More curses ring out in Russian, and Emaly looks in my direction as if she knew I was here this whole time.
She winks at me before dropping her hand and taking his to squeeze it once. “And you should take Winter on a proper date. Not one disguised as a business meeting.”
Thomas laughs. “I think I can do that. As long as she’ll let me.”
Emaly’s smile widens. “Oh, she will. Trust me on this.”
Mikhail continues speaking rapidly in Russian until Emaly turns back to the figure I can’t see because of the wall in the way.
“And, Daddy?” she adds innocently. “If you ever do anything to hurt me, Thomas, Ronnie, or Winter, I will find a way todestroy everything you have. Don’t think I don’t know how. There’s a perk to being a wallflower. It means we see everything. Even the things you don’t think we do. I’ve watched how you run your businesses, and there are people who I’m sure would love to know the things I do.”
I’m not sure what the threat entails, but if I were her father, I wouldn’t want to find out.
“You are a disgrace,” he tells her coolly. “Your mother and I will never forgive you for this.”
Emaly shrugs. “What’s new?”
The tall man darts past her and Thomas and toward the other side of the kitchen, where a hallway leads to the foyer.
Before he goes, he says, “Everything I’ve done is to keep this family together.”
Emaly rolls her eyes. “You’ve done everything but actually try,” she counters. “If I’m done lying, maybe you should do the same.”
I hear the front door open and slam closed with a brute force that rattles the pictures on the wall. Apparently, he didn’t like that suggestion.
Thomas leans his lower back against the counter and crosses his arms over his chest. “That went about as well as expected.”
Emaly grins. “Better, I’d say.” She pulls her phone out of her pocket. “Ronnie wants to know if you’d like to have dinner with us. We’re thinking sushi. You and Winter should come.”
Thomas thinks about it. “Rain check. I think I want some time alone with Winter. When are you going back to Cali?”
“I’m not sure yet,” she admits, typing out a reply. “Soon, probably. Ronnie has patients to check on, and there’s an important surgery for one of them scheduled in a few days. And I need to speak to my boss about…a lot.”
I’m not sure what kind of silent conversation is happening between them, but there’s understanding.
Thomas pulls Emaly in for a hug. “Thank you,” I hear him say. His voice is softer than usual, his words lighter as he squeezes her once before letting her go.
I’m not quite sure what he’s thanking her for, but she does. “I want you to be happy, Little Bear. It’s time.”
All he does is nod.
Then she turns to me and says, “Treat him well, Winter. The ones he chooses to love are truly the luckiest people in the world.”
With that, she walks out and leaves Thomas and me alone in the large home.
He pushes off the counter and walks over to me, stopping a few inches away. “Are you okay?”
“Shouldn’t I be askingyouthat?”
One of his shoulders lifts as he tucks his hands into his front pockets. “I’m free,” he answers easily. “Relatively speaking, of course. Ashton is bound to come here and start preaching about damage control now that Emaly has aired all of our dirty laundry to the public. But he’s giving me space. Mostly because, for once, this isn’t because of something bad I did. Even he knows that this can’t be twisted into something negative.”
I find myself nodding, looking at a speck on his shirt because meeting his eyes seems too intense. “I have a feeling you’re about to have a lot more followers once they realize you did this for your best friend. Your jersey sales are about to skyrocket, and I’m sure you’ll get a lot more female fans wearing your number in the stands for your first game.”
His chuckle draws my attention upward, only enough to see the tilt of his lips. “I don’t care about what they’re wearing.”
I’m expecting a dirty joke to follow, but that’s not what I get.
Instead, he says, “I wantyouin my jersey.”
