Page 61 of The Emma Special

“Okay.” He smiled.

“How am I supposed to lecture you when you’ve got that goofy smile stuck on your face? You’re in trouble right now. Where’s your defense? The least you could do is act like you’re sorry.” Emma gently pressed her palms to the sides of his face to make him frown. “Stop laughing. This is serious.”

His shoulders shook with his closed-mouth laughter. “I’m not very sorry,” he hummed while nodding.

This version of James was going to mean trouble for her. It was too much fun to be looked at this way—and she didn’t think he wasn’t acting.

Garrett eyed her from the white swing on the back porch. James’s younger brother had been terribly polite when he greeted her. It didn’t match the bratty teenager he’d been or the fit-throwing adult from James’s office. While they waited for the older brother and his family to arrive, the atmosphere had been terribly everything. She’d been here a whopping fifteen minutes.

Sharon was the only one who seemed genuinely happy to see her. Well, and James. Always, James—which made it increasingly hard to ignore the pull toward him. Okay, fine. So Garrett and Mr. Moore overwhelmed her, and she knew she was the problem.

“Is this the part where we kiss?” James spoke through his unabashed smile.

Her hands flew off his face like she’d touched a hot pan without a mitt. “You kiss your fake girlfriends in front of your family?”

He squeezed her waist and widened his eyes. “Only when they wear red dresses.”

“Aha!” She smacked his chest, forcing joviality that she didn’t truly feel. “So that’s why you tricked me into this outfit.”

“Not sure that’s how it went down, m’lady.”

What was it with that word that stopped her in her tracks? He was only making a joke with that nickname, but the way he said it was like an honored title—as if he meant it. Never had she been so attracted to a co-star.

Emma narrowed her eyes. “I’m going to start recording all of my business calls.”

“For quality assurance and training purposes?”

Was it time to acknowledge James was sending all the signals that he was interested in more? She wasn’t blind to the extra attention. And it was too easy to accept it. She was pretty sure he didn’t want a “fake” girlfriend tonight. Is that what she wanted too? It would sure show that brother of his what this piece of trash had snagged. Ack, that would make James a revenge boyfriend. That would never last.

Did she want a hero to sweep her up into his arms and kiss the living daylights out of her? Yes.

Did she want to deal with the inevitable fallout when he woke up to how much baggage she had and how little she could contribute to the relationship? Absolutely not.

They would never work! Not long term. Better to stay friends. He was such a good friend—and that’s the story she was stickin’ to. Why play with matches when she didn’t need a fire? She was toasty warm from here. Life was hard enough without adding boyfriend drama to the mix. Or hadn’t she learned anything from her mother’s string of men?

An ear-popping child’s scream and the deep bark of a dog cut through the backyard. Emma jerked away from James and would have fallen on her rump if he hadn’t pulled her to him.

“Harrison brought the dog,” James said with a chuckle. “Brace yourself.”

A tiny girl dressed in pink from head to toe came running out of the door. Garrett snatched the child before she fell down the stairs. “Kenna’s here! We can finally eat.”

The girl giggled when Garrett pretended to take a bite of her chubby forearms. “Not me!”

He put her on the grass right as a massive dog burst from the back door.

Emma leaned away from James as the large ball of tan fur raced toward them chased by a squealing curly-haired Kenna half its size.

Sharon called from the open door, “Keep that thing out of my flowerbed!”

A man who looked like a shorter version of James in tight jeans and a white golf shirt stalked across the yard with a leash in hand. “Myrtle! Come!”

Myrtle did not come.

Myrtle sprinted past James and Emma, disappeared into the bushes at the end of the long yard, then erupted from the leaves like a crazed animal. She knocked over the toddler, who screamed, and fell into a crying fit.

A young woman on the porch in an oversized T-shirt and light wash jeans ran to rescue her daughter. The air was filled with shouts from Harrison and Sharon to “get the dog.”

Kenna continued to scream while her mom called, “It’s okay! It’s okay!”