“I know. I’m sorry.”
She crossed her arms. “He let me keep getting closer while holding something huge back. He should have told me about it before I started having all these feelings.”
Emerson’s expression sobered. “True. He should have.”
“And then there’s work.” Her voice sharpened despite herself. “He keeps saying I matter, but then he forgets me when things get busy. So tell me how I’m supposed to trust that won’t keep happening.”
Now Emerson was quiet.
When he spoke again, it was softer. “I don’t know. But I do know he’s trying. More than I expected, honestly.”
River hated the fact that part of her agreed.
She closed her eyes and waited for the rest.
“I’ve never heard Rose that mad,” Emerson said. “She tore into him. And he took it.” He blew out a breath. “He told her he didn’t know Victoria was in town. Offered to show his phone. Rose wouldn’t take that as proof, obviously, but he didn’t back down. He kept saying he messed up, not that he got caught.”
River held up a hand. “Stop.”
The word came out weaker than she wanted, but Emerson listened.
She swallowed hard. “And how do you explain that he never even bothered to tell me he was married? That’s a pretty big topic of conversation for someone who wants to get serious, don’t you think?”
“I can’t argue with that,” Emerson admitted. “Which is why you should talk to him. You can’t let this continue to fester.”
“You promised if I didn’t want to talk to him, you’d stand guard for me.”
“I did.” He nodded. “And I will.”
She studied him. “So you’re not taking that back?”
“No.” He shook his head. “I’m just asking you not to let this sit so long it turns into something worse in your head than it already is.”
That landed closer to home than she wanted.
“I appreciate the attempt at reason,” she muttered. “But I’m not ready. I don’t know if I ever will be.”
“That’s fair,” he conceded. Then he stood and set the coffee on her bedside table. “Just promise me you won’t make a forever decision without getting the truth first. It’ll be the not knowing that will hurt you the most.”
With that, he turned and headed out.
“I should never have given you a spare key,” she called after him.
His chuckle drifted back down the hall. “Yeah, yeah.”
25
MATHEW
Mathew’s first instinct was to take on extra shifts at work just to get his mind off the whole debacle with River. But then he thought better of it. The whole point of making these changes was so he wouldn’t fall into bad habits again.
So rather than allow any extreme changes to his schedule, he spent his free time he’d normally give River with his mother. It only took four afternoons of being with her for his mom to alert his brother.
Of course, Jason would get wind of the problems.
Mathew had just been naïve enough to believe Rose would be the one to out him.
But nope. Turns out that was his mom.
