Chapter Forty-Four
Emerson
In the end, I convince Cate to meet me at a café. Well, Hallowed Grounds, despite its surly owner. Meeting somewhere outside is probably for the best. Jamie offered to leave the house—to go to Patch’s place, I presume—but I don’t want to force him out like that.
Truth is, I need some space. It’s difficult to remember that once I’m sitting in the café waiting for Cate to arrive because all I want is to be back with the pair of them again, snuggled up in bed like we were this morning.
But no. Jamie had it worse yesterday, of course, but I haven’t seen Gideon in over a decade. It’s not how I expected to meet my older brother again, that’s for sure.
Cate arrives ten minutes after I do and all but runs over to envelop me in a hug. She nearly knocks me over, but the relief that floods me to have her here is overwhelming.
“Hey. Hey! You’re shaking.”
“Y-yeah, I—” I shake my head. Cate helps me sit back down and then takes the chair across from me.
Her red hair is all piled on top of her head like she ran out of her flat this morning, and she’s wearing a big sweatshirt and a pair of joggers I’ve never seen her in.
When she sees me eyeing her outfit, she frowns. “What?”
“You don’t normally dress like that.”
“Okay, giving you a pass because clearly you’ve been through it, but you weren’t exactly clear in your texts if you still had to leave, so I put this on to help you move, dickhead. What’s going on?”
Ah, fuck. Well, she’s seen the video. Both of them. Surely, they can’t expect I’d hide the truth from her?
Lark comes over, a mug in hand. I frown. I ordered when I came in, but I haven’t had a chance to order for Cate yet.
“Here,” he says, setting the drink down in front of her. “Tea. Just a hint of milk.”
“Just how I…” Cate blinks up at him. “Um. Thank you.”
He nods and whirls away again. Cate watches him go, then looks around the rest of the café. It’s not empty, but there are only five other people in here, so it’s hardly full, either.
“Oh. This is…” She trails off. “It’s all real, then?”
“You saw the livestream.”
“Emerson.”
“Yeah, it is.”
“You don’t look pleased about it.” She pauses, cup halfway to her lips. “You’re not in trouble, are you?”
“I was. I still am. Maybe. I think.”
“Tell me what happened. All of it.”
“Cate, I don’t know—”
“All of it. I didn’t drive all the way down here for three sentences, you know.”
I sigh. She’s serious and firm, but she’s worried, too—I can see that in the way her gaze keeps flicking over me, like she’s looking for an injury.
“Okay, shit. Let me start at the beginning.”
I do. I know we don’t have all the time in the world—though at least Kieran’s use of ‘afternoon’ was pretty nebulous—but I sit and tell her about moving in with Jamie and Nick, and meeting Patch, and the dates, and finding the wolf… All of it.
And then I mention Gideon.
Cate almost drops her cup. “What the fuck?!” she shouts. The couple over at a nearby table peer at us curiously.
“It’s fine. He’s—”
“No, it’s—” Cate glances around and lowers her voice, but the anger is still present. “No, it’s fucking not okay. What if you’d got in real trouble over this? He’s already messed everything up, as usual, and what, for some money you don’t even have? If I see him, I’m gonna—”
“I think he might go to prison,” I say. It’s the first time I’ve really thought about it, but if the executives at the company have any sense, even if only in saving their own hides, they’ll throw him under the bus.
“Good,” Cate says.
“I don’t…” I pull a face. “I don’t know how I feel about that.”
Cate stares at me. She pushes her cup aside and stretches her hands out.
“What?” I say.
“Come on.”
“I—”
“Em!”
I take her hands and sigh. She squeezes tight.
“You’ll work out how you feel eventually.
You always do. And I’ll be here when you do, and I have the funny feeling that these two new guys in your life—we are getting well into that, by the way, once we get through the heavy shit—will be there as well.
However you feel won’t be wrong, Em. You can be sad. You can miss him.”
“I never really had a brother, though. Not like—Not like normal people do.”
“You can be sad about that, too. Grieve the loss of something you never had. People do that all the time, you know?”
“They do?”
“Sure. You were doing it about your boyfriends, weren’t you? In between all the drama, sounds like.”
I laugh and shake my head. “It’s been a lot of drama,” I agree.
“It has.” She squeezes my hands again, then lets go. “So what’s the plan for today?”
“We have to go meet some people. Spend time with them. I think they want to check up on Jamie.” I’m kind of itching to get back to him, too. Not that I want to leave Cate. I want her to meet them.
“And after that?”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, it’s pretty fucking obvious I’m not moving you out of here and back up north today. You’re planning on staying. With them.”
“No, I—I thought you’d give me a reality check.”
Cate hums. She purses her lips and nods. “Okay.”
I take a deep breath. “Okay, give it to me.”
“You’re going to take me to wherever your boyfriends are, and I’m going to meet them.”
Nerves erupt in my stomach. “Yeah, okay.”
“And then, once I’m sure they’re good enough for that starry-eyed look on your face, I’ll approve and you’ll say that you don’t need my approval because you love to be a contrary bitch, but secretly you’ll be happy and I’ll be happy and you’ll all live happily ever after.”
“I don’t think it works like that,” I say numbly, watching as she gets to her feet.
She raises an eyebrow. “Really? Because I do.” She eyes Lark, who is watching us curiously, then looks back at me. “Also magical, right?”
“I-I think.”
“Cool. I’m gonna pay for my tea. Let’s go.”
I pause as we reach the front door. When I look back at Cate, she cocks one eyebrow in question.
“Look, just… I know it’s weird. And too fast. But can you…?”
“I’ll be cool, Em.”
I bite the inside of my cheek. I know she will. I know. It’s just nerve-wracking, having her meet them, having—
The door swings open. Nick is standing on the other side and he frowns at me, puzzled. “Forgot your key?”
“No, I—” Cate pushes past me and sticks out her hand.
“Cate. Which one are you?”
Nick snorts but shakes her hand. “Neither. I’m Nick. Come on. They’ll be excited to meet you.”
Cate kicks off her shoes by the door and follows Nick into the living room. I’m only a step behind her and my heart skips a beat when I see Patch and Jamie sitting there. Jamie has a book in his lap and Patch has his arm around Jamie’s shoulders.
Want sizzles through me. Jamie recovers fastest, putting his book aside. “Hey.”
“Hey,” I reply.
Nick shakes his head and wanders off into the kitchen.
“This is Cate. Cate, Jamie and Patch.”
Cate doesn’t approach them the way she did Nick. She eyes them both instead, then swings around to look at me.
“You’re staying here, huh?” she says.
“I—” I haven’t said I will. I want to, but I want an outside perspective. An honest perspective.
Cate lowers her voice, but it makes no difference; they’ll both be able to hear her. Jamie looks concerned. Patch just watches us, expression impossible to read.
“I’ve never seen anyone look at you like that, Em,” she whispers. “If someone looked at me the way they both looked at you when you walked in… I’d stay. I wouldn’t even think about it.”
“You were supposed to talk to them,” I say. “You’ve not even asked a question.”
She rolls her eyes but grins. “Fine. Let me interrogate your boyfriends, then.” Jamie starts in surprise, and Patch holds on to him a little tighter when Cate drops onto the sofa with them both. I shake my head and go to help Nick with the tea.
Best to leave her to it. Nick nudges me when I step up to the counter beside him.
“She’s cool with everything?” he asks.
“Seems like it.”
“You should take her along with you later.”
I look at him and he shrugs. “Jamie’s known about all this shit for a while. Patch was born into it. It can be… a lot. Good to have someone to help you through it.”
“You could come with us, too.” If they won’t mind me taking Cate—and I suspect Nick is right and they won’t—then they won’t mind Nick coming along.
“Nah,” he says, and the smile he gives me is not reflected in his eyes. “Not my scene. You’ll have fun, though. They’ll like you.”
Nervous butterflies erupt in my stomach. God, I hope so.