Chapter 16
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
BILLIE
My eyes lock with Emmett’s, and I point toward the intercom. “I should find out whoever it is at the door.”
I expect him to step aside so I can get past him.
He doesn’t, and the ringing continues. His gaze holding me in place as my pulse thumps in my ears.
After another few seconds, Emmett takes a step back, granting me access to move toward the door.
I take a couple of steps down to the living area, my body on autopilot while my mind reenacts everything that just went down between us.
Holy shit. Did I just witness a darker side to Emmett Richards?
I pick up the receiver and absentmindedly speak into the phone. “Hello?”
“Oh, great. I was about to give up.” A female voice huffs into my ear.
“Is this the pizza delivery?” I ask, eyes flicking to Emmett.
He’s still standing in the same place, back to me, hands stuffed into the pockets of his gray sweatpants. The bill on his backward cap is tipped up, like he has his head bowed.
“Girl, I’m down for trying my hand at most jobs. But delivering pizzas is not one that appeals to me.”
The way the girl speaks is familiar, but I brush away that thought, centering my attention back on Emmett, who still hasn’t moved.
“How can I help you then?”
“I promise I’m not a weirdo or anything, but it’s cold as shit out here, so can you just let me up, and I’ll explain everything when I’m out of the rain?”
I chew on my bottom lip, more inclined to say yes to a stranger with Emmett here. “Sure.”
Replacing the receiver, I hit the door release button and wait for the random guest to reach my second-floor apartment.
“Can you check on Blake for me, please?” I ask Emmett.
He spins on his heel, gaze telling me that he’s still thinking about our last conversation.
Same.
With a nod, he stalks off toward my bedroom, and I slide the safety chain and bolt when there’s a knock on my door.
My jaw almost hits the floor.
“Collins?”
“Billie?” She looks as shocked as I feel.
“What are you doing here?”
She pulls down the hood on her black raincoat and points inside my apartment. “It’s still no warmer in this freaking hallway.”
Standing to one side, I let her in.
She spins on her heel, apologizing several times for dripping all over my floor.
“This has to be the craziest coincidence ever.” She starts talking as I close the door and lock it. “I’m guessing you’re the new tenant who put a deposit down on this place a week ago?”
Collins looks almost proud as I turn around to face her, gaze traveling toward my bedroom for signs of Emmett.
I offer Collins a confused but warm smile. “I am. Although that still doesn’t explain why you’re here.”
She shrugs in the same way she did in the café.
“Well, this is why it’s crazy. I’m the previous tenant.
I moved out quite a while ago when I met my now husband.
” She waves a hand in front of her. “Anyway, they struggled to fill the place because it needed so much maintenance and the cheap-ass landlord refused to address it.” She screws up her face at a thought, rainwater dripping from the ends of her pink waves.
“Speaking of incompetent, it doesn’t matter how many times I call my motorcycle insurance and tell them that I’ve moved, no one seems to freaking listen.
” She scoffs. “I don’t even own that particular bike anymore! ”
I’m pretty sure my jaw is hanging open.
“You used to live here?”
Collins nods. “Yep, and I’ve been coming by every few weeks to check for mail since I refuse to pay for extended mail forwarding and the landlord usually just leaves any packages or letters with my old neighbor.”
That’s the kind of stubborn behavior I’d exhibit. I like this girl even more.
“Well, I only moved in today, but I’ll be sure to keep an eye out for you.”
Collins is no longer looking at me, head turned and eyes fixed on my kitchen area.
“E-Emmett?” is all that leaves her mouth.
She focuses back on me, motioning between me and the man standing in my apartment, a guy I’m guessing she knows.
Emmett’s steely-gray eyes don’t blink, bewilderment written right across his face.
“Wait.” He points to me and then Collins. “Do you guys know each other?”
My mind races, initial thoughts of Collins being the girl Emmett was referring to as “hot” that time I caught sight of his text chat. I clear that thought immediately. The huge diamond ring she’s wearing is a reminder that she’s very much taken.
When her shocked expression turns scheming, I realize that she’s connecting the dots.
“Hang on a minute.” She holds up a hand and gives me a knowing glance, coupled with a wink. “Is Emmett the good person who you … you know?”
My cheeks burn under the weight of her words.
Sure, she didn’t give away any details about our conversation the other week, but she also doesn’t need to.
It doesn’t take a genius to decipher her facial expression and my flaming cheeks to figure out that I have a crush on the New York Blades defenseman and my dad’s best friend.
“How do you know each other?” My question is designed to take the heat off me.
Clearing his throat, Emmett takes a couple of steps down to our level, walking toward us until we’re in a kind of triangle.
“Collins is married to one of my closest friends and former teammate, Sawyer Bryce.” He holds his hand out, motioning to Collins. “Billie Quinn, meet Collins Bryce.”
The only one who doesn’t look like they want the ground to swallow them whole is Collins. And that doesn’t surprise me since I get a hunch that very little knocks this girl off-balance.
“Billie and I already met at Rise Up a week or so ago,” Collins clarifies for Emmett.
She doesn’t look away from me, making it very hard for me to hide the truth behind my attempts to play this cool.
Emmett is exactly the person I was talking to her about, and she knows it.
She clicks her tongue, setting her eyes on my front door.
“Okay, well, I’m going to head back home now.
” She pulls up the hood on the raincoat and makes to leave, stopping just before she slides the dead bolt across the door.
“I don’t know what’s going on, and to be honest, it’s none of my business.
” She turns to look at us both, her previous playful demeanor now more serious.
“But I’m guessing by the looks on your faces that I’m the last person who was supposed to show up, or maybe it’s more that I interrupted something. ”
Emmett pulls at the back of his neck. “Billie and I are friends, and I was helping her move in.”
There isn’t any judgment in Collins’s voice as she pulls the door open and holds her gaze on me. “Like I’ve said to many of my friends on a number of occasions, a man’s eyes never lie, even if their mouth does.”
After the click of my apartment door, there’s nothing but silence between us both.
The tension is palpable, unbearable, a thousand words passing between our lingering glances.
But here’s the deal: just because Collins believes that Emmett has a thing for me, that doesn’t necessarily make it true. And it for sure doesn’t make it any less awkward as I bite on the inside of my cheek, trying—and failing—to find words to breach the impasse between us.
Right before Collins showed up, he had his hand under my chin, our light banter having morphed into something new and more serious.
I don’t want to lose my friendship with Emmett, and I’m determined not to run away with the idea that he’s here, in my apartment, for any other reason than he’s a friend trying to help me believe everything he said in the kitchen.
“Billie, I think we need to talk.” When Emmett finally speaks, his voice sounds deflated, flat, and frustrated.
Everything I feared about this situation is playing out right before me. He’s figured out that I have the hots for him, and like a fucking schoolgirl crushing on her PE teacher, I brace for his inevitable exit from my life.
A line has been crossed, and I’m the one who fucked up.
On a deep swallow, I force myself to look at him. “Go ahead.”
One hand is back in the pocket of his sweatpants, and as he moves closer to me, every inch of my skin feels like it’s been shocked with a zap of electricity.
Blowing out a long breath, I ready myself for rejection. The rejection he assured me would never come.
With his free hand, Emmett pulls off his glasses, pinching the frames between his thumb and forefinger.
I remember when he used to wear contact lenses more, although I prefer him in glasses. They suit his chiseled face so well.
“I’ve never been a guy who tells lies. In fact, I’ve always prided myself on giving the truth.”
I roll my tongue along the roof of my mouth, the sensitive feeling offering a momentary break from anxiety over what he’s going to say.
“And because you are the absolute last person I would ever want to lie to, I’ll be honest and address the elephant in the room.”
He breaks off, chest moving rapidly beneath the thin fabric of his black shirt.
“In the park last week, I told you that we’ve always had an affinity. Our jokes, banter, the way you’d kick my ass at Monopoly each year and never let me forget it.”
Those memories don’t make me smile like they’ve always done. This time, they tighten my chest.
“I let you believe that nothing had changed for me now that you’re back in Brooklyn. Truthfully, when I showed up with your twenty-first birthday gift, I expected to find an older version of the young woman I’d always gotten along with.”
My throat is thick, voice croaky when I ask, “And what is it you found instead?”
He runs a rough palm across his mouth, gaze dropping down the length of my body for the briefest second.
“I found a woman who took my goddamn breath away. When she walked into my best friend’s living room, I had to fight to keep my jaw closed and eyes where they belonged.” He shakes his head, dropping it between his shoulders.
I take a step closer, his compliments spurring me on. I want to hear more of them.
Specifically from him.
“You’re stunning, Billie. Like, really fucking stunning.” He blows out a humorless laugh, probably in response to his admission.
I feel the same way. This whole conversation is madness. Dangerous. Stupid.
“If circumstances were different, I’d …” He trails off, and I want to scream into my couch cushions.
“You’d what?” I press.
He replaces his glasses and reaches up, resting both palms on top of his baseball cap, one over the other. The motion showcases the strong muscles in his biceps and prominent veins in his forearms.
I fight to keep my eyes on his face, just like the battle he previously described.
“Tell me what you’d do. You said that you would never lie to me.”
He shakes his head, and my heart drops an inch.
“Keeping some thoughts to myself doesn’t mean I’m lying to you, Billie. It means I’m using my fucking brain for once and not digging myself into an early grave when it comes to your dad.”
I don’t respond because what can I say? My dad would absolutely murder him if he touched me. Especially after everything that went down with Tucker.
He squeezes his eyes shut. “My ex-wife is your mom’s best friend. I’m fourteen years older than you, and all I can think about is …”
“What?”
His eyes snap open, gray irises way darker than I’ve seen them before.
“I can’t allow myself to go there with you. Not even in my own mind.”
I know it’s a bad idea to reach up and place a palm on his chest. Still, that doesn’t stop me.
His body is as hard as stone, the strong, fast beat of his heart unmistakable as I whisper, “Anything we say to each other will never go any further. I promise you that.”
He debates telling me for a moment; I can see the war in his eyes.
“No.” He wraps his hand around mine, dropping our joined hands down between us.
“This is the one and only time I’ll ever speak to you about how I feel.
” His eyes rove my apartment. “I’ll stay tonight, share a pizza with you, and help you unpack, and then I’ll leave, and we’ll never talk about any of this again. You got that?”
“But?”
“No buts, Billie.” He interlaces our fingers, jaw ticcing and under strain. “This is the way it has to be, and I’m not going to change my mind. I’m freshly divorced, and you have your whole life to live in a new place with Blake.”
Against my own will, I breathe a soft, “Okay.”
When he releases our hands, I feel the loss, like I’m standing outside in the pouring rain, the heat previously coursing through my body immediately doused in cold.
Like he’s retreating, Emmett takes a step back from me, hands sliding straight into his pockets.
“Okay, cool.” He turns on his heel, ripping a large brown box open in one easy motion. “Show me where you want to store your skillet.”