Page 62 of Not Part of the Plan
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Hours later, wrung out and sated, Emma laid her head on Niko’s chest in the dark. She listened to the thud of his heart as it slowly returned to a measured pace. “Would it be wrong to say I’m so glad you had a life crisis? Because I’m feeling rather grateful at the moment.”
He laughed softly, lips moving against her hair. “I’m not feeling particularly regretful myself.”
She sighed and used the pads of her fingers to trace meaningless patterns on Niko’s chest. He let her play in silence for a few minutes before drawing her fingers to his mouth to kiss each tip. “How are you not taken, Emmaline Merill?”
“The pickings around Blue Moon can be… an acquired taste,” she said diplomatically.
“What about before? In L.A. There’s no way you were single out there.”
“I became very particular when I lived there,” she admitted. “It’s a long story.”
“I’ve got time unless Aurora is going to jump on the bed and ask to sleep over.”
Emma debated with herself. Opening up about past mistakes made her feel uncomfortably vulnerable. But Niko had been nothing but honest with her. She cleared her throat and took the plunge. “When I first moved to L.A., I was very young, very naïve,” Emma sighed, fighting the internal flinch at the memory of her own stupidity. “There was this guy who was several years older than me, more experienced, incredibly good looking.”
“He sounds like a dick,” Niko said, squeezing her hand.
She gave a wry smile and returned the squeeze of his hand. “He would surprise me with flowers, gifts. There were fancy dinners out, a weekend in Napa. It was enough to keep me from questioning why he never answered his phone when I called or why we never spent the night at his place.”
She could tell he knew where she was going with this story.
“I was just a shift manager at the time, so I’d work catering jobs on the side to make ends meet. I was mixing a Manhattan at a fundraiser when I saw him. He was supposed to be ‘out of town on business.’ But he was there with an aspiring model/actress. Beautiful, young, naïve.” She gave a sad laugh.
Niko threaded his fingers into her hair and stroked but said nothing.
“I controlled my considerable temper and bided my time. He wandered off to make a phone call—me on my cell, oddly enough—and I approached her with a tray of canapés and a line about how handsome her date was. They’d been ‘dating’ for two months.Iwas the other woman.”
“So what did you do?”
“Because you know I did something.” This time her smile was real. “I dragged Thandie—that’s her name—into the ladies’ room. I broke the news, maybe a bit harshly.” She regretted that, but it couldn’t be helped now. “When she recovered, we took a selfie together and texted it to him.”
“Cold. I like it,” Niko grinned.
“He called me first, which hurt Thandie even more and pissed me off even more. After I gave him a piece of my mind and hung up on him, he called her and gave her the same apologies, the same promises.”
“Did it work?”
“Not then but eventually. They got married a year later and divorced a year after that.”
“What about you?”
“I became much more selective about who I dated. I’d been seeing someone leaning toward serious when Jax showed up in L.A. with a job offer.”
“What happened to ‘leaning toward serious’? He didn’t want to switch coasts?”
Emma sighed. “He wouldn’t have wanted to. His life and job were there. It wouldn’t be fair to ask him to uproot everything for me.” She hadn’t actually asked Mason, hadn’t given him the chance to say no. But it was for the best. They’d both been disappointed that things hadn’t worked out, disappointed but not devastated.It was, Emma thought,how adults parted ways, civilly and without drama.
“What made you choose here over him?”
“Family,” Emma said without hesitating. “I missed my dad, and with Gia and the kids here, the decision was a no-brainer. I missed birthdays and Sunday lunches and pop-ins. I’m happy here. I feel like I belong and what I do matters to people here.”
“That’s a good feeling.”
“Nikolai?”
“Hmm?”
