Page 145 of Secrets on Ice

“Oh, thank God,” Cassidy breathes. “Thank God. She's okay.”

I don't say anything. I can't. My throat's closed up, my eyes are burning, and I stand there with my hand on the wall and my head down, trying to get one clean breath as tears stream down my cheeks. When I lift my head, Cassidy is staring at me. She looks at me like she's finally seeing the whole thing, every bit of what Ember means to me.

“Sully,” she says very quietly.

“Don't.” It comes out cracked. “Cass, don't. Not now.”

Emmett has stopped pacing, and he's looking at me too. I watch it move across his face, slow, the understanding landing, all the pieces coming together at once. I don't have it in me to hide it. Not tonight, not after what just happened.

“Please,” I say, and my voice is wrecked. “I can't do this right now. I just need her to be okay. That's the only thing I've got room for. Please.”

Cassidy squeezes my arm and doesn't push. Emmett looks at me for a long moment, something working behind his eyes, and then he nods once and lets it go. Jo hugs him, whispering in his ear.

They let us see her once she's settled. Cassidy goes in first with Emmett, and I stay out in the corridor as it can only be two people in there at a time. Jo stays with me. She doesn't say anything for a minute, just sits on the hard chairs, but I can feel her eyes on me. “She's going to be okay, Sully.”

“I know.”

“You got her early.” She lets that sit. “If you hadn't seen her ...”

“Don't.” I press the heels of my hands into my eyes. “I can't think about that.”

She wipes the tears from her eyes. “I'm glad you pummeled him.”

“Me too.”

Silence falls between us for a couple of moments before she speaks again. “You have feelings for her, don't you?”

My stomach drops. “Jo ...”

She shakes her head at me. “I'm not saying anything. I'm not going to say anything.” She looks up at me now. “I just want you to know that I'll handle Emmett.”

“Is it that obvious?”

“Not really, but kind of,” she says, giving me a small smile. “It doesn't matter. Ember is okay, that's what’s important. Tonight has been a lot, and whatever's going through my fiancé's head right now, let me deal with him. You've had enough for one night.”

I don't know what to say to that. So, I just nod, and she squeezes my arm, and that's when Emmett comes out of the room.

He stops in front of me.

For a second, neither of us says anything until he does. “We need to talk,” he says. “Not tonight.”

“I know.”

He studies me quietly. “Sully, is it real?”

I could lie. I've been lying for months, for years, for my whole life, and it would be so easy to do it one more time. But I'm too tired to lie.

“Yeah,” I say. “It's real. It's always been real since we were kids.”

He shuts his eyes and shakes his head slowly, not in anger, just like it's a lot, like it's the last thing on top of a night that was already too much.

“Right,” he says. “Okay. We'll talk, properly, soon.”

“Okay.”

Jo slides under his arm and turns him gently toward the waiting room. “Come on, let's get you a coffee and catch up with the others. They are all a wreck.”

Cassidy's still in with Ember when I go in, and she takes one look at my face and gets up. “I'll give you a minute,” she says quietly, and slips out, pulling the curtain behind her.