65. Garrett
Chapter Sixty-Five
GARRETT
M eowmus Maximus had found a new human. The moment the little shit met Stella, he ditched both Garrett and Emma in favor of their cuter hybrid counterpart.
Not that Garrett minded. Less time in close contact with the beast meant fewer allergy pills. Truth be told, he was rather smug about the whole thing because it proved his point about cats.
Dogs were clearly superior in the loyalty stakes, while cats could and would switch allegiances on a dime.
He said as much to Rainer one gray weekend afternoon when Emma was out furniture shopping with her mother. He and Stella had spent a lazy day watching Saturday morning cartoons. Then they went next door to Rainer and George’s for brunch.
Their small beast, who was equally at home in that penthouse, accompanied them.
“I never did go through with my plan,” he told his friend as they sat on the couch, drinking one of Emma’s special coffee blends.
George and Stella were sitting on the floor, busy entertaining Meowmus with the absurd assortment of cat toys he’d accumulated.
“What plan was that?” Rainer asked, his eyes on his wife.
“The cat,” he confessed in a low voice. “Meowmus just reminded me that I intended to talk Emma into going around Verdant Falls with me to see if it would jog her memory.”
“Didn’t you decide that was a bad idea? Because it upsets her?”
“It does,” he acknowledged. “But that was before they changed her medicine, before the construction site.”
Rainer shifted to face him with an expression that could have curdled milk. “What about that near tragedy made you think she would want a trip down memory lane? Except for your sorry ass, she’s been firm about keeping the past she can’t remember in the past.” He leaned forward, lips firming. “Or do you intend to force the issue now because of Stella? Because I’m not sure that’s a good idea.”
“I don’t intend to force anything.” Garrett wasn’t a complete idiot. “But when Emma recovered a pre-accident memory at the construction site, I thought it all might be coming back. But so far, it’s the only one. I wasn’t going to push in Verdant Falls, just support her if she wanted to take a look around.”
This earned him another scowl.
“I’m sure that’s what you’d like to believe,” Rainer warned. “But that unspoken expectation would be there. And Emma’s astute enough to recognize that for what it is.”
His friend came closer, pitching his voice lower so the girls wouldn’t hear him. “You now have a beautiful daughter in addition to your beautiful wife. I don’t want to watch while you screw it all up by reaching for some idea of perfection.”
That one hit home. “The way I always do, you mean?”
“Perfect only exists on paper and in your memories,” Rainer murmured. “It’s not a thing of the present. And trying to plan your future around it isn’t just borrowing trouble. It’s inviting it home and letting it crash on your couch.”
Grunting, Garrett took a sip of his coffee, savoring it despite the heavy conversation. Damn, Emma could pick a bean.
“What memory was it?” Rainer asked.
“Hmm?”
“The memory Emma recovered?” Rainer prodded. “You never actually said what it was.”
“Oh, the thing about the cat.” He set the mug on the side table. “Not this one. My aunt’s old Persian.”
Rainer sat up. “You mean how the cat would lie in wait for you, hiding under the couch?”
“Yeah.” He laughed. “Emma remembered the story I told her when she was in college. The little shit would wait for me to pass by on my way to the bathroom. Then it would leap out to claw the shit out of me. Fucker always did it in the middle of the night when I was half-asleep with a full bladder.”
He’d accidentally pissed himself a little one time. But he didn’t tell Emma that.
Rainer didn’t join in the laughter. “ Shit . Emma didn’t remember that. I told her that story.”
Garrett stilled. “What?”
Rainer sat up straighter. “I shared it with her when she came over to pick up Meowmus after we cat-sat early on. She was commenting on how you didn’t seem to like the animal and was wondering why you would adopt one. I said at least this one didn’t lie in wait to ambush you and ended up telling her the whole story.”
The once excellent coffee swirled in his stomach unpleasantly. “You told her this before the construction site?”
Rainer nodded.
Fuck .
“ Hey ,” Rainer hissed. He pointed an accusing finger, wagging it in his face. “That right there. You shut that shit down and you do it now.”
He scowled. “What did I do?”
“Your disappointment is clear as day. If Emma sees it?—”
“She won’t,” Garrett interrupted.
“Make sure she doesn’t.”
Rainer’s expression softened. “Look, I know how hard it must be. In your shoes, I’d be invested in my partner remembering her past too. But you’ve already salvaged the most important parts of it,” he added with a significant look at Stella.
Rainer was right, of course. “Yeah,” he acknowledged. “I did. I won’t forget that. ”
They sat in silence, watching George and Stella play for a while longer.
Rainer was right. Having Stella and Emma with him was more than enough. They were his future, one he didn’t fully deserve. But he would sure as hell try.
“Hey, what is up with your partner?” Rainer asked after he’d finished his coffee.
Garrett raised a brow. “Emma is out shopping. I told you that.”
Rainer rose, heading to the bar to pour himself a glass of water. “I meant the far less cute one—Fletcher. He hasn’t been around much.”
Garrett followed him, taking his mug to the sink. “He’s fine. Probably tired as hell and resenting me a bit. He offered to hold down the fort for me at work so I could have this time with Stella and Emma. I’m grateful to him.”
Rainer grabbed the mug, washing it so his cleaning woman didn’t have to. “He’s handling your current deals on his own?”
Leaning against the bar, he nodded. “He wants to help. He knows it’s a crucial time for Stella.”
“Forgive me for saying it, but Fletcher is not usually that selfless.” Rainer sniffed. “Although, I suppose it makes sense—in this case. Otherwise, he’d be here, trying to be in the thick of things in that thirsty way of his.”
“In this case?” he echoed.
“No doubt he’s feeling a little shitty about what he said to Emma.” Rainer set the clean mug on the rack hidden on the top of the bar.
Garrett’s pulse picked up. “What the hell did he say to her?”
Rainer raised his brows. “She didn’t tell you?”
“No. She didn’t tell me anything.”
“Ah.” Rainer scratched his head. “Well, try and not go all agro on Fletcher. For what it’s worth, I don’t think he realized he was being an asshole. I’m sure Emma would like to forget it too. It hurt her feelings, but she got over it.”
He was going to have to strangle his best friend. “ Tell me what he said .”
Rainer grumbled something unintelligible under his breath.
“Keep in mind I heard this secondhand.”
Rainer raised his head, checking that George and Stella were still occupied. “Fletcher came by to talk to you about something and found Emma in your seat, waiting for you. He stuck his foot in his mouth the way he does, implying that her accident was a blessing in disguise.”
“How the fuck was it a blessing?” He’d lost the love of his life and his child for five fucking years.
Rainer wiped his hands on the towel. “He thinks that you two wouldn’t have made it as a couple without the accident, because of Emma’s ambition. She was gunning for Wall Street before the head injury, right?”
“And? I would have been right there with her.”
“I know that. But Fletcher suggested that both of you in high-powered positions would have been too stressful.”
“So, we would have broken up? That’s total bullshit.”
“It probably is,” Rainer agreed. But he heard the hint of doubt.
“All right—things might have been a little harder,” Garrett acknowledged. “But we would have made it work.”
Especially if they’d both known Stella was on the way.
“Hey, you’re preaching to the choir here. I wouldn’t bet against you and Emma.” Rainer huffed as if amused. “You don’t know how you look at her sometimes.”
“Untrue. I’m well aware I stare at her like a lovesick jackass—kind of how you look when George walks into the room in a new dress.”
Rainer pitched the towel at his head. “Hey, I’ll have you know she gets that in her ratty grease-stained coveralls, too.”
He turned his loving gaze to his wife. George glanced up as if sensing his regard. They exchanged one of those married looks, a moment of shared intimacy. At least until the furball pounced on her, forcing her to turn back to the game she’d abandoned.
“I’m glad you have this too,” Rainer said with genuine emotion. “No offense but you were starting to worry me.”
As little as three or four months ago, he would have been annoyed. But he knew better. Him before finding Emma again versus him now—there was no comparison .
“I’m happy.” That was all there was to it.
“That’s good. That’s really good.” Rainer gave him an assessing once-over. “Although, never in my wildest dreams could I have seen you as a father. But you’re handling being a dad rather well.”
“I wouldn’t go that far,” he muttered. “I’ve been cramming child-rearing books like nobody’s business but have yet to remember a damn thing when it matters. Like when she wakes up in the night and wants one of us to get in bed with her until she falls asleep. According to the books, we’re to reassure her but be firm that she’s to go to bed alone.”
“Didn’t work?”
“Hell no. Emma ended up sleeping with her till morning.”
He loved his baby girl so much already but that was not a pattern he wanted her to fall into. Nor did Garrett want to encourage Stella to crawl into their bed if she woke up scared.
In all the craziness of Stella’s homecoming, he and Emma had been forced to turn the dial down on their sex life—not a pattern he wanted to maintain.
Not that he hadn’t taken a few steps to remedy the situation. Pulling Emma into the coat closet yesterday had been lots of fun. Still, he had a very large and comfortable bed and he wanted to use it.
“Do I have to do something about Fletcher?” he asked.
The messy beginning had been his fault, of course. If he hadn’t accused Emma of industrial espionage, Fletcher wouldn’t have become prejudiced against her.
But the man should have corrected course by now. He and Emma were married, for Pete’s sake. Garrett couldn’t have his business partner upsetting his wife.
“Your call,” Rainer said. “But you know how awkward he can be. God knows he tries, but he’s never really fit in with the rest of our crew.”
Garrett wouldn’t have put it in quite those terms. But even he had to admit that Fletcher wasn’t his first port of call when he needed help. The man next to him was.
“Elias said he’s been riding my coattails since high school.”
“There is some truth to that,” Rainer admitted with some reluctance. “And it’s something he seems to be aware of, which can’t be a comfortable headspace to be in constantly. That doesn’t mean he hasn’t been a decent partner to you. He’ll relax about the Emma situation soon enough. In the meantime, he’s trying to make it up to you the only way he knows how.”
“That he is.”
It made sense. His business partner had been trying to make amends when he stepped up to handle their workload. But Garrett would have to keep a closer eye on that situation. And he needed to speak to Emma about it as soon as she got home.
That was his intention anyway. Until Stella decided to derail his plans.