Page 7 of Mine to Hold
“Lucy Ann told me.” Emmerson cringed. “And before you go reading too much into that, I was only asking because that’s when I got the idea I might rent to her. Lucy Ann said Rumor had mentioned she had looked at a few places, but they were all out of her price range. Lucy Ann thinks this girl might be down on her luck. Or maybe going through a tough time. Either way, my pool house is basically a studio. It’s only about four hundred square feet, which is tiny.”
“Yeah. But it’s on the fucking water. Right in your backyard, facing your brand-new million-dollar home, with new pool and all the perks that go with living in an upscale neighborhood. You could get top dollar, even if it is small.”
“Why do you care if I rent it out or not?”
Rhett chuckled. “I don’t. But I’ve only seen that look in your eyes a couple of times. First time was with?—”
“Don’t you dare bring her up,” Emmerson said behind a tight jaw. He lifted the last burger and shoved it in his mouth. He couldn’t believe Edwina had moved back to Lighthouse Cove. It was like pouring salt on an open wound.
Worse, she fucking flirted with him like she hadn’t ripped his heart out and stomped on it with her three-inch heels.
“Fucking woman is making me crazy.” Emmerson lifted his beer and finished the last drop.
Rumor strolled across the pool patio with two fresh beers.
He locked gazes with her. It settled his nerves, but it amped up other emotions, something he wasn’t prepared for nor expected. Being attracted to a person didn’t mean anything.
But now he wanted to act.
He needed to tread lightly.
“Here you go, boys.” She set the drinks on the table. “If you need anything else, just let me know.”
“Will do. Thanks.” Emmerson smiled.
She went about making her rounds with the rest of the family. What a nice cushy job and her mother would pay really well. That should help her get her feet on the ground.
Rhett leaned forward, resting his arms on the table. “Look. I know Edwina is a sore subject. I get it. I was there. I know what she did. I also know that you have no love in your heart for her.”
“When she came back, Mom was terrified I would somehow magically forgive Edwina.” Emmerson chuckled. “Funny things is, I have. When I first saw her, there wasn’t even a pang of hatred or resentment. There was nothing. It was like when you read a book and it’s neither great nor horrible. It’s a shrug of the shoulders, and then you forget it, never to think of it again.”
“I get that,” Rhett said. “But you loved her once.”
“A really long time ago.”
“I have to ask. What has you so pissed off now?”
Emmerson hadn’t told anyone about Edwina’s antics. Why bother. She’d give up, eventually. Hopefully. He reached across the table and turned his cell over, tapping the screen, finding the texts. “You can read them for yourself, noting I only responded to the first one, telling her that I wished her well, but I would not be taking her out, ever again.”
“As in on a date? A romantic one?” Rhett held the phone in his hand with an arched brow. “You’ve got to be kidding me. After what she did? She’s lucky she didn’t go to jail, thanks to you and Mom.”
“And I’m lucky I don’t have half a dozen sexually transmitted diseases.” Emmerson let out a long breath. Talk about being made a fool of. His fiancée had been a madam. She’d been doing it right under his nose. Him. A cop. His mother, the chief of police.
What a shit show that had been.
“She left town eighteen years ago, and she’s sending you texts like this?” Rhett tapped the screen.“Hey, Emmerson. Meet me for a drink? Like old times? I’ve missed you. I want to catch up. Make up for all the mistakes. Start fresh.”
“It gets worse. In one of the texts she talks about how compatible we once were in bed. She went into a little too much detail.”
“She’s a fucking whack job.” Rhett set the phone on the table. “Do you think she’s changed?”
Emmerson nodded. “I didn’t do this because I’m even remotely interested. I did it for the safety of young college students and bored housewives in town. I had one of Mom’s contacts with the FBI do a full background on Edwina. She’s clean. When she left here, she finished her degree and has been working in finance ever since. She landed a job with a local car dealership as their finance manager.”
“How you and Mom managed to keep what she’d been doing a secret is beyond me.”
“People know and they whisper, but that’s not the point. I don’t know if this falls under the category of good news or not, but Edwina had only been involved in the sex trafficking ring for six months. She gave Mom details, names, dates. Enough to bust the ring. Mom got the ADA to cut her a deal and she walked.Probably more so out of respect for me and my situation. But at the end of the day, I’m glad for her sake she put it behind her.”
“Yeah, but to think you’d take her back after that kind of betrayal and almost twenty years, that’s just fucking crazy talk.”
