Chapter Three #2
“I recognize tension.”
“You create most of it.”
“Which is why I am qualified.”
“Tyler.”
He left.
Slowly.
Looking over his shoulder twice.
Piper lowered her voice. “What else?”
Emmett glanced toward the court.
“This is not the place.”
“Convenient.”
“Seven tonight.”
“You are planning to make me wait until the date?”
“Yes.”
“That feels manipulative.”
“It is scheduling.”
“You have been spending time with me for less than a day, and you are already stealing my methods.”
His mouth shifted.
“Seven.”
Then he walked back toward the court.
Piper watched him go.
Maren appeared at her shoulder.
“You have your conspiracy face again.”
“This time it is justified.”
“Did Emmett say something?”
“He said later.”
Maren winced.
“Men love later.”
“They use it as if time itself is an alibi.”
“At least Emmett showed up with a puck.”
“A child organized that.”
“Even better. He is outsourcing.”
Piper looked down at her phone.
Owen’s message remained unanswered.
She typed three words.
What is he hiding?
The response arrived before she could regret sending it.
Ask him what happened outside the Founders Gala.
Piper’s fingers went cold.
The Founders Gala had taken place three weeks earlier.
The night she found the earrings at Owen’s apartment.
The night before their breakup.
Emmett had attended with the Ridgeview team, but Piper barely remembered seeing him. She had spent most of the event managing sponsors and pretending not to notice that Owen disappeared for almost forty minutes.
Another message appeared.
There is security footage.
Piper looked toward Emmett again.
He stood behind the portable goal, arms folded while Mason explained something with dramatic hand gestures.
As though he felt her attention, Emmett turned.
This time, she did not look away.
Neither did he.
Seven hours later, Piper parked beside Brennan’s cabins and immediately regretted agreeing to the old dock.
Not because it was isolated.
Because Emmett had made it beautiful.
He had not used flowers or tablecloths.
He had used lanterns.
Four small battery lanterns lined the weathered dock, their warm light reflecting across the darkening lake. A picnic basket sat beside a folded blanket. Two paper cups waited near the edge, along with a cardboard container from a restaurant thirty minutes away.
Piper stopped at the top of the dock.
Emmett stood beside the water in dark jeans and a gray shirt with the sleeves pushed to his elbows.
No team logo.
No backward cap.
No visible attempt to look impressive.
That made him significantly more impressive.
“This is excessive,” she said.
Emmett looked at the four lanterns.
“There are fewer than five objects.”
“You drove to Morrow’s.”
“You like their chicken.”
Her stomach betrayed her with an immediate response.
“How do you know that?”
“You order it after sponsor dinners.”
Piper descended the steps.
“Were you monitoring my meals?”
“No.”
“That answer lacked conviction.”
“You always leave the dinners hungry.”
She stopped.
He said it as if the observation meant nothing.
It did not mean nothing.
Owen had attended dozens of events with her and never noticed that she barely ate during them. When Piper explained, he told her she worried too much about appearances.
Emmett had noticed without asking.
More dangerous.
“Where are the cameras?” she asked.
“Maren took photographs before you arrived.”
Piper looked around.
“You staged the date without me?”
“I staged food.”
“She photographed an empty dock.”
“She called it anticipation.”
“That does sound like her.”
“She left ten minutes ago.”
“So this is private.”
“Yes.”
Rule Four.
No real kissing unless cameras were present.
Piper was irritated that the rule entered her mind at all.
Emmett sat on the blanket and opened the food container.
She remained standing.
“What happened at the Founders Gala?”
His hands stopped.
There.
Finally.
A reaction.
Emmett looked up at her.
“Owen told you.”
“He said there is footage.”
“There is always footage.”
“That is not an answer.”
“No.”
Piper waited.
Emmett looked toward the lake, then back at her.
“I saw him outside with someone.”
Her stomach tightened.
“Who?”
“I did not recognize her.”
“What were they doing?”
“Arguing.”
“That is all?”
“No.”
The single word seemed to remove the air from the dock.
Piper lowered herself onto the opposite side of the blanket.
“What did you see?”
“Her hand was inside his jacket.”
Piper closed her eyes.
The earrings.
Forty missing minutes.
Owen returning with a smear of lipstick near his collar and telling her one of the sponsors hugged him.
“You knew.”
“I suspected.”
“You knew enough.”
“I did not see them kiss.”
“But you confronted him.”
Emmett’s expression sharpened.
“How do you know?”
“He told me to ask about the gala.”
“I told him he should leave.”
“Why?”
“He was drunk.”
“That is not why.”
“No.”
Piper folded her arms tightly across her chest.
“You do not get to decide what information I can handle.”
“I know.”
“Do you?”
“Yes.”
“Because you decided not to tell me.”
“I did.”
The agreement made her angrier.
“Why?”
Emmett looked down at his hands.
For the first time since she had known him, he appeared uncertain.
“I thought you would believe him.”
The truth hurt because part of her knew he was right.
Three weeks ago, Piper had still been defending Owen to everyone. Maren. Ava. Her sister. Herself.
If Emmett had approached her after the gala and said Owen had been outside with another woman, she might have called him mistaken.
She might have accused him of creating trouble.
She still deserved the choice.
“You should have told me anyway.”
“Yes.”
“No defense?”
“No.”
“This is very inconvenient anger.”
“I can argue if it helps.”
“It would.”
Emmett nodded thoughtfully.
“You would have called me a jealous goalie with boundary issues.”
Piper stared.
“I would not have said goalie.”
His mouth moved.
She hated that he could make her want to laugh while she was furious.
“What did you say to Owen?”
“I told him not to embarrass you at your own event.”
“That is all?”
“No.”
Piper waited.
Emmett opened one of the paper cups and handed it to her.
Hot chocolate.
Not coffee.
She accepted it despite herself.
“What else?” she asked.
“He asked why I cared.”
Her fingers tightened around the cup.
“What did you say?”
Emmett looked at her.
The lantern light softened the hard angles of his face, but nothing softened the intensity in his eyes.
“I did not answer.”
Owen’s message returned.
Ask him why he really agreed.
Piper’s pulse climbed.
“Why not?”
“Because the answer was not useful.”
“To whom?”
“Anyone.”
“That is not how answers work.”
“It is how this one worked.”