It had taken less than six hours for strangers to piece together what Emmy had spent months trying to hide.
The comments were worse than the detective work.
What's wrong with him that he can't get a date on his own?
Imagine being so desperate you have to pay someone to find you a wife lmao
This is embarrassing for everyone involved.
Rich athletes be like "I'm too important to swipe right like regular people"
She stopped reading. Closed the browser. Put the phone face-down on the counter.
The coffee was ready. She poured a cup, wrapped her hands around it, and didn't drink.
Grant had practice this morning. Film review. The machinery of a playoff-bound team grinding forward regardless of what the gossip sites said—and he'd have to walk into that locker room knowing everyone had seen the headlines. Because she couldn't stop talking to a stranger at a party.
Her phone lit up with an incoming call.
She picked it up too fast—but it wasn't Grant.
It was West.
"Emmy." Not Em. Not hey. Just her name, flat and strange in her brother's voice.
"West. Hi." She tried to sound normal and failed.
Neither of them spoke. Emmy listened to her brother breathe on the other end of the line and wondered when that had become uncomfortable.
"How's Brynn?"
"She's fine. Morning sickness." He didn't elaborate. The silence stretched long enough that Emmy could hear the hum of the refrigerator, the drip of the coffee maker, the sound of her own breathing.
"West—"
"How long?"
She closed her eyes. "What?"
"The matchmaking thing. You and Grant. How long has this been going on?"
"A few months. Since September." She pressed her free hand flat against the counter. "It was professional. Cecelia needed a high-profile client and Grant was?—"
"Available? Convenient?" West's laugh was short and humorless. "Whose idea was it?"
Emmy didn't answer.
"Right." He exhaled. "Never mind. I know whose idea it was."
"West, I didn't?—"
"He never could say no to you, Em. You know that." The words landed like stones. "I just don't understand why you didn't tell me. Either of you. Three months of—what, secret meetings? Dates I didn't know about? And I'm finding out from Brynn showing me a gossip article?"
"It wasn't like that."
"Then what was it like?" West's voice rose. "Because from where I'm standing, my sister was sneaking around with my best friend and neither of you thoughtIdeserved to know."
"I wasn'tsneakingaround with him. I was doing my job."
