“Hey, Papa.”
“Hey, Darling,” Morgan Walker said. “I’ve got bad news.”
Emerson tensed. He didn’t have room for any more bad news. “Yeah? What’s that?”
“Do you remember our old neighbors, the Brightons?”
Emerson leaned back on the headrest. This was going to be one of his papa’s longwinded stories, he feared.“Yeah.”
“Your father and I ran into them this morning. They’re here visiting, and their plans for tomorrow evening fell through. They asked if we’d care to join them for dinner.”
“Okay… how is that bad news?” Emerson asked.
“Tomorrow is family dinner.”
“Right, right,” Emerson muttered.
“Youwerecoming, weren’t you?”
“Of course, I was,” Emerson fibbed. “You know, I get yelled at whenIhave plans that fall on family dinner night. Do we get to fuss at you now?”
“The next time you don’t come to dinner, I won’t yell. But you only get the one.”
Emerson chuckled. He glanced at Randall’s house, realizing it was likely for the best that there was no family night. The two of them needed time to cool off before they had to be in the same room as one another. And even then it might not be good.
“Okay, I’ll save it for a special occasion.”
“You do that,” Morgan said. “Are you doing okay? You don’t sound like your normal self.”
Emerson fought another wave of emotion. He forced another smile to hide what was really going on. “I’m doing as well as I can. You okay?”
“I’m great,” his papa said. “You sound tired. Go get some rest. No partying tonight, okay?”
“Nope. No partying tonight.”
“Does that mean you’ll be staying here at home tonight?”
Emerson winced. Before moving to Investigations, he’d occasionally stayed in his childhood bedroom a night or two to throw them off his scent of the boat—claiming he was in between omegas at the time. That lie was becoming increasingly harder to tell since he no longer slept half his nights at the fire station. “No… I’m… hanging with a friend tonight.”
“A friend? Have I met this friend?”
“Nope,” Emerson said.
“I don’t know why I even asked. I’ve never metanyof your omega friends,” his papa said before sighing. “Maybe one day you’ll settle down like Harrison.”
Emerson pulled the phone from his ear and fought a growl before returning it. “Papa, you know I’m not like Harrison.”
His twin was the responsible mate oftwoomegas. He’d been built for settling down.
“Yes, you are. You just haven’t found the right omega yet, sweetheart. I’ve got a sixth sense about these things. As soon as I saw Harrison was settled, something told me you were next.”
Emerson scrubbed his face with one hand. “You might want to turn your attention to Luke. I’m not on the market.”
His papa scented blood in the water. Hopefully Lucas wouldn’t find out it was him that had added it. “Have you heard something? Is Luke seeing someone?”
“Not that I know of, but he’s a better bet for settling down than I am.”
“You don’t give yourself enough credit,” his papa said. “You’re a catch, Emerson. You just need to… calm down and grow up a little.”
