14. Garrett
Chapter Fourteen
GARRETT
S tartled and relieved, he laughed. “He’s next door,” he said. “My neighbor and best friend is watching him.”
He held out a hand. “C’mon. I know Rainer is here today. We can pick up Prince now.”
Emma gave his outstretched hand the side-eye. “His name is Meowmus Maximus now.”
Putting his hand down before it got embarrassing, he cocked his head at her. “So, he’s not royalty? Instead, we’re setting him up to be a dictator?”
She shrugged. “He is a cat.”
Damn, she made him want to smile. He wasn’t used to that sort of thing anymore.
“I’m not sure it’s a good idea to acknowledge his dominance over us.”
“That’s dogs. Cats automatically assume we’re their servants.”
Garrett pressed his lips together, acknowledging the truth of that. “Makes me wish you had found a puppy in the garage.”
With that, he led the way next door, telling her a little bit about Rainer and George.
Garrett used to live across town but when his old college roommate had told him the penthouse next to him was opening up, he’d jumped at the opportunity to move in next door.
He’d had a few misgivings about it. Being divorced, he’d been worried about crowding Rainer, who had just gotten engaged to his girlfriend-slash-mechanic Georgia. The last thing he wanted was to be a third wheel. Or worse—a gross serial-dating divorcé who changed women every few weeks.
These were just a few of the reasons he’d throttled down on his social life.
It might have been his imagination, but his best friend’s girl had warmed considerably as a result. Not that George had ever been icy. She wasn’t capable of that. But there had been some awkwardness in the beginning. Which was understandable, given how they’d met.
Note to self, don’t ever tell Emmy you accidentally saw Georgia naked.
He also recognized the irony—despite that rocky start, Garrett was counting on the woman now.
If ever a woman was earmarked as a future best friend, it was Georgia Hines. Cute as a button and super friendly, she even had a cool job that required greasy coveralls. Yes, she might live in the penthouse next door, but George didn’t have a pretentious bone in her body.
Garrett wasn’t above using whatever tools he had at his disposal to make Emma want to stay put in his apartment.
His speculation that Emma and Georgia would hit it off proved spot-on. They got along so well it quickly became obvious that he and Rainer were superfluous, especially once Georgia emerged from the bedroom with the newly christened Meowmus.
He and his friend retreated upstairs to the office, where they could look down on the women in the living room through the glass wall as they fussed with the kitten.
Rainer glanced down at his fiancée of almost a year and heaved a heavy sigh. “Now I have to get a cat. Thanks for that.”
His lips twitched. “Sorry, it had to be done.”
Like Georgia, the kitten was part of his plan. Fortunately, the little beast was cooperating. The fur ball appeared to recognize Emma and was hamming it up for her, welcoming her as if she had just come back from a war.
He was so engrossed watching her that he didn’t notice Rainer’s scrutiny until the man nudged him.
“Are you ready to tell me what the hell is going on here? Why did you invite this woman to live with you?”
He raised his brows. “You don’t believe it’s out of the goodness of my heart?”
Rainer snorted. “Look, I know you have a good heart, despite what people say. But the Garrett I know is a commitment-phobic divorcé who would sooner chew his leg off than invite a woman to live with him, even in the short term.”
What people? Garrett scowled . He wandered over to the drink fridge Rainer kept in his office, grabbing a soda. “In case you didn’t notice, I haven’t exactly been tearing it up lately.”
Rainer frowned as if just now realizing that his closest friend had no social life to speak of. “I guess that’s true. You’ve been busy expanding your business.”
Rainer only had part of the answer. It wasn’t just Next Chapter that had led Garrett to kill his dating life off. It had been Rainer and George and their true and vibrant love for one another.
He’d been happy for them, of course, but he’d also been envious.
“So, obviously, you didn’t tell me everything yesterday,” Rainer prodded.
Garrett passed a hand through his hair. “Things happened so fast, there wasn’t time.”
He broke off, his mouth open as he wondered where the hell to start. His relationship with Emma was a clusterfuck over a decade old. He finally shrugged. “It’s complicated.”
The understatement of the year.
“Yeah,” Rainer mused. “That’s kind of obvious from the way you look at her.”
It was as if a bright spotlight had just been pointed at him. “How do I look at her?” he asked.
Rainer was nothing if not brutally honest. “Like you want to leap on top of her. So, unless you want her to run away screaming, I’d work on that.”
Fuck, that wasn’t good. He cleared his throat. “Noted.”
Rainer took the soda from his hand, switching it with a beer. “How long have you known her?”
Pivoting, he narrowed his eyes. “Did Fletcher call you?”
“No.” Rainer laughed. “But color me intrigued. How do you and Fletcher know her? And why is she living with you?”
Unable to help himself, he went back to the window to watch the women play with the cat.
Don’t kid yourself. Garrett had eyes for only one woman below.
She was so guarded now, but still so… Emma.
“We went to high school together,” he finally said. “During spring break of her senior year of college, she was the victim of a hit-and-run while walking to a party. She was hurt.”
Rainer joined him at the window. “Bad?”
“Real bad. She lost her memory.”
Rainer frowned. “Of the accident?”
“Of everything. Her entire life before the accident is gone.”
Rainer shoved his hands in his pockets, his face tightening. “Fuck. I had no idea. She seems so normal.”
“It was a couple of years ago now. I found her working at the coffee shop at the Lumen last week.”
Garrett explained his idiotic theory of Emma being a corporate spy and what happened after, the landlord fuckup that had put her here, in his power.
He didn’t phrase it like that, of course. But his best friend could read between the lines.
Instead of peppering him with questions, Rainer simply waited, a quiet nonthreatening presence who wasn’t shy about telling you when you were going off the rails.
“I hate to say it but I’m with Fletcher. Moving her into your place is a recipe for disaster. Find her someplace else to live.”
He shook his head. “No. I can’t do that. ”
Rainer rolled his shoulders and shot him a look. “Why the hell not?”
Garrett was glad the kitten was so damn distracting. If Emma glanced up and saw his expression right now, she’d pack her bags.
“Because there’s more,” he confessed, intent on getting everything off his chest. “The night of the accident, the party Emma was going to…”
“Yeah?”
He swallowed back bile. “It was at my house.”