Chapter 28
Chapter Twenty-Eight
“I can’t believe you didn’t tell me you guys got married!” Emery grumbled for the hundredth time since Linc had walked into the radio station this morning. She was sitting opposite him in the studio, like she’d been since their show had started at six a.m., only now, she was pouting.
Going back to work on Monday mornings always sucked, since he inevitably strayed from his normal schedule on the weekends and stayed up later than he did during the work week.
It made getting up at four-thirty a.m. that much harder.
Compound that with the fact he’d stayed up until around one a.m., and it was no wonder he was tired.
Zana had slept in his bed last night instead of the guest room.
He would’ve had to be a saint to keep his hands off her.
He was definitely going to hell. Not that he’d change a thing.
Well, other than leaving her alone in his bed and coming to work so he could be read the riot act by his co-host.
Linc and Britt had sent their friends a group text last night confessing they were married and apologizing for not having said anything sooner. Since they’d already spoken to the girls at Britt’s house, the cat was already out of the bag, but they’d wanted to address everyone just the same.
“Like we told you last night,” Linc reminded Em. “It was a spur-of-the-moment thing. We wanted to keep it to ourselves for a while before all hell broke loose when you found out.” He adjusted his headphones and waited for the song that was playing to end.
“All hell did not break?—”
Linc held up a finger before unmuting his microphone.
“That was the latest from Taylor Swift. Stay tuned for ‘Trending Stories With Em,’ coming up after the break.” He initiated the “stop set,” and the commercials began playing.
Putting his mic back on mute, he turned to Em.
“So, I just imagined you, Jess, and Laurel showing up at Britt’s yesterday and playing round robin with rapid-fire questions? ”
“Of course, we had questions! You got married!” She threw a half-eaten candy bar at him. Em didn’t always make the best breakfast choices. “I was supposed to give you away, dammit!”
He chuckled. “You wanted to give me away? I was the groom, not the bride.”
“So what?” Em stuck out her bottom lip. “You’re my person.”
That made his heart squeeze. “Em…” He took off his headphones, walked around the sound mixing board to her side of the counter.
Pulling her up from her seat, he wrapped his arms around her.
“I’m still your person, just like you’re mine.
But does being with Gage make you love me any less? Because you know you love me.”
She leaned into the embrace. “Unfortunately, I do. And point taken. You just can’t let being in love with Britt make you love me any less.”
“Who said I love you?” he teased, while Em’s spoken “being in love with Britt” echoed in his brain. He knew he was, but when Em took it in stride so easily, it made him think she’d known all along and had been waiting for him to admit it.
“Who doesn’t love me?” she sassed.
He smiled. “Who indeed?”
“I hate to interrupt this mutual lovefest,” their producer’s voice resonated through the studio speaker. “But we’re broadcasting dead air right now.”
“Oh shit!”
Linc and Em broke apart like Kit Kats and scampered to their respective chairs.
He punched a few buttons on the board, so Emery could start her trending stories segment while he put his headphones back on.
Both he and Emery had college degrees, but whereas hers was in Communications, Linc’s was in Broadcasting and Digital Media.
He was the one who ran the audio console and sound mixer during their show.
While Em could run the board in a pinch, he knew its ins and outs.
He and that board had a love/hate relationship at times.
After dealing with it for years, there weren’t many hiccups he couldn’t overcome.
Plus, Em was more than happy to let him deal with the “boring stuff,” as she put it, while she got to simply kick back and talk.
“And one last local trending story for ya,” Emery said, wrapping up her segment. “My illustrious co-host got married a few weeks ago…”
What the fuck?
Linc knocked over the cup of coffee he was reaching for, spilling it on some paperwork.
Thankfully, he missed the sound board and computer.
The only reason their listeners didn’t hear some very choice words was because his mic was muted.
They had a seven second delay on their broadcast and a “dump button” that played white noise when pushed, in case a caller swore.
They weren’t supposed to need it for him.
“...to one of my good friends and failed to mention it to anyone.” Emery shot him a worried look. “So, tell him congratulations the next time you see him.” Whatever else she was about to say was cut off by the song Linc abruptly started playing. “Are you okay?” she asked.
“Fuck, Em, you told the world we got married?”
“Not the whole world. Just the Treasure Valley. Why? Was I not supposed to?”
He yanked off his glasses and pinched the bridge of his nose.
“Oh, shit.” Her eyes widened as realization dawned. “I wasn’t supposed to. Oh, God, I’m sorry! I didn’t know you guys were still keeping it a secret.”
Shit was right. Their listeners may not guess it was Britt Em was talking about, but since the only woman aside from Emery he spent any significant one-on-one time with was her, anyone close to them would be able to connect the dots.
Britt’s co-workers might figure it out, and he knew she wasn’t planning on saying anything to them.
Hell, she’d signed the divorce papers! Of course, she wasn’t going to say anything to them! Fuck.
“We’re not keeping it a secret, per se.” Especially not since you decided to spill it. “We just haven’t told everyone yet.”
Emery buried her face in her hands. “Linc, I’m so sorry! I’ll call Britt and tell her I’m the idiot who outed you guys on the air.”
“It’s fine,” he said automatically. “I’ll tell her. Don’t worry, it’s not the end of the world.”
“I feel horrible!”
“Don’t. We’ll have to make a few phone calls earlier than planned, that’s all.
” Telling people they were married wasn’t the problem.
The issue was having to turn around and tell them they were getting divorced.
Trying to figure out how to convince Britt not to divorce him was the problem.
Worse than that, falling in love with his best friend was a problem from which he might never recover.