Emma Langley is a forever kind of girl, and I’m no one’s idea of forever.
“Last night was amazing, Emma. But I’m not looking for anything serious. My life is so chaotic. You know, with the bar and the foundation and everything. It’s better if we call this what it is. Just one night between friends.”
My own words make my chest ache. For a minute, I allow myself to think about what it would be like to crawl back into bed and hold Emma against me. To spend the day learning each other’s bodies. To hear every thought in her fascinating brain and tell her all my secrets. But with something that feels a lot likeregret, I let that wish drift away. That kind of connection isn’t for me. I don’t know how to have it, and I definitely don’t know how to keep it. I know I’m hurting her, but better to do it quickly now than slowly over time when she realizes I’m no good for her.
Emma’s face turns stony and her spine snaps straight.
“For fuck’s sake Jeremy, you’re thinking awfully highly of yourself for eight in the morning. I was wondering if you wanted to get coffee or grab lunch. I wasn’t asking for a ring and a white picket fence.”
She reaches out and snatches the sheet off the bed, covering herself. Her red face and jerky movement make me want to reach out and gather her against me. But I’m helpless to do anything other than watch as she tucks the sheet tighter around herself.
Her angry gaze rakes over me.
“You can go now. I don’t want you here anymore.”
The disdain in her voice cuts me to the bone. I grab my clothes and shoes, not bothering to stop and get dressed. But before I leave her bedroom, I turn back and look at her. At her tumbled hair and rosy skin and eyes I could drown in if I let myself. I can’t let myself.
Her mouth opens like she’s about to say something, but she seems to think better of it, shaking her head and slamming her mouth shut. Helpless to come up with any words to fix the mess I’ve made, with one last look at Emma, I leave the brightness of her bedroom.
I dress quickly in the dimly lit hallway and head down the stairs. As I open the front door and it closes behind me with a click, I have the sinking feeling that I’m walking away from something significant. But I don’t know how to stop, and even if I did, I wouldn’t know how to stay.
Chapter One
Emma
“You guys ready?” Hallie’s voice filters in from the dining room of my best friend Julie’s house.
I’m sitting in the sunroom with Julie and our other friend Molly, waiting for Hallie’s big entrance. The sunroom is covered in the kind of organized chaos only Julie Parker can pull off. Napkin and tablecloth samples are folded neatly in one corner, and an array of party favor options fill another. A large whiteboard is set up against one wall holding meticulously lettered notes and to-do lists, and the biggest binder I have ever seen sits on the coffee table, full of color-coded folders and dividers. And a tri-fold mirror dominates one entire side, put there specifically for today’s mission.
Marrying former Pittsburgh Renegades quarterback Asher Hansley in a surprise backyard wedding last month might have softened my once ultra high-strung friend, but when the task at hand is planning Hallie’s wedding to the love of her life—who happens to be Julie’s twin brother Ben—Lawyer Mode Julie is fully activated. Today, that includes deciding that the boutique where Hallie bought her wedding dress is too impersonal a location for a dress fitting and talking the store owner into fittingHallie’s dress right here in Julie’s house, which has been dubbed Wedding Central for the past few weeks.
“Get in here, Hal,” Molly yells.
“Let’s see it,” calls Julie.
I say nothing, just keeping my eyes glued to the doorway where Hallie will be making her appearance.
“Oh boy, okay.” Hallie’s voice filters into the sunroom, punctuated by the click of her heels on the hardwood floor.
When Hallie walks in, my breath catches in my throat and tears flood my eyes. Molly clasps my hand, and Julie’s breath hitches.
“Hallie,” Molly breathes, seemingly at a loss for words, probably for the first time in her life. Julie says nothing, stunned completely silent.
“Is it…okay?” Hallie asks nervously.
Butterflies swarm my stomach like I’m the one standing in a wedding dress instead of watching my best friend try on hers. It’s a reaction I’m used to—I’ve always been able to feel other people’s emotions deeply, ever since I was a kid. To understand what they need, even when they might not know themselves. A therapist I saw for a while during a particularly difficult year in high school called me an empath, said it was a reaction to losing both of my parents when I was eight and being surrounded by so much grief and emotion at such a young age. But I’ve never cared much about the reason why, and I’ve never shied away from it. For me, it’s a way of connecting with the people I care about. And there is no one I care about more than the three women sitting in this room with me.
There was a time in my life when I never thought I would have a real family. Being here with my three best friends—my sisters in every way except blood—and being a part of all the goodness and love coming into their lives, and paying closeattention to how they feel through it all so I can support them in the best way I know how, is the best part of mine.
The nervous look on Hallie’s face has me letting go of Molly’s hand and standing up. Facing Hallie, I put my hands on her shoulders and turn her towards the mirror. Gold-rimmed and vintage looking of course, because Molly was in charge of sourcing the mirror and she is not acquainted with the concept of low key.
“Look at yourself, Hal. What do you see?” I ask, my throat clogged with emotion as I watch Hallie study herself in the mirror. The dress is sleeveless ivory lace, dipping low in the front and back, and falling straight to the floor in a soft A-line that skims Hallie’s curves perfectly. But it’s not the dress itself that has me emotional. It’s the look of awe and wonder on Hallie’s face as she looks at herself.
“I see the dress I’m going to wear to marry Ben,” she whispers. “Holy shit. I’m getting married.” Light fills her eyes, and she glows as joyful tears spill down her face, her gaze still glued to her reflection in the mirror.
“You are,” I say. “And you are perfect. Everything is going to be perfect.” Hallie and Ben got together last year after Ben confessed to having feelings for her since they were in high school, and they are beautiful together. There is no way their wedding is going to be anything but amazing.
“Of course it is,” says Julie, getting up from the couch and coming over to stand next to me. “I’m doing the planning.”
