Page 71 of Hard To Love

Chapter Twenty-Four

When I walkedinto my office the next day, I felt like there was an extra spring in my step and my face wore the biggest smile ever. When I passed the reception area, Jonathan shot his hands out stopping me.

“Not so fast.” He grinned, then stood up and rounded his desk. He cocked his hip against the edge of the desk and threw me look that told me he knew why I was looking so damned happy this morning.

“You talked to Cassie, didn’t you?’ I asked, but judging by his growing grin, I already had my answer.

He licked his lips and crossed his arms against his chest. His cell phone buzzed on his desk. My eyes dropped to the device that was making noise and being ignored.

“Aren’t you going to get that?”

Never taking his eyes off me he replied, “Nope.” Then he glanced at the clock on the wall. “I’ve got five minutes, spill.” He said, clearly not moving or giving up until I fed him something to satisfy his curiosity.

I shook my head and tried to scowl, but I was floating on a cloud so high, nothing could bring me down. In the last forty-eight hours, my life had gone from chaos to calm.

We walked into the break room because it was fairly empty this time of the day and took a seat at a small table in the back of the room. It took me a whole fifteen minutes to drag him through the events of the last forty-eight hours of my life. His big blue eyes grew wide and his mouth dropped open when I told him about the scene from the restaurant. When I explained about the key and what it meant, he threw his hands over his mouth to keep from screaming.

“I heard he practically fucked you into saying yes.” He exclaimed while trying to catch his breath, “Damn that’s hot.”

My eyes narrowed, then flew around the small room. Thankfully, it was mostly still empty. “Jonathan.” I scolded. “You and Cassie need to stop gossiping.”

He waved his hands in the air. “Whatever.” He said, then stood up when he looked to see the time. “Duty calls.” Then he came over and wrapped me up in a hug. “I’m happy for you, Emily. Sounds like you got yourself a good man.” He pulled back to look at me, all humor left his eyes. “But, no matter how hot that man is, if he screws you over again, there is a paper shredder over there.” He said pointing to the machine that rested along the back wall. “That will shred his glorious balls into tiny little strips if he ever fucks with you again.” He closed his eyes and shuddered. “It would be a shame, but you’re more important.”

I playfully smacked his chest then reached up and kissed the edge of his jaw, trying to ignore the image he just planted in my head. Some people defined family by the one that they were born into. I considered mine to be the people I brought into my world. The ones that I had chosen. We may not be related by blood, but our bond was stronger than any living person who shared my DNA.

My life was finally at the point where I felt content and completely at peace.

I powered down my laptop and swiveled around in my chair, as I got ready to leave for my 2:00 PM appointment. When I reached under my desk to grab my purse, my office phone started ringing on my desk. A smile broke across my face when I saw that it was Jonathan’s extension.

“Hey Jonathan.” I answered, juggling the phone in my ear while shuffling work papers into my messenger bag.

“Emily, you have a visitor here in reception waiting to see you.” His tone sounded a little put off.

I quickly glanced at my calendar to see if I had forgotten any appointments, but the schedule was clear. Chase had told me he was going to be tied up in court all day, so I knew it wasn’t him.

“Who is it?” I asked finally fitting all my files into my bag and slinging it over my shoulder.

“It’s Brad.” He announced, almost whispering into the phone.

My bag slipped out of my hand and landed on my desk. I’ve been ignoring his calls and text messages all weekend long.

“I’ll be right out, Jonathan.” I hung up the phone, inhaled a deep breath and made my way to the reception area.

As I walked over, I threw in as much cheerfulness as I could muster into my expression. “Hi, Brad.”

He rose from the chair in the waiting area as soon as he saw me. “Everything okay? Cassie called and left a message for me. She seemed worried, but then called back saying everything was good. Just thought I would come and check for myself.”

My eyes met Jonathan’s; they were filled with concern, which told me that he was paying way too much attention to our conversation. I shot him a look letting him know that I would be fine.

“Why don’t we go into one of the conference rooms where we can talk?” I gestured with my hand for him to follow down the hall. After peeking through a few windows, I found a room down on the far-left wall right outside the main conference room that wasn’t being used. I quietly closed the door behind me and urged him to sit in one of the two leather chairs.

He leaned forward and rested his hands on his knees. “What’s going on, Emily?”

My body nervously slid into the seat next to his. “I’m sorry I haven’t had the chance to return your calls or messages.” My heart knew that Brad wasn’t going to take the news very well, but my head hoped that it wouldn’t be as bad as I thought.

“You haven’t had a chance, huh?” He repeated my words back to me as he leaned back and studied my expression. “I’m not an idiot, Emily. Just say it.”

The amount of time I spent with Brad during my break up with Chase was nothing short of bad judgment on my part. After spending two years with him, I knew him well enough to know that it was pretty stupid of me to think that the lines wouldn’t get blurred for him.

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