Emaly watches me carefully before a small, secretive smile tilts her lips. “And what about you?”
I stand up and give her my back to go through the fridge for nothing in particular. “What about me?”
She snickers. “Areyouinterested? She’s blond, isn’t she? You like blondes.”
My attention whips to her to see her eyebrows wiggle suggestively. “How do you know what her hair color is?”
I’m not about to admit I tried finding her social media to no avail, so I can’t help but wonder how she managed to.
“Starrs Strategy’s website has professional shots of all their employees,” she states, leaning her shin on her propped palm that’s leaning on the counter. “I wasn’t totally sure if it was Winter you were all bent out of shape over, but I had a feeling. You said she was younger, and the other two women on their team list aren’t your type.”
I swear, this woman could join the FBI and track people down faster than most trained agents. It’s a superpower I’ll never understand. “I don’t know if I’m impressed or not that you even bothered looking.”
“I was curious.”
“Why?”
“Because youhatewhen PR people come into your life and try dictating what you can and can’t do,” she replies with a knowing look. I can’t argue with her, and she knows it. “How many times have Ashton and Scott tried convincing you it was the best idea to clean up your online footprint? You always told them to screw off.”
I did do that. Scott, my manager, was never happy when I’d hang up after he suggested involving a professional to handle what I liked to call a “hazard spill.” Whenever I did somethingstupid, whether it was being seen out with a woman or getting into fights at bars when guys would be a little too handsy with women, my team would call me up and tell me their plans to get it taken off the internet. Not an easy feat in this day and age. Most people I know hire companies to manage all of their social media pages, but not me. I’m a control freak.
“But you’re allowing her to,” she concludes, her smile growing into an annoying one.
I hate to point out the obvious, but I do. “I’m allowing them to step in because my career is on the line, Em. Your dad ispissed. And while the board might decide to keep me, they still consider me a risk between my age and the fact that they’re too new to be riddled with scandal.”
The smile on her face drops, along with her shoulders. “But there is no scandal.”
I wet my lips. “They don’t know that.”
They don’t know a lot.
I walk around the island and pull her into me. Emaly’s mood is shifting to dark territory, and I don’t want her to make herself sick. “It’s okay,” I murmur, kissing the crown of her skull. “It’sgoingto be okay.”
She starts shaking her head, but I don’t want her to argue.
We’re quiet for a long time.
Until she hefts out a breath against me and peels away. “I’m sor—”
“Don’t,” I cut her off. “Don’t apologize. This whole thing was my idea, right? We both agreed. What’s happening now is the consequence ofmyactions. This isn’t your fault.”
She wants to disagree, but she’s smart enough not to. Instead, she says, “Are you really going to pretend you’re not a tiny bit into Winter, though? I can totally see it.”
I glare at her.
She blinks up innocently at me. “I’m just saying, I could make that happen for you.”
“Emaly,” I growl.
She holds up her hands. “Fine, fine. I’ll leave it for now. But I expect all the juicy details the next time you see her.”
That is one hundred percent not going to happen.
Now is a good time to turn the tables. “Are you going to tell me the other reason you came? You’ve barely talked about work, and I know how much you love your kids.”
Her kids are her patients. As a surgical oncologist in the pediatric unit in San Diego’s best children’s hospital, she’s surrounded by illness and death. But there are times, not as often as she’d like, where she’s also surrounded by remission and hope. The weight on her shoulders has to do with something that happened with a patient, if I had to put money on it.
She evades my eyes. “I don’t know if I want to talk about it yet.” Her voice is quieter than usual, so I don’t push her.
