Page 52 of Miles Apart
“Nothing will happen while I’m here.” My mouth tightens at his full-on laughter. “Shit ain’t funny.”
Emma made it clear our time together would end once we left Italy. She hasn’t given an answer on keeping up a fake relationship for her parents, but what the fuck do I look like waiting around? I already followed her ass out of the country, and I’m not about to do that up and down LA. I don’t chase pussy. Em’s is top tier, but she needs to voice her wants.
“If you say so.”
“I do,” I counter.
“Alright,” Zo says with his hands up and a goofy-ass grin.
We settle into our plates and go to work. A pot of daisies blowing in the breeze catches Zo’s eye. He clears his throat. “I think I’m gonna rent this place out. It’s time.”
I pause. “Word?”
“Yeah.”
The twentieth anniversary of Isabel’s death is coming up. Part of my time out here is to make sure Zo is good. We don’t talk about feelings, but he’s been keeping my head on straight for the last two decades. We stumbled into each other’s lives at a time when I needed guidance and he needed a distraction from losinghis wife. He’s more of a big bro than a father figure. Outside of Terrence, Zo is one of the few people I call friend and let close.
Zo dips after eight, and I let my thoughts drift back to Emma over my nightcap. What if we saw each other while I was out here? The sex is unmatched, and the chemistry is there. We also have a built-in expiration date. We can get each other out of our systems.
“Nah,” I say to the empty backyard. It might be winter, but California and Jersey have different definitions of cold. A faint breeze picks up, catching the potted daisies under outdoor string lights.
Guys like me don’t get the chance to be happy, even if they want it.
Zo did.
I take a long pull of scotch and let my thoughts wander into the night.
Chapter 25
Miles
Ismell her before I see her.
Emma’s scent has been recessed deep in my memory for longer than I care to admit. She hasn’t changed her perfume in the fifteen years I’ve known her. Right now, her cedar fragrance with hints of floral is charging down the short hallway to the room that’s been my office since I started at nine. I was in the middle of concocting a plan to see her when Rebecca, one of the interns, messaged me to say I had a visitor.
Emma beat me to our reunion, and I’m not mad about it.
The air shifts when she reaches the open door and knocks like I’m not already staring at her. Lorenzo’s office isn’t the smallest suite on the floor, but this shit has me looking like the dad fromThe Incredibles, squeezing my ass into this space they call a conference room.
“You coming in, or do you need an escort?” My voice lures Emma out of whatever trance she put herself in eyeing me in my suit. I don’t always wear one, but a brother cleans up nicely.
I stand and button the dark gray blazer over a white dress shirt. Her eyes rake over my tailor-fit pants, moving down tomy brown oxford shoes. My tongue darts out at her turquoise suit. It’s a bold choice, one she pulls off without effort. Her high-waisted pants mold to her waist and toned legs, and the spaghetti-strap crop top in the same fabric shows a sliver of her amber skin above her belly. Once-curly hair cascades off one shoulder in thick waves.
“We need to talk.” A brow arches in wait until I nod and shut the door behind her.
She takes the seat on the opposite end of the conference table, capturing my nostrils in the process with that damn perfume. I adjust myself and steeple my fingers on the table when I sit.
Her chin lifts. It’s subtle. A gold chain dangles between her cleavage, flickering in the light. “I have a proposition.” She mimics my hands on the table, showing off a pink manicure that matches her lips.
Flanked between the US and California flags, Emma looks ready to give a State of the Union address. I motion for her to continue.
“It’s clear there’s an attraction between us,” she says, studying my reaction with narrowed brows. “I’m willing to explore it while you’re here.”Aka, you want this dick. “Provided we establish a few ground rules.”
Interesting.
“What do you have in mind?”
She wets her lips and sits straighter. “You move in, and we make ourselves available to each other.”
