“Okay,” Asher says, once he’s settled in with my cereal box in hand. “Now I’m ready to know all the things.”
I tread a little carefully, not wanting to tell him anything about Emma I assume she doesn’t want him to know.
“Emma needed someone to pick her up from downtown last week, and the girls were all away, so she called me. I took her home and ended up staying for a while. It was…nice. Comfortable, I guess. I liked talking to her like that. I’d like to talk to her more.”
“So do that,” Asher says, matter-of-factly. “Talk to her. More. Every chance you get. These girls, man. They are…incredible is the first word that comes to mind. Obviously, Julie is the most incredible.”
“Obviously,” I laugh, appreciating, as always, how gone he is for Jules.
“But the four of them are special. Really and truly amazing, badass women who deserve a man who puts in the time and works for it. They won’t accept any less, and they shouldn’t. So, if Emma is who you want, then put in the time. Be who she deserves.”
Unease curls in my stomach because can I even be who she deserves? Who anyone deserves? I don’t want to go there with Asher though. With anyone.
“I’m not…completely sure I know how to do that,” I say carefully. “How to be who she deserves.”
It’s all I say, but it’s more than I’ve ever said to anyone else, even Ben. I would have expected to feel anxious the first time I put a voice to the darker thoughts in my brain. But I don’t. Instead, I just feel relief.
Asher looks at me with understanding. “Listen, I don’t know the details and you don’t owe those to me or anyone else, but I know you had it rough growing up, and that’s probably why you feel the way you do. I can tell you without a doubt that youdoknow how to be who she deserves. And if you ever need someone to talk to, you have me.”
“Thanks,” I manage, willing my emotions away, stupidly grateful for this talk and Asher’s friendship.
Asher pushes up from his chair and grabs the folder off my desk.
“I have to get back to work but my best advice? Get in her way. Do things she won’t expect. And make her life easier when you can.” He grins and gets that goofy, lovestruck look on his face that tells me he’s thinking about Julie. “Worked for me. Catch you later, Jer.”
“Later.”
I sit there long after Asher leaves, thinking about what he said. I’m not sure what Emma and I could be. What I want to be. What I’m capable of being to her. For her. But then I think about the night of the storm and how much I liked talking to her on her couch. How much I would like to do more of that.
Get in her wayseems as good a place to start as any.
Smiling, I pick up my phone and scroll to my message thread with her.
Me
I didn’t run this morning and was thinking of going tonight. Want to run with me?
Ems
I’d like that.
Does 7 work?
That’s perfect.
Meet you on the trail, Ems.
Chapter Eleven
Emma
Ipark my car at the Beechwood Boulevard entrance to Frick Park where Jeremy is sitting on the low stone wall that divides the park and the sidewalk. His shorts are gray this time, and his shirt has the Fireside logo on it, but the hat is the same black Renegades hat he was wearing last time. It’s backward again, making my stomach flutter involuntarily. Or maybe it’s just the after-effects of my afternoon of tacos and tequila. It’s probably that. Definitely.
Keep telling yourself that.
He grins when he sees me, hopping down from the wall. His shorts ride up slightly, and I get a glimpse of the network of scars bisecting his knee from the surgeries he had to have after his hockey injury and the black ink on his thigh. I’m too far away to make out the design, but it doesn’t matter. It’s a thigh tattoo. It’s unfair, really, just how hot that is.
Be cool Emma. Friends first.
