“I was showing her the new rose bush I put in the backyard over the weekend. The one Annie picked out,” he said.Please work. Please work.
“Is your toe okay?” Fiona asked, looking down at Emmaline’s feet.
“Just a little broken. Totally fine. Toes break all the time. It’s a tape-up-and-go kind of thing.” Em made ago, go, gomotion. Like this was a good thing. Though, given the alternative, it was. “I love the rose bush, though. We should buy one just like it.”
“Mom?” Fiona frowned. “We have like three already.”
“Oh, right?” She gritted her teeth so hard Ethan practically heard her dental bill going up. “I meant—”
“She means the same one, like we got, so they’ll grow at the same speed.” No one could say he wasn’t trying. “That way you’ll have best friend rose bushes.”
“Can we get one for Harmony, too?” Fiona’s eyes brightened.
“Of course.” Em gave a laugh that was not at all convincing and even made him uncomfortable. “Everyone gets rose bushes.” Em scratched behind her ear. “Let’s go home, yeah?”
Annie shook her head. “I looked in the backyard. You weren’t there.”
“That’s probably when I was at the doctor, getting my toe taped up.” Em scratched at her neck again. Turned out, when Em wasn’t telling the entire truth, she scratched at her collarbone a bunch.
“I don’t see any tape.” Annie was a bloodhound on the hunt for truth and he should take notes for when she was a teenager and he needed to quiz her.
“It’s clear tape,” Em said. “Everything’s good now. And we’re heading home.”
“We’ve gotta jet,” April announced, clearly ready to escape. They did the goodbye schtick and then Fiona and Em went home with Sketch, too.
Annie gave him some odd looks as she stalked up to her room. Side-eye, like she wasn’t buying anything he was selling.
“Em is a really nice person,” she said, carefully. “And she likes you.”
“She’s a great friend,” he agreed.
Unfortunately, he wasn’t sure that’s what he wanted anymore. And that stuck like a toothpick in his ticker.
Chapter Twenty-Four
EMMALINE
“I’ll get it,”Fiona announced, bouncing from Em’s bed, eager to get downstairs and greet Ethan.
Annie and Fiona had helped her curl the heck out of her hair. With their encouragement, she elected to wear it down for the wedding event and embraced the fact that she sort of resembled Medusa with all the curls.
Em was all dressed up in her little blue dress, accented with pink heels. She’d tossed a towel around her shoulders while Annie worked her preteen magic on Em’s makeup.
Fiona helped with the ’fit. Annie helped with the glitz.
This was fine, everything was fine. She and Ethan had agreed that this entanglement would be done after they attended the wedding and reception. They could both move along with their lives as nothing but friendly neighbors with best friend kids.
That day? The wedding day? That was today.
Tomorrow was not about them, but today could be.
Todaywouldbe.
Em didn’t really want their entanglement to end. Which was probably the main reason why it had to be nixed. That was the rule. No attachments, no heartache. It was the perfect plan...at least in theory.
So she focused on the girls instead of the impending fake-but-felt-real breakup. The cherry on the crap sundae of the day was that weddings werenother favorite. She had the same visceral reaction to weddings as she did when Fiona popped homemade slime between her fingers.
Ack. That sound? No thank you.
