30
EMERSYN
“Looks like we’re the last to arrive.” Gabe nodded to the array of vehicles already lined up in the driveway of their holiday home, each dark and sleek and oozing with affluence. “I can’t believe I let you talk me into this.”
“Me?” I whacked him playfully. “You wouldn’t let anyone talk you into anything, Gable Thornton.”
“You’re different.”
He grinned a lopsided grin that made my heart beat a little faster. We’d barely left each other’s sides since the night I’d appeared at his apartment and lost myself in him. I’d fallen for him. Hard. I’d allowed myself to be obsessed with him. Even now, as I was ready to walk in and meet his family, I found myself staring at his neck. I loved how it was both rough and smooth. I loved the vulnerability of it, the swell of his Adam’s apple, the way he melted if I kissed the soft patch of flesh just behind his ear.
Gabe shuddered, unaware of the obsessive thoughts running through my head. “You really need to stop calling me that.”
“What? Gable?” I teased. “Quite frankly, my d—” Gabe covered my mouth with his hand.
“No,” he said firmly, even though his eyes glinted with mirth. “Just don’t, Emersyn.” He said my name pointedly.
I held up my hands. “Okay, point made. Are we going in or just sitting here?”
“Let’s just sit here. Not sure if I’m ready to face them yet.”
He laughed, but already some tension had seeped into his posture. His jaw was set hard. His smile was a little slower in coming. He ran his hand through his hair and let out a long breath.
I wanted to mimic him and sink back into that feeling of infatuation while just looking at him. Now that I’d allowed myself to dream, I had it bad. Really bad. Each time he smiled, my heart skipped a beat. Each time our eyes met, I allowed myself to imagine what it would be like to get lost in them. And each time I watched the movement of his mouth, I thought about how it would feel to have his lips pressed to my skin.
“Thanks for coming with me,” he said, breaking me out of my fantasy.
“No need for thanks.” I flashed him a smile. “Colette wanted to do our dinner early this month, so it got me out of it.”
You couldn’t see much of the house from where we were parked. It didn’t have street appeal in a traditional sense. All you could see was the entrance to the garage, with the house dipping below it—only the roof visible from our vantage point.
The garage door opened slowly as Gabe grabbed our bags from the trunk. I hadn’t packed much. We were only staying a couple of nights.
I felt jittery with excitement as I followed Gabe inside. Even though the house wasn’t familiar, it felt like I was stepping onto the set of my favorite TV show, with the cast waiting just behind the door. I knew who they played, the characters they presented to the world, but I’d never met them all together—the real them.
No one came to greet us as we walked down the narrow hallway. Pictures were dotted along the walls, colorful and flashy images from some sort of fashion show.
Gabe groaned when he saw me studying one. “I can’t believe she replaced the family photos with these.” His eyes moved to the next image in line. “Come on,” he urged. “No need to analyze every single one.” He dropped our bags and stood in front of a frame. “I’ll need to check which room we’re in. It will be strange having all three of us here at the same time, along with Hamish and Billie.”
My eyes moved behind him to the photo he was trying to hide. “Oh my god!”
Gabe plastered himself against the wall, blocking the image. “Please don’t.”
I pushed him aside. “Oh my god!” I exclaimed again.
He covered his face and peered through his fingers. “It wasn’t my idea.”
The photo showed Gabe strutting his stuff on a runway. He wore a white faux-fur vest with little strips of the same material encasing his wrists, and the tiniest black leather shorts I’d ever seen. His hair was shorter and almost an auburn color. It had been teased and stood high above his head like some sort of mohawked punk rocker. Every inch of his skin had been brushed with gold dust.
He looked ridiculously stupid.
He also looked ridiculously hot.
“Billie made me. I didn’t have a choice,” he complained.
I pursed my lips, trying not to collapse with laughter. But it was too much. I bent over, allowing the amusement to spill out of me. Gabe just stood there, arms crossed, trying to look annoyed as I kept laughing. I couldn’t believe I hadn’t seen the images before. My audience would have loved them.
“Okay, okay,” he said, a small smile teasing his lips. “I get it. I look stupid.” He turned to continue walking down the hallway.
“Is there video?”
“Stop it.”
“Oh, please tell me there’s video. Was it just you? Did your brothers do it too? Please tell me they did; that would be too perfect.”
Gabe merely rolled his eyes as he opened the door at the end of the hallway. And then I was confronted with them. All the Thorntons in one place. With me. The person who knew more about them than they realized. But even though I still had that knowledge tucked away in my head, it wasn’t the person I was now. That part of me had been deleted. Literally. I squared my shoulders and plastered on a smile.
The chatter fell to silence. Gabe took a deep breath. He stood straighter than usual, his back rigid as he clasped my hand. “Everyone, this is my girlfriend, Syn. Syn, this is everyone.”
My beaming smile was met with blank stares and the odd cocked eyebrow from around a food-laden table. Their gazes flicked between Gabe and me. Hamish’s brows were furrowed as though he was annoyed at my mere presence. Billie’s face was vacant of any expression at all, and Jake leaned back in his chair, an amused smirk playing at the corners of his mouth. Tyler had a raised brow but also crossed arms and a stern expression, while Lauren’s smile was so tightly plastered on it looked about ready to snap.
A wave of nervousness replaced my previous excitement as the silence stretched into an uncomfortable length. I felt exposed and on display, and the air became thick with their judgment.
"You’re just in time for dinner,” Lauren said, finally breaking the silence. “It’s so lovely to meet you.” She stepped forward and hugged me cautiously, our shoulders only touching briefly. She sat back down and elbowed Tyler, prompting him to uncross his arms, stand, and offer his hand. He didn’t say anything as we shook, just nodded in dubious acknowledgment. Amelia met my eye, smiled, and waved with the tips of her fingers.
Dante was the only one to greet me with any enthusiasm. “Hey again.” He lifted both eyebrows playfully. “Haven’t seen you since—”
His words were cut off by Gabe grabbing him in a headlock and ruffling his hair.
“We’re going to need another plate,” Billie said as Gabe pulled out a chair and gestured for me to sit. “We didn’t know Gabe was bringing someone.”
“I didn’t mean to intrude.” I sat down, and a plate was set before me. “I assumed Gabe would have let you know I was coming.” I shot him a death glare, but he just laughed and winked.
“Nothing like getting plunged straight into the deep end,” he said.
A baby, Oliver, I guessed, sat on a blanket on the floor. Gabe’s face lit up when he saw him, and Oliver held his hands up to Gabe.
“Just leave him,” Billie admonished.
Gabe ignored her and brought him over to sit on his knee at the table. “Syn, this is the best of us. This is Ollie.”
“Oliver,” Hamish corrected as the baby wrapped his hand around my thumb and proceeded to bring it to his mouth.
“He was having his personal playtime, Gabe. It’s important that he learns to entertain himself,” Billie said.
“He’s not even a fucking year old,” Gabe retorted while grinning at Ollie, who now had his hand wrapped firmly around Gabe’s thumb.
“Language!” Hamish snapped.
“I believe it stems from Germanic origins,” I said, attempting humor and then regretting it as soon as the words were out of my mouth. No one laughed. Not even Gabe. They almost collectively held their breath, eyes sliding to Hamish, waiting for his reaction.
He didn’t give one.
“So what are we all here for?” Gabe tried to redirect the attention from my unappreciated humor.
“We’re eating, Gable. It can wait until after dinner. And put Oliver down like Billie said,” Hamish snapped.
Gabe pouted exaggeratedly, and Ollie giggled.
“Gable,” his father warned.
Gabe rolled his eyes and stuck out his tongue at Ollie, who immediately copied the movement. “Come on, buddy. I’ve got to put you back down on the floor. The grumpy ones have spoken.”
“It’s part of his development. It’s important for Ollie to learn that he doesn’t require constant stimulation—a lesson some of you could benefit from. It will help him later in life,” Billie replied.
“Yeah, abandonment usually does,” Gabe muttered sarcastically.
No longer content to simply lie there, Ollie started crying.
“Now look what you’ve done,” Billie said with a sigh, getting up from the table to pick up her son. She jiggled him on her hip a few times before placing him in the highchair and dumping some rice on his tray.
For the rest of the meal, I watched the family. Billie did most of the talking, telling everyone how she was going to relaunch her clothing label now that Ollie didn’t demand so much of her time, but she kept glancing at Hamish hesitantly, almost as though she expected him to interrupt her.
‘Exhausting’ was the best word to describe Billie. She just didn’t stop talking. Lauren was lovely and welcoming, doing her best to include me in the conversation. She kept sliding her gaze between Gabe and me as though trying to decipher our relationship, and I couldn’t help but picture them together and wonder if she still harbored any feelings for him. Amelia was sweet but totally wrapped up in Jake and her pregnancy. Jake was reserved and didn’t say much. He was protective of Amelia, almost always shielding her with his body—an arm slung around her waist, a hand on her knee.
Hamish oozed arrogance, sitting at the head of the table and surveying his family with casual indifference. Every now and again, though, a vacant expression would pass over him, almost as though for a few seconds he got lost in his own world.
Tyler was a replica of his father—commanding and domineering, but also unbelievably good-looking. The sort of good-looking that made your insides clench just at the sight of him. But there was a softness about him when he looked at Lauren. He was smitten with his wife. It was plain to see.
Dante looked at his father with nothing but adoration. He stayed for most of the meal, but halfway through, his mother arrived to pick him up. She texted him when she arrived, so I never got to meet her.
Gabe was tense. It was only when he played with Ollie that his true self emerged. I guess I didn’t blame him. He thought his father hated him, and he had to sit there and watch someone he once loved in love with someone else.
Overall, my meeting with all the Thorntons was underwhelming. I’d created such caricatures of them in my mind that the reality was almost disappointing. They were undeniably normal. I almost felt cheated.
Once dinner was finished and Ollie had been put to bed, Hamish cleared his throat and demanded everyone’s attention.
“I suppose you’re all wondering why you’ve been called here.” His gaze turned to me. “Well, most of you anyway. There are some unexpected visitors.”
My cheeks burned. I looked at Gabe, widening my eyes, but he just winked.
“Maybe I should go,” I whispered to him. His hand slipped under the table and squeezed mine. He winked again before turning his attention back to his father.
“I think that’s a wise choice,” Hamish said, clearly having heard my whisper.
Gabe gripped my hand tighter and shook his head, but I tugged my hand away and stood up, the weight of Hamish’s glare too heavy. “I’ll just go wait in the bedroom,” I whispered.
Hamish waited until I was out of sight before clearing his throat and beginning to speak. I hid in the kitchen, listening to every word. I may not be writing articles about them anymore, but my curiosity was still there.
“I have decided it’s time I stepped down from my role within the company. From today, Tyler is officially the head of Thornton Industries.”
I’m not sure what reaction he expected after his brief announcement—whether it would be a respectful round of applause or a chorus of disappointed exclamations—but there was just silence. After a few awkward moments, someone started to clap—my guess was Billie—but no one else joined in, so the clap faded into awkward nothingness.
“Isn’t there something else you wanted to say?” Billie piped up.
Hamish cleared his throat. “Sure. Jake and Gabe, get a haircut. You both look ridiculous.”
“That’s not what—” Billie started to say.
“That’s all for now,” Hamish said bluntly.
There was a scraping of chair legs on tile, and I quickly dashed down the hall and jumped onto the bed, pretending I’d been there the whole time.