Page 63 of Quarantine Crush
She stares at him for a long time while something passes silently between the two of them. When Knox finally nods, she turns away, squeezing my hand as she passes before retreating to the hallway.
“If you need us, send up the bat signal,” Hadley says, blowing me a kiss. I lean against the door and watch as they walk down the hallway, managing a small finger wave as the elevator doors slide close.
A bag in each hand, I turn, surprised to see Knox still leaning against the door frame. He watches me with a look in his eyes that I can’t quite comprehend. I tear my eyes away, my gaze traveling over the mess.
“Looks like you’ve got a big job ahead of you,” I say, shuffling past him with my bags.
I don’t turn back, not even when I hear him mutter the words, “I know I do.”
19
Knox
No one answers their phone, so I end up calling the landline. I’m not even sure that my parents still have the ringer on because it’s reserved mostly for telemarketers and emergency power outages. Still, I’m desperate, so I dial the number and wait.
Christian answers, and the sound of his music nearly drowns out his voice. “Yellow.”
“Bro, it’s me,” I say, frowning at my arm when I notice a small streak of pie goo I missed earlier when I was cleaning myself up.
“Hey, Knox. You calling for more bad–I meandad–advice?”
My eyes narrow. “What do you know about it?”
He snorts. “Heard you fucked it up with Ems, man. Guess it’s my time to shine. Time to offer her a free trial of Jacobs version 2.0 if you know what I’m saying.”
“There is no such thing as your time to shine when it comes to Embry,” I growl.
“Whoa, relax. No need to go all Neanderthal over it. Besides, you can’t claim her after turning her down. No Knox-blocking what you didn’t want in the first place. That’s against the bro code.”
“Put Dad on the phone, will you?”
“Not here.”
“Where is he?”
“Disc golfing with Joe out in the back acreage. I swear, I think those two get high together on the d.l.”
“Fine. Put Mom on.”
“Also not here. She went for a fabric pickup. Her and Gram are making masks for the local hospital staff.”
I bite back a groan of frustration. “Tell Dad to call me.”
“Not so fast. Utilize the resources at hand, brother. Tell me what happened. You’ve gotten advice from the oldest and wisest Jacobs man, but maybe it’s time you let the youngest and coolest Jacobs help.”
I hesitate and consider refusing, but then I give in. Maybe, for once, Christian’s advice won’t be terrible. And if it is, I can just do the opposite of whatever he tells me. God, I really must be desperate.
“Fine.”
Haltingly, and in a quiet voice in case Emy can somehow hear me over the man-bashing songs she’s been blaring for the last few hours, I tell him everything.
“So, basically, I fucked it all up,” I say in the end.
“Damn right you did. Wow. That’s brutal.”
“Thanks, that makes me feel so much better.”
“It’s called honesty. Something you probably should have used a little bit more of. Then you wouldn’t be in this position.”
