Page 41 of The Matchmaker's Melody
“I’m supposed to tell you that,” he quipped in return.
“Oh, I already know that.” She breathed into the steam and chuckled. “But I want to know something… need to know, I think. What made you come over last night? What made you tell me?”
Gordon paused, holding the platter of pancakes in one hand, spatula in the other. “It was Jean-François. No, really, don’t look at me like that.” He returned to his task, but kept talking. “I was so certain you loved him, when he showed up with his wife, I was sure you’d be devastated. When you told me you weren’t in love with him after all, it was like the sun burst through the clouds. If you weren’t interested in him, it meant I hadn’t lost you yet, and I knew if I didn’t say something then, you might fall in love with someone else and I’d lose you forever. Saying it now, it’s silly, but at the moment, it felt like being on a precipice. I dreaded telling you, in case you rejected me. But to have the chance, and to lose it—I couldn’t have lived with myself.”
Emma uncurled her legs and rose from the kitchen chair. She walked up behind him and folded her arms about his chest, leaning her head on his shoulder.
“I’m so glad you did. I thought… I would never…”
“Never what?”
She hung her head. “I was so sure you were in love with someone else.”
His head snapped up. “Me? Who?”
“Halli,” she mumbled.
His laughter echoed off the ceiling. “Halli? You must be joking. What gave you that idea?”
“She did.”
He turned to gape at her. “What?”
“Last night, after the concert. You were talking. I saw you earlier, and then at the party, and then… That’s when it hit me. I’d imagined you with Ashleigh—”
“Emma…”
“I know, I know. More matches. But you and Ash didn’t seem to click that way. And I was so relieved when you didn’t. Then, when Halli told me how she felt about you, it was like the floor fell away, and that’s when I knew. She couldn’t have you. No one else could. Because I wanted you.” She blinked back unbidden tears. “Are you angry?”
He put the pancakes onto the platter and brought it to the table, then pulled her into a hug. “No. Not angry. Touched. I’m sorry you were upset, but I’m glad. Now, eat up. You’ll need your strength for later.” He gave her a saucy grin.
“But… But Halli said that you liked her as well. She said you’d been saying things, asking her about whether she was seeing anyone.”
“Me? No, not for months. She’s been dating Rob for a few weeks now. I think she didn’t want to tell you, after what happened last fall.”
Oh.
“Then what was she going about last night?”
Gordon shrugged. “You’ll have to ask her.”
“Later.”
“Much later.”
* * *
“So, you guys are together now?”There was a glint in Halli’s bright eye as she beamed at Emma over a ginger ale at a coffee shop near her campus. “You make a cute couple.”
Emma pouted. “I need to talk to you about that…”
“So, are you moving in with him? What are you doing about your influencer business? Are you changing your handle?”
What happened to that shy creature from the first rehearsal back in September? This Halli was totally self-assured and seemed to know much more than she should. She also looked very happy. Perhaps Rob the chair guy wasn’t such a bad choice after all.
Well, this was an easier question. “We’re still getting used to being a couple, rather than friends. It’s a bit early to move in together, I think, but if we do, I’ll keep my place as my studio. That way I can keep my brand, and also keep my work separate from my personal life. Gordon doesn’t have a problem with it—he says it’s part of what makes me so special, and I can’t disagree—but he doesn’t want to live in a goldfish bowl.”
Emma didn’t either, anymore. Perhaps it was being so comfortable in Gordon’s house that started the slow, gradual transformation from friendship to love.
