Page 85 of Runaway Bride's Guide to Love

I didn’t.

Emmett is a man of routine. He likes order, normalcy, and everything in a box. His idea of crazy is actually going to the beach. Him not coming to Rolling Hills was on purpose.

Because he didn’t want to see me.

I scream into the pillow one more time for good measure when I feel a dip on the couch next to me.

“Hey, Charlie,” I say as I take the pillow off my face. “What’s up?”

“I should be asking you that. Was my child so bad you had to yell into a pillow for relief?”

I shake my head and bring the pillow down to my stomach, holding it over me like a shield of some sort. “My niece is an angel. Well done making sure she got as little of Simon’s temperament as possible.”

“I love that man with all my heart, but I agree. I can barely handle him, let alone him in small child form,” Charlie jokes.

Charlie is a true saint for putting up with my brother. And yes, Lainey might have been an unexpected surprise, but she’s truly the best parts of both of them, and I can’t wait to see how their family grows over the years.

“So, what has you yelling into a pillow on a Wednesday?” Charlie asks.

I start to say something, but quickly close my mouth. What do I tell her? I can’t tell her about Emmett. I don’t want her having to keep things from Simon. Also, and I don’t think she would judge me, but Ididsleep with a man I’d known for less than a week as a vacation-slash-rebound fling.

“Oh, you know…things,” I say. “Duncan. The lawsuit that he’s still insisting on filing. The fact that I still have to go to his place and get my things, which hopefully I’ll be able to do tomorrow. You know…all that kind of stuff.”

Charlie pats me on the leg. “It’s not that I don’t believe you. I think those things are happening and weighing on your mind. But right now, in this moment, Stella Banks, you are full of shit.”

I let out an audible gasp. Did she really see through that? Damn, Emmett was right. Iama really shitty actress.

“I don’t know what you mean.”

Charlie gives me the head tilt along with the raised eyebrow. “We can play this any way you want. We can live in your world of denial that this is only about Duncan. You can tell me what’s happening while using hypotheticals and fake names. Or, you can tell me what’s going on with you and Emmett that’s making you scream into upholstery and making our stoic friend oneday buy cake pops then proceed to drop off the face of the earth.”

Damn, she’s good.

“I don’t want to put you in a weird situation,” I say. “Simon doesn’t know anything and we’d both like to keep it that way.”

Charlie nods. “I’m an amazing secret keeper. Plus, this can be payback for him not telling me he owned my restaurant for the first six months.”

I still can’t believe my brother did that.

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, I’m sure,” Charlie says. “If I’m going to have to not react to him buying you lattes, I’d at least like to know what I’m getting into.”

I relax into the couch as I tell her everything. Well, not everything. She doesn’t need to know about my now deeper love for ice cream.

But I do tell her about meeting him after I ran out of the wedding. And us showing up in Florida. And how when things escalated we made it clear that this was only to be in Florida. That when we got back to Nashville, we’d go our separate ways.

“Except your ways have you now working together.”

“Exactly,” I say. “We figured we could hold it together if we saw each other a few times a year. But every day? With Simon usually in the room? It hasn’t been as easy. It doesn’t help matters that Emmett is giving me whiplash. Like you said, one day he’s sweet and buying me coffee and the next it’s the cold shoulder. I just want to know which way is up.”

“As you should,” she says. “Can I ask a dumb question?”

“There are no such things as dumb questions,” I say. “Just sometimes dumb people. Which you are not.”

That makes her laugh. “Why did you two draw the line in the sand? I can understand if you thought it was going to be just a vacation fling. Fine. But clearly you are both attracted to each other. Is it just because of Simon that you’re not seeing if there’s something really there?”

I shake my head. “Simon is part of it, but not the majority. I’m not in a place to be in a relationship. I mean, I should be writing out thank you notes right now. And for Emmett, he was very clear that he’s not a relationship guy. Between those two factors, we thought it made for a perfect, and temporary, situation.”

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