If so, that meant she was engaged a few months ago. Why did it end?
From Trent’s bitterness and the way Emily shrank away from him, he guessed Emily broke the engagement. But why?
A short while later, he helped Emily into his truck. He’d offered to rent a limousine to take her to the cemetery, but she insisted it wasn’t necessary. Now, he wondered whether she would let him take her back to the ranch or if she’d insist on going back to her condo.
She propped her right elbow on the door and rested her head in her hand. She looked exhausted, and Jake’s heart melted.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
“No.”
“What can I do for you?”
“Take me home, please.”
“Home...?
“To my condo,” she said with conviction.
A vice squeezed Jake’s heart. “Emily, please come back to the ranch and give yourself more time to finish mourning and healing.”
She glared at him. “Finish mourning? Is that even possible?” Then in a small voice, she added, “I guess it is, since I have no one left to lose.”
Why did Jake get the feeling he was about to lose her? “I don’t want you to be alone.”
“But I am alone, Jake. I have no one and no family. I need to do this on my own at some point.”
He opened his mouth to argue that she had him, but she raised her hand.
