8. Chapter Eight
Chapter Eight
Emmett
“You have until the end of the month before Juliet gets her new place? And even if you stayed there until then, that’s really only three weeks,” Preston muttered, processing the timeline. “That’s not a lot of time to move—”
“It’s really not,” Molly said, groaning and dropping her head into her hands despite having just agreed to live with us.
"Have you looked at any other places?" I asked.
“I’ve been putting it off—I figured I’d have a few months. I thought it was hard to find a place right now, but Juliet and Romeo—” She sniffled.
I was about to put my arm around her again, aching to feel her against me, but Preston beat me to it.
“I’m sorry, Molls. We’ve got you, though.”
“Preston’s right. You can stay here as long as you want to.” Forever, even. “When do you want to be out of your apartment?”
Molly turned to me, her enchanting eyes watering, but her chin set strong. “Tonight would be great.”
Preston pushed off the table and got to his feet, holding his hand out. “Let’s go.”
That got a laugh out of her, and my chest pinched as the light melody rang through our dining room.
“Preston, I’m not serious. I’m freaking exhausted from today. I had—” She hesitated. “I had a rough time after my meeting with Lynn, and then the hockey game with Henry was fun, but wore me out. I just want to go home and go to bed—”
“We can get started first thing in the morning, then?” I asked.
She nodded, her chest rising and falling with a deep breath. “Tomorrow morning would be good. I can get some stuff packed tonight.”
“No, don’t pack anything tonight. We can do it together. I’ll even pick up coffee on the way.”
“You really are bossy, aren’t you?” She grinned, a mischievous, tight-lipped grin that told me she really liked how bossy I was.
Fuck. This woman was going to undo me.
“So I’ve been told, but I think—” I glanced at Preston and back at her. They roused something inside me, and I wasn’t sure where it would go, but it made me want to be myself more fully. To take chances and dares where I normally wouldn’t have. “I think the two of you like it.”
Her cheeks turned pink, and her eyes widened, but she didn’t argue.
Preston’s cheeks were a deep red I’d never seen on him before, and I inhaled sharply, so happy I took the risk and said the first thing that came to mind.
“I’ll take that as a yes,” I muttered, dropping my hands to my sides, so I didn’t touch either of them.
My feelings were all over the place lately.
Maybe it was because I had been single for so long and my body ached to have someone in bed with me at night.
The same person every night. I wasn’t like Preston.
I loved everything about waking up next to someone so much that a little morning breath never even hit my radar.
Unbeknownst to Preston, I got numbers from fans, too. I called one of them. A perfectly pleasant woman named Carolyne. She invited me to her place—a much safer bet than Preston getting involved in my business.
We had dinner and things got a little hot and heavy on her couch.
But then I couldn’t get it up.
It was awful and embarrassing, but she was so understanding.
We ended up talking the entire night. She had recently gone through a divorce and understood how hard it was to get back out there.
I gave her tickets to a few games as a not-explicitly-stated bribe to keep my performance issues to herself.
I was pretty sure any dysfunction my body was tangled up in was about to be a thing of the past. With Molly here—vulnerable and needing something I could help her out with—I felt alive again.
Not that women needing me turned me on. Molly was a stronger person than she was giving herself credit for and could have effortlessly handled all this on her own.
But there was something I could do for her, and she trusted me.
She ignited hope and fire within me. Just being with her for a couple of hours had me dreaming about the future again.
And maybe it wasn’t just from tonight but had been building up for a while.
Tonight was the first time I’d spent time with her, but I met her a few years ago when I joined the Instigators.
She came to most of our home games, and from the first time I saw her, she had my attention. But that was too soon after my divorce and I was in no place to do anything about a crush.
Knowing that I could help her with something made me feel useful, and I had been feeling useless for a long time.
The way she was with Lucas’s son tonight revived old dreams. Starting a family had always been important to me.
My family was huge and had been close until my grandparents passed away.
We kept in touch, but it wasn’t anything like when we were kids.
All my cousins were spread throughout the country and I wasn’t going to guilt them into coming back to Vancouver while they were living their lives.
Janie hadn’t wanted kids. It was something she lied to me about before we got married, pretending to share my enthusiasm about starting a family anytime the subject was broached.
If I had known she didn’t want kids, it wouldn’t have bothered me a bit. I loved her. I thought she loved me. Compromise was a part of loving someone and I could have compromised. We could have had a good life together.
I was twenty-nine and single. Kids weren’t even on my life plan anymore—I just wanted to be with someone I could trust. Someone that would be honest with me upfront.
At work, we recently started a hockey clinic with Vancouver’s pro team, the Evergreens.
The clinic gave us an opportunity to guide the city’s youth, teaching them hockey skills, leadership skills, and how to work as a team.
It was the outlet I needed to feel like I was helping the world somehow.
And it was a reminder that raising kids took a lot of effort.
I was relieved as hell on my clinic days when I could yank my skates off and go home by myself.
The relief didn’t overshadow the ache I felt, though.
Yeah, having kids would require a lot of sleepless nights and hair-pulling moments, but it was still something I felt was missing from my life.
Realistically, I wasn’t sure I’d find someone whose beliefs fully aligned with mine, but one thing my grandma instilled in me was a love of romance novels and I could only hope that one day, my perfect match would come along.
If my perfect match didn’t want kids, it would be okay.
I would be okay.
I repeated that like a mantra as Preston talked to Molly about our plans for tomorrow.
There was a lot to think about tonight. Mainly about how my broken self could help Molly believe in love. Sharing her horror story about her almost first kiss was so vulnerable. My heart broke for her, and I wouldn’t take her trust in me for granted.
It was refreshing to talk to someone who was willing to put their heart on their sleeve. Preston was a great friend, but, aside from a few soul-shattering moments, he was surface level. The partier who didn’t want anything to go too deep.
Maybe having Molly around would be good for him, too. They had a connection, and she could draw out a side of him I rarely saw.
“We’ll be at your place first thing in the morning,” Preston said, walking with Molly to the front door.
If I had my way, she’d be staying over, but she said she wanted to go back to her place for the night. We had her foreseeable future so I could let her go for one sleep.
After that, I wasn’t sure exactly how, but I never wanted her to leave.
Not in a creepy, stalker way, even though that sounded a little unhinged.
I was reading some darker romances, but it wasn’t my vibe.
No, I wanted her here permanently, of her own free will, and enthusiastically saying yes to me.
Fuck. I was hard as I walked behind them out to her car, my thoughts straying with every sway of her ass as she walked down the stone path. I adjusted myself before either of them noticed.
“See you in the morning, Molly,” I said gruffly as Preston hugged her and shut her car door.
My chest tightened and I frowned as she smiled at him. I wasn’t jealous. They’d known each other forever. What would I have to be jealous about?
She rolled her window down, giving me the prettiest smile. My chest tightened tighter. Was she relieved I offered her a place to stay? Had I actually done something to help her?
She said goodbye and backed out of the driveway as Preston and I stood side by side, waving until she was too far down the street to see us.
The second we turned toward the house, the smile dropped from his face.
“What’s wrong with you?” I asked, trying to figure out what could’ve changed so quickly.
“What’s wrong with you?” His eyes flared as his energy went from collected to deranged, like a switch had flipped the second she wasn’t in front of him.
He was usually the epitome of unruffled, but I folded my arms over my chest instead of giving in to him.
I wasn’t about to let it go or be lured into complacency by him.
He always tried to diffuse situations before they were ever resolved, and it was exhausting.
Still, time after time, I fell for his dismissive jokes and sarcastic redirection.
This outburst felt like a redirection to throw me off my feet, so even though it did catch me off guard, he wasn’t going to know that.
“You’re being weird. Are you mad I invited Molly to stay with us?” We went into the house, and I ignored how it felt a little less bright without Molly there.
She’d be sitting on that couch soon enough, as long as Preston didn’t have a problem with it.
“Live with us,” he corrected. “And no. I’m not mad about that at all. I meant it when I said I wanted her here.”
“So, you don’t think having her at the house will put a cramp on your style?”
“A cramp on my style?” he echoed, brow raised.
“Are you really going to be the Instigator’s number one panty snatcher with your best friend’s little sister under the same roof?”
“Don’t say panty snatcher,” he said, blanching.
“Fuck boy? Is that better?”
He lifted one brow and leaned against the wall. “Do I detect some jealousy?”
“Of how many women you bring home? Nope. So what’s actually up?”
He pushed off the wall and shrugged. “Nothing’s up with me. I’ve just been off my game, and I guess it’s spilling into my everyday life now.”
I grabbed his shoulder, and he looked at my hand, his eyes widening. “I’m here if you need to talk.”
“Got it,” he said, coughing. “I think I’m fine. Maybe I just need to get some sleep. With Molls here, that should be easier to do.”
He patted my hand and ducked away from me before I could push any further. I watched him walk down the hall, worrying my lower lip between my teeth. He never believed me when I told him he was one of my best friends, but it was true. And I hated that something was bothering him.
I hated even more that there was nothing I could seem to do about it.