Chapter 6
chapter
six
Emory
What’s the harm?
Such an innocuous question.
What’s the harm? Hope, that’s the damn harm. That small fleck of hope that rears its foolish head in situations like that. This is why I keep to myself.
Making friends and getting close to people is a recipe for heartbreak. That’s what life has taught me again and again. The only exception was Buck. The grizzled old man who owned and ran the garage in my tiny town. Despite all that he gifted me—teaching me how to build engines and work on cars—he wasn’t a particularly affable person. Not affectionate in the least. When he left me Lola in his will, I was as surprised as the rest of the people in the lawyer’s office.
“Emory?” Jude’s voice comes out gentle.
My eyes lift to his.
“Dinner? Evidently my sisters have been cooking together which, in and of itself, is a feat. The oldest two bicker constantly. Anyways, they thought for sure that I’d been an ass and made you not want to come and sent me here to change your mind.”
As much as I don’t want to, his words pull a smile from me.
He is not at all what I was expecting. He looks like a model or a movie star. Easily the most attractive human I’ve ever seen in person. Yet, he’s not the cocky asshole he could be. Most men, and women, who are that attractive know they can get whatever they want in the world. And they behave so poorly yet society tends to reward them anyway .
But Jude, regardless of his level of hotness is self-effacing and cute. How is he cute?
Oh shit. Now I know I’m in trouble.
He gives me a hopeful grin. “They really, really want to meet you.”
“Will you tell me why they all live with you?”
He looks slightly shocked at my question but nods. “I’ll tell you whatever you want to know.”
“Is Rosie okay to be off leash?” I ask.
“Yeah, she’ll be fine. We have some predators that live in the area, coyotes, mountain lions, and a crap ton of poisonous snakes, but snakes are hibernating more than likely this time of year, and the others tend to wait until it’s dark to come out. But if it will make you feel better, I’ll throw myself between either of you and danger.”
I want to ask him why. Why would he do that for me? For Rosie it makes sense. Decent people protect innocent animals. But he doesn’t really know me. He has no reason to protect me over himself.
“Do you have some sort of hero complex?” I ask.
He laughs. “Uh, no. Not at all. Why?”
I shake my head. “Just a random question.” We start walking side-by-side, and Rosie scampers in front of us, no doubt believing she’s completely in charge of where we’re going.
“You wanted to know about me and my sisters,” he says.
“Yes. I don’t have siblings so I’m not sure how it normally works, but I’d think it’s pretty strange for a single man to live with his three younger sisters.”
He chuckles. “Technically my three younger sisters live with me. Our parents died in an accident when I was twenty. Juliette wasn’t even eight years old, Arie and Sofia were twelve and ten.” He lifts a shoulder in a simple shrug.
“So I became their legal guardian, and with our grandmother’s help I raised them. But I’m almost done. Juliette turns eighteen in three months and then I am no longer legally in charge. I’m still in charge as long as they live in my house, something I have to remind them of often. I think they think they’re the ones in charge.”
I laugh. I can’t help myself. He’s remarkably easy to be around, which in and of itself is weird. I can record myself all day, every day, and am completely at ease in my skin talking to the camera. But being around people is usually a struggle for me.
“That was really pretty amazing of you to do that for them,” I say.
“Not really,” he says. “I mean they are my sisters. What was I gonna do? Make them live on the streets or put them in foster care?”
I wait for the wave of “I grew up in foster care so when I tell you, it’s amazing that you kept them out of it believe me. You saved them from a pretty crappy life.”
He stops walking and puts his hand on my arm.
His pale green-blue eyes peer at me and I have to look away after too many breaths. If I look at them for too long I get feelings in my stomach. Feelings that I don’t quite know what to do with. He is so hot, it’s just unfair. How is this man not taken? He’s got to have a line of women waiting for his attention. Of course, for all I know he has an entire harem he keeps somewhere else.
“Oh Peaches, I’m sorry I didn’t know.” His expression is earnest as he searches my face.
I smile at him. “How could you?”
We start walking again.
“We’re basically strangers.” That feels like a lie burning my tongue. But we just met last night, we are strangers. So it doesn’t matter how things feel . Feelings are fleeting and fickle.
Also, that’s the second time he’s called me that. Peaches. Did he forget my name?
“Well, I do know some things about you,” he says. “I went on a bit of a binge last night watching your videos.”
“Why?” I blurt out.
“Because I met you and because I know my sisters look up to you. And because I was interested, wanted to know more about you.”
That makes my tummy flip and tighten again. This man is dangerous. “What did you discover?” I ask.
“That you’re pretty fucking amazing regardless of where or how you grew up.”
I will not cry.
I will not cry.
I swallow thickly and look ahead to where Rosie is chasing a squirrel.
“Thanks,” I manage.
We walk further in silence and I can see the back of his house up ahead.
“So, what were your reading earlier? Outside of your van?”
Kill.
Me.
Now.