Chapter 25
TWENTY-FIVE
By evening, Emily had gotten ready undisturbed, but she hadn’t really been able to come down after Sienna’s news.
She was showered, styled, and outfitted in a yellow sundress, something she’d packed to be summery, but wearing it tonight, she wanted to crawl into some sweats, and hide for the foreseeable future.
Emily looked at her reflection in the bathroom mirror.
She appeared put together, but inside, she was a wreck.
She’d tried to both call and text Patrick over the last couple of hours, but the cellular service was spotty again.
What was she doing accepting his advances?
She was letting him get a hold of her fragile emotions, knowing she’d have to deal with the aftermath when she got home.
And now, her worlds were overlapping, creating more drama than she was ready to deal with.
There was a knock at the door. “It’s Blair. May I come in?”
“Yep, it’s open.” Emily walked out of the en suite and into her room.
Blair came in cautiously. “You look so pretty,” she said.
“Thanks.” Emily brushed the front of her dress, smoothing it out. “Am I missing anything downstairs?”
Blair sat on the edge of the bed and grimaced. “Yeah… That’s why I came up.”
“What?” Emily asked, sitting down next to her. Did she really want to hear what Blair had to tell her? From the look on her face, she doubted it.
Blair leaned in. “Can I ask you a serious question?”
“Of course.”
“How do you feel about Patrick? Sienna told me you’re hitting it off.”
Emily didn’t want to get into this conversation because she didn’t know herself how to feel about Patrick. It was probably better to nip it in the bud. “He’s a nice guy. But I have to go back to my life.”
Blair nodded.
“What’s going on?” Emily asked, alarmed by the serious expression on Blair’s face.
“Will has been making all of us guard the steps to let him know if you were coming down. He sent me to get you.” She chewed on her lip. “And Patrick’s here.”
“Wait, ‘guard the steps’—why?”
“He’s been putting together this elaborate setup while Patrick has been cooking in the kitchen with a full view of it all. Sienna and Tyson tried to pull Will aside and talk some sense into him, and Rocko and I suggested he wait until you two were back home, but he refused to listen.”
“What is he doing?”
“It’s probably better for you to see for yourself.” Blair got up and took her arm. She walked Emily over to the bedroom door and gestured down the hall.
At the top of the stairs, Emily peered down at silk-rose-petal-covered steps.
“What is this?” she whispered, her breath shallow.
But she didn’t wait for an answer. She started down the stairs, her blood boiling.
In his usual manner, Will was thinking entirely about himself.
He’d selfishly pursued another woman, selfishly asked for his and Emily’s home for his own purposes, and now, he was putting on this extravagant show—for who?
Not her. He’d made it sound like all this was for her, but it wasn’t.
It was to save his own backside. He had realized he’d ruined what they had, and he was scared.
Lanie wasn’t who he expected, and he was going to be alone, so he’d come back with his tail between his legs.
The bottom of the steps wasn’t any less infuriating.
The trail continued into the living room.
Emily rounded the corner to find Will, all spruced up, standing with a velvet box in his hands and the rest of her friends looking on with unease.
That alone would’ve been enough to deal with.
But the light rattle in the open kitchen drew her eye to Patrick, who was making dinner.
His attention fluttered between her and Will as he fumbled with a piece of tin foil.
“What’s going on?” Emily asked, turning back to Will.
Will loped toward her and took her hands, the velvet box wedged between her fingers and his.
“I made a mess of things in a huge way,” he said.
“And there’s no reason for you to take me back.
But on the small chance that you might, I thought I’d try.
I know we’d have a long way to go, and I’m willing to go to counseling—whatever I need to do.
It took losing everything to realize how stupid I was.
I love you, and I didn’t fully appreciate how wonderful you are. ”
Emily stood on the precipice between her old life and her new one. A couple of weeks ago, she’d have fallen into Will’s arms if he’d confessed like this, but now she didn’t want to have anything to do with him. He’d wrecked her entire life and left her to pick up the pieces.
Will let go of her hands and opened the box to reveal an incredibly huge oval diamond surrounded by smaller diamonds cascading down the band. This new gem dwarfed her old one. She made eye contact with him for an explanation.
He grinned at her. “I sold a song. Let’s just say that we don’t have to worry about the bills for a while.
” He took the ring from the velvet cushion and held it out to her.
“I know I can’t buy you back, but I hope this shows my commitment.
Let’s start over. I want to date you again, take it slow.
” His face looked as if it wanted to crumple with emotion, but he held it together. For her or for himself?
A clatter in the kitchen cut through the moment.
She turned, but Patrick had bent over, collecting whatever he’d dropped.
A small celebratory cake sat on the counter.
They certainly wouldn’t be celebrating this.
She prayed Patrick hadn’t spent too long making it, given all his work at the restaurant that day.
Emily’s hands trembled, and she was lightheaded, struggling to get a breath. The room felt like as if it was closing in on her, her vision tunneling. She looked over at Patrick again, but her vision was blurred.
She needed to get out of there.
“I want to be alone.”
She turned around, ran out of the room, up the stairs, and sat on her bed.
Gasping, she hung her head between her knees to regain her composure, but she only felt worse.
She lay back on her bed, struggling to breathe.
Only then did the tears slide down her temples.
For what, she wasn’t sure—the loss of who she was, the absolute mortification she’d just experienced, or the absolute fear she had knowing, once and for all, that she did not want to be with Will.
After some time, the modern iron chandelier in the vaulted ceiling slowly came into focus through her tears.
Her mind was a muddle. Everyone else had benefited from being here, but she’d only managed to make things worse by falling head over heels for a guy she’d never see again.
And Patrick had just watched that entire exchange. Things would certainly be awkward now.
But that niggling thought came back with a vengeance: Perhaps it was for the best. Maybe this was meant to happen to keep her from falling too hard for this mysterious stranger. “Stranger” was the wrong word for him, though. He already felt like a friend, someone she got excited to see.
A knock at the door drew her attention.
“It’s Will. Can I come in?”
She rolled onto her side and wiped her eyes. “I need some time,” she said.
The silence on the other side of the door was heavy.
“Okay,” he finally said. “Want me to send Sienna or Blair up?”
“No.” She sniffled. The act of talking was too much in her state.
As Will’s footsteps faded, she pulled up the covers around her and buried her head in her pillow.
The next thing she knew, she’d drifted off, her mind weary from all the back-and-forth. She wasn’t sure how long she’d been asleep by the time she heard the second knock.
“Yes?” Emily croaked.
“May I come in?” a deep voice said from the other side of the door.
Emily sat up and dragged her fingers under her eyes. “Yeah.”
The door opened, and Patrick took a tentative step inside the room. “Everyone’s out at the pool,” he said. “I’ve just finished packing my things. I can heat you up some dinner before I go.”
“Thank you. I’m not hungry,” she said, forcing a smile.
He gestured toward the bed. “May I?”
She nodded, and he sat on the edge, the mattress dipping with his weight.
He chewed on his lip and then, on an inhale, said, “Look, I didn’t mean to—”
“I know,” she jumped in, guessing what he was about to say.
His blue eyes found hers. “You have a lot to deal with. I don’t want to make things more difficult. I can drop off cooked food each evening until you leave, so I don’t get in the middle of things.”
“You don’t have to do that. I’m a big girl. I can handle this.”
He leaned on his knees. “Had I known your situation with your ex wasn’t resolved, I wouldn’t have been so forward. I’m sorry.”
She put a hand on his bicep. “It is resolved.”
“I don’t think it is. I think it feels like it is.” Patrick stood up, and her hand dropped to the bed. He looked at her, something lingering on his lips.
His chest rising and falling steadily, he finally said, “I’ve got enough guilt without adding home-wrecker to the mix.
I think it might be better to keep my distance.
” Then those eyes, heavy with thoughts, landed on her.
“It would make it easier for you…and for me.” With that, he turned and left her alone.
She wanted to stop him, to bury her head in his strong chest, but she knew better. He was right. Leaving would be hard enough. Better to make a clean break now before they got any deeper.