52. Garrett
Chapter Fifty-Two
GARRETT
H e leaned forward to hand Emma her dinner plate. “How do you feel?”
His lovely wife picked up a fork and mimed stabbing him with it. “You have to stop asking me that. I’m fine .”
That was mostly true. Several days had passed since the incident at the construction site. Emma had done as Dr. Desjardin directed, taking small doses of her pain pills to condition her body to the new medication. There hadn’t been a repeat of the fugue state that had nearly ended her life.
According to the doctor, that meant she was in the clear now, but he advised keeping her close for the next few weeks.
It was a prescription Garrett could easily follow. He took some time off work and spent the next few days driving his wife insane by following her around the apartment, making sure she didn’t trip, and pressing food on her every other minute.
Fortunately for him, Emma was in the mood to humor him. For a while. But now they’d officially entered the stabby utensil phase.
“I know.” He sighed, looking her up and down. “And I apologize. I know I’ve been…”
“An overbearing butthead?”
“I was going to say prison warden. ”
“Yeah, that too.”
She pointed the fork at him and wagged her eyebrows. “Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed playing naughty prisoner last night. But I can’t have you busting in on me in the bathroom anymore.”
He smacked his lips. “Hey, you were taking too long in that bath. And I thought you liked it when I climbed into the tub with you.”
“You’re right. That was fun,” she acknowledged. “But you’ve got to ease up a little. On a totally unrelated note, when are you going back to work?”
He grinned at her. “I was thinking of something else when I asked about your health. Do you feel up to a trip?”
“Where to?”
“Verdant Falls.”
Her lips parted. That was not the answer she had been expecting.
“Or rather just outside it—your mom lives in the next town over, right?”
Bemused, she nodded.
“And your little sister’s birthday is coming up?”
Her face softened. “Yes. Stella’s going to be five. I, uh, was going to wait till they came here to have a big blowout celebration.”
“I know.” Emma had been making plans for sightseeing over Thanksgiving break, including trips to the zoo and Sea World.
“We can still do that. But we can also go this weekend for her actual birthday.”
Emma leaned back in her chair, chewing on her lower lip.
Garrett leaned forward, covering her hand with his. He understood her reticence only too well. “I know home is not your favorite place. You’re far more vulnerable there. It’s close enough to our hometown that anyone we see could be someone from your past and not knowing who they were to you must be deeply unnerving. But I’m going to be with you the whole time. Friend or foe, I’ll know them and will be more than happy to run interference.”
He watched the play of emotions on her face. Emma was so expressive. He could never take her to Vegas. She would be a terrible poker player .
“Not that we have to go into Verdant Falls at all,” he continued. “I’ve been looking at Air BnB’s. I found a few nice cabins a short drive from your mom’s house. If we buy groceries and don’t eat out, no one from Verdant Falls will know we’re visiting.”
She raised her brows. “Not even your aunt?”
That was a very good point. If Phil ever got wind that he’d been in town and didn’t come by, she would skin him alive. “I might go see her for a quick visit. But she won’t say anything to anyone if I ask her not to.”
Judging from her expression, Emma wasn’t convinced.
Garrett leaned over, reaching out to cover her hand with his. “But we don’t have to sneak around either. If you do feel like going out, you’ll do it with me at your side. Even if someone had an axe to grind with you—and that’s a big if—they would never dare approach my wife.”
Emma released her lower lip with a pop. “I guess that’s true.”
“But?” He knew there was one.
“If we want to spend time with Stella, we should stay at my mom’s. She moved right after I got out of the hospital, but I do have a room at the house. It’ll be a little cramped and your feet might hang off the edge of the bed, but we would manage.”
Emma leaned forward, a sparkle in her eye. “If we were still fake married and maintaining separate bedrooms, it would be different. But the whole point of the visit is to introduce you to my family as my husband…”
“And spoil your baby sister with presents,” he interjected.
Guilt flittered across her face. “ And break the news to my mom that this marriage is real…”
Garrett’s heart dropped to his feet. “She still doesn’t know?”
Emma hesitated. “Well, my mom has been stressed out about something lately. I’m pretty sure she’s been fighting with her current boyfriend—whoever he is. She hasn’t mentioned anyone by name, but she talks a lot about men being pieces of crap. It didn’t seem like the best time to tell her that our marriage is about more than health insurance now.”
He suppressed a groan. “If that’s the case, do you think it’s wise to be in her house, shacking up under her roof?”
“Shacking up is what people who aren’t married do,” she corrected. “And it might be a little awkward at first. But now that I’m thinking about it, it’s better to face this head-on. The sooner my mom sees us together, the sooner she’ll know that we’re the real deal. Plus, it will give me more time with Stella. I miss smushing her little face with kisses.”
Garrett masked his disappointment, refusing to let her see it. There went his plans for lovemaking in front of a fire…
“If you think that will help Mariana get over any reservations she might have, then we’ll stay with them. As for face-smushing kisses—I guess I can share with Stella for a few days. But I’d like to claim a small percentage of lip action if you can squeeze it in.”
Whatever discomfort he might experience this weekend was worth the look on his wife’s face right now.
And who knows, maybe once she was within a stone’s throw of their hometown, she might want to take a closer look at her past.
Emma had remembered the story he’d told her about Phil’s cat. Maybe if she went back home, relaxed and without fear in the company of her husband-slash-bodyguard, she might remember more.
She popped out of her seat to plant a rushed kiss on his cheek. “I’ll call them right now to let them know we’re coming!”
He kept the smile on his face until she was out of sight. Then he pulled out his phone to cancel the booking he’d made for the luxury two-story cabin by the river, the one that reminded him of the one his family used to own.
His father had sold that cabin years ago.
At the time he hadn’t been sorry to see it go. Remembering his time with Emma in that place had been painful. So he’d celebrated the sale with a drink, telling himself it was for the best. Moving on was the healthy thing to do.
Garrett regretted letting it go now. According to his aunt that cabin had been his mother’s favorite place in the entire state. Her father had built it .
Had his father bothered to get Phil’s permission to sell it? Had she profited from the sale?
He had no idea. Garrett really should have asked these questions earlier. Berating himself, he shot another text to his PI.
It seemed Emma wasn’t the one who needed to reevaluate things in their hometown.