13. Dani
Dani
Igrab a table for Emmett and me at a seaside café the next morning, excited to reconnect with my friend.
After my call with Sam last night, I just wasn’t in the right headspace to socialize.
But I’m putting all that out of my mind, because today is all about Emmett.
He was my person back in Pittsburgh. We had such a strong platonic love for each other, cutting him out of my life was almost as hard as losing Gavin. But it was needed.
“There’s my girl!” Emmett booms from across the patio where I’m sitting.
I jump up and get swept into a big bear hug. I try to break away, but he doesn’t let me. “Yeah, not happening,” he chuckles. “Feel the love for a little longer.”
“Oh, how awful for me.”
He squeezes me a little tighter before finally letting go. “You’re lucky I’m starving. It’s the only reason you’re getting out of this love fest.”
We sit down and Emmett looks out over the ocean next to us.
“Damn.” He whistles. “If these are the kinds of views you guys have, maybe I should take Gavin up on his offer.”
“What offer?”
“Pretty much every call we have, he’s trying to convince me to move out here.”
“Wait, really?” I sit up in my chair.
“I can’t though. I have the business to think about. My employees. I can’t just close up shop on them.”
“You know you can run it from anywhere. From what Gavin’s told me, you’re more behind the scenes now anyway.”
“So, Gavin’s been talking about me, huh?” He waggles his eyebrows.
“He’s proud of his little brother.” I smile, because I know how much he hates being called that.
“Three minutes!” he yells. “He’s only older by three minutes!”
I can’t stop laughing, which makes Emmett hold up his middle finger at me. Perfect timing as our server comes by to take our drink orders.
“We’ll do your bottomless bloody marys please,” Emmett says in a fake posh accent.
“I’ll be right back with those.” The server nods and walks away.
“Thank God you didn’t say mimosas or I was gonna say we couldn’t be friends again,” I quip.
“Duh. That was the first thing we bonded over. Bloody marys reign supreme over mimosas.”
“I’ve missed you.”
“I missed you too, D.”
He reaches over and places his hand over mine on the table.
The warmth of his touch seeps through me, and I feel my shoulders loosen—the tension I’ve been carrying since last night melting just a little.
I needed this. My friend, finally back in my life.
I want to tell him how sorry I am for cutting him out, but before the words can find their way past my lips, the server returns with our drinks.
Emmett holds up his glass. “Cheers to old friends, good memories, and still looking damn fine.”
I laugh. “Cheers to that.” I clink my glass to his before taking a sip. “So, I want to hear everything you’ve been up to for the last ten years.”
“Hun, we’re gonna need a lot more drinks for that.”
Emmett and I talk and eat for the next several hours—catching up on our lives and reminiscing about memories from the past.
“Do you remember the time Gavin was working late, so we went to that bar in the South Side, and the house band decided they were going to play ‘Wagon Wheel’ every thirty minutes?” Emmett says.
“Oh my God! Yes!” I groan. “Didn’t they do it for like three hours before eventually admitting they wanted to see how long it would take for people to catch on and start booing them every time it played?”
“Joke was on them. We all ended up turning it into a drinking game. Anytime they sang it, we all took a shot.” He shivers. “So. Much. Alcohol.”
“I bet the bar made a killing that night though.”
“I know I did.” He winks. “I went home with that dancer.”
“You’re welcome for that. I introduced you, remember? She was a classmate of mine.”
“Oh yeah! If I remember correctly, that was the start of you being my wingman.”
“Haaaaaveeee you met Emmett,” we say at the same time.
We both break out in laughter.
I feel like that night really bonded Emmett and me.
After I introduced him to that girl, I thought he was joking about me being his wingman.
So, I started quoting a well-known pickup line from the show How I Met Your Mother whenever we went out, just to see what would happen.
Funny enough, it was actually a great icebreaker with people who knew the show, and it became a regular thing I would do for Emmett.
“Maybe I do need to move out here,” he says. “We can get the team back together again.”
“Unless it’s an after-work drink at Doolies, I don’t really go out anymore.”
“What’s up with that? You’ve always made time for your friends and having fun.”
“Life happened. I’m busy with work and need to be home with Sam—at least when he’s stateside.”
“Need?” He glares at me.
I roll my eyes. “You know what I mean.”
“No, Dani. I really don’t. If Sam were a supportive guy, he would encourage you to go out, be social, have a life. Not lock you up in your house and keep you for himself.”
“We get such little time together, between his training and such, I get why he would rather stay in,” I defend.
“Then what’s your excuse when he’s not home? When he’s gone for extended training and doesn’t come back for days? Or right now. He’s already been deployed for a bit, right? How many times have you gone out on the weekends with Alexa and just let loose?”
“I go out with her and Gavin after work a few times a week for a drink.”
“That doesn’t count and you know it. San Diego has an incredible night scene. Why aren’t you going out with your friends?”
“I don’t know—”
“I think I do. Wanna hear it?”
I wince, letting a reluctant nod escape me.
Emmett takes my hand. “You’re worried if you go out and have fun, you won’t miss Sam anymore. And if you don’t miss Sam, then you might do something your head and heart have been fighting over for a while now.”
A chill runs down my spine. How the hell does he always know exactly what I’m thinking? It’s almost creepy. Emmett has this unnerving way of reading people like open books.
I hate that he’s right. I’ve been having doubts for a while. I love Sam. But sometimes I can’t tell if it’s my brain that says it, or my heart.
“I don’t know what to do.” I fight back the tears pooling in my eyes.
That’s the first time I’ve even come close to admitting the truth.
“Take it one day at a time,” he says. “Starting with this afternoon.”
My face scrunches in confusion. “What’s this afternoon?”
“We’re going to the beach. I’ve never been in the Pacific Ocean, and you’re not allowed to say no.
I may have had a hunch you were going to need this, and I already coordinated it with Gavin and Alexa.
In fact, we were supposed to meet them on the beach around the corner about ten minutes ago. Oops.”
My jaw drops. “You sneaky bastard. I don’t have a suit or anything with me.”
“All taken care of.” He grins.
Emmett flags down the server for the check and pays, and we make our way down to the beach.
We find Gavin and Alexa already settled on the sand. They’ve set up umbrellas, spread out beach towels, and unpacked bags filled with board and card games for us to play.
Alexa lounges on her towel in a green string bikini, while Gavin sits up next to her in low-hanging blue board shorts. He’s flipping through a book, the sunlight highlighting every curve of his sculpted body.
I swear, the two of them could be straight out of a swimsuit magazine.
Alexa is lean and athletic, and Gavin—I didn’t think he could get any hotter than he was ten years ago.
Time, clearly, has been kind. His abs are sharply defined, arms and legs honed to pure muscle, likely years of work in the repair business, and every inch of him glows with sun-drenched perfection.
The sight of him makes my stomach drop, and for a moment, the beach seems to tilt around me.
Gavin looks up from his book and smiles at us. “About time you two showed!”
“Yeah, well, this one”—he points his thumb towards me—“wouldn’t stop going on and on about how in love she is with me, so it delayed things a bit.” He turns and grins at me before turning back to our friends. “I had to let her down gently. Try not to bring it up. It’s still too painful for her.”
“I’m devastated,” I deadpan.
“Em, how can you turn down a face like that?” Gavin chuckles.
“Always leave them wanting more, bro,” Emmett says, walking closer to the beach setup.
“You guys are ridiculous,” Alexa finally chimes in, sitting up from her towel. “D, I brought you a suit to wear.” She throws something black at me.
“Uh.” I hold it up. “Alexa, this isn’t mine. And there’s no way I can fit in one of yours.”
“I bought it this morning. It’s your size. Now go change!” she demands.
I sigh, knowing I’m not getting out of this, and make my way to the changing area.