Page 15 of Anything for You
“Hey, Ems.”
“You came.” Emma’s voice is tinged with relief and her body seems to relax just slightly, her shoulders dropping from where they were hunched around her ears.
“You called.”
“I’m sorry you had to come out so late in the rain. I know it’s ridiculous. A twenty-nine-year-old woman who can’t drive in a storm. But I just…I can’t.”
“You don’t have to apologize for being afraid. And you can always call me.”
I hope she does. I don’t know how much Emma leans on other people; she has always seemed like the caretaker of the group to me—the one who always knows what everyone needs. But I do know she’s never leaned on me. Hell, before the run this morning, she’s barely even spoken to me outside of a work setting. It might be too much to hope that today has broken some of the tension between us. That maybe if she needs someone in her corner, she’ll start to choose me too.
I don’t know what I have to offer, but if I have something I can give her, I would really like to try. And not just because I fucked up eight years ago and have something to make up to her. Although I did, and I do. But because she’s Emma, and for all the years I have known her, she has made mefeel. The feelings are confusing and aren’t always comfortable, and I rarely know what to do with them, but with each passing year, they get harder to push aside. I may not know how to give her exactly what she needs, but I’m here and I hope that counts for something.
I push Emma’s hair behind her ear and run my fingers down her jaw. She closes her eyes and takes what looks like her first full breath in a while. But just as she lets it out and seems to settle a little more, a loud clap of thunder sounds from outside. Emma’s body goes rigid, and she leans down, laying her forehead on our joined hands, her back shaking as she takes ragged breaths. I rub circles on her back with my free hand.
“It’s okay to be scared, Ems. But you’re not alone now. Can you tell me what you need?”
She takes a deep breath and lifts her head. When our eyes meet, my heart gallops. With her tumbled red hair and her green eyes and the spray of freckles across her creamy skin, Emma is beautiful. It’s a ridiculously common word for such an uncommon person, but it’s what I’ve got. I have the sudden thought that I could look at her over and over forever and discover something new every time.
“I really need to be home. When it storms, I feel better when I’m at home.” Emma’s words shake me out of my thoughts.
“Then let’s get you home.” I stand from my crouch, my bad knee popping from the change in position. Wrapping my hand around one of Emma’s, I pull her up with me and lead her out of the stall.
“I parked right in front, so you don’t have to be outside for long, okay?”
Emma swallows hard when I mention going outside, but she nods. Unlocking the bathroom door, I push it open, and we walk out into the hall, my arm around her shoulders to guide her through the busy restaurant. As we approach the front door and see the pouring rain and flashes of lightning from outside, Emma tenses up under my arm. Stopping in front of the door, I turn her to face me and put a hand on each of her shoulders, running them up and down her arms to try and give her some calm.
“I know it looks bad outside, but we’ll walk to the car fast. You only have to be outside for a few seconds. And my Jeep is made for weather like this. I’ll keep you safe. I promise.”
It seems like the right thing to say because she straightens her shoulders and with one last glance out the door nods and says, “I’m ready.”
I put my arm back around her and guide her out the door quickly and straight to my car. With the awning over the path from the street to the restaurant, we barely have a chance to getwet before I open the passenger door and help Emma in, clicking her seatbelt into place before I stride around the front of the car and slide into the driver’s seat.
“Okay?” I ask, once we’re both settled in. Emma turns to face me. Her face is a little pale, and her eyes are still covered in a gloss of anxiety, but there is something else in them too that I can’t quite read. Suddenly needing to touch her for reasons I don’t understand, I reach out and push her damp hair behind her ear, letting my hand rest on her cheek.
She takes a deep breath and lets it out slowly, leaning into my hand and closing her eyes.
“Okay.”
When she opens her eyes, they lock with mine just as a jagged bolt of lightning flashes across the sky, followed immediately by a loud clap of thunder that has Emma jolting in her seat, fear flooding her face. With one hand still on her cheek, I keep her eyes on me.
“I’m going to start the car now and take you home, Ems. It’s just ten minutes, and if you have to drive in bad weather, this is the car for it. I won’t let anything happen to you; I swear.”
“I know,” she says.
“Want to listen to music on the way so you can’t hear the thunder?”
She shrugs a shoulder. “Sure.”
I unlock my phone and toss it to her before I start the car.
“Passenger picks the music.”
“You sure about that?” she asks with a sly grin. It’s a grin I’ve only seen on her when she’s lawyer Emma and I’m client Jeremy, and her giving it to me now when we’re neither of those things makes me feel some kind of way. Like she called me as a friend when she needed me, and I was able to be the person she needed. A simple thing for some people, maybe, but to me, it feels monumental.
“I’m so sure.”
She types something into the search bar of my music app and the opening bars of “You Belong with Me (Taylor’s Version)”come blaring out of the speakers. When I turn back to look at Emma, she’s already looking at me with a considering expression on her face, as if waiting for my reaction. I’m mostly speechless, and also wondering if this is some kind of hidden message. When she winks at me—fucking winks—I’m sure it is. I could wonder why my immediate instinct isn’t to shut off the song as quickly as possible.
