Chapter Four
Emmett
Emmett had faced overtime penalty shots with less fear than Piper Quinn saying, “You lost before we started.”
She sat across from him on the old dock, her phone still displaying the frozen image of his face outside the Founders Gala. The lantern light caught the disbelief in her eyes.
He considered several responses.
None of them improved the situation.
“That depends on the definition of feelings,” he said.
Piper stared at him. “You cannot challenge the wording now.”
“I did not write the rule.”
“You signed it.”
“Under unusual circumstances.”
“You volunteered.”
“Also under unusual circumstances.”
Her eyebrows lifted. “Was there a second public humiliation happening that I missed?”
Emmett looked at the black screen of her phone. Owen’s video had already been shared thousands of times. The footage showed only enough truth to create a problem and not enough to explain it.
Exactly what Owen intended.
Piper placed her phone on the blanket. “What did you mean?”
Emmett knew the question was coming.
He had not expected her to ask it while sitting close enough that their knees almost touched, surrounded by lanterns he had spent twenty minutes pretending not to arrange carefully.
“Outside the gala,” she continued. “When he asked what I was to you.”
“I remember.”
“That is encouraging.”
“You were someone I cared about.”
Her expression changed.
“Someone you cared about.”
“Yes.”
“That sounds suspiciously like a feeling.”
“It was not a declaration.”
“You told my boyfriend I was more to you than I knew.”
“He was not acting like your boyfriend.”
“That does not make you mine.”
“I did not say you were.”
“No. You quietly stood in the background having honorable secret emotions.”
Emmett almost smiled.
She pointed at him. “Do not look amused.”
“I am not.”
“You are doing it internally.”
“That is difficult to prove.”
“I plan events. I identify concealed disasters professionally.”
He should tell her everything.
That he noticed her the first week of summer. That he remembered every coffee she ordered because he looked for her whenever he entered Briar Bean. That watching her defend Owen for months had felt like standing behind the glass while someone slowly damaged something Emmett could not reach.
Instead, he chose the part she could handle.
“I liked you.”
Piper became very still.
Emmett continued before she could turn the confession into something larger than he intended.
“You were with Owen. I did not interfere.”
“You confronted him outside the gala.”
“After I saw another woman touching him.”
“You still did not tell me.”
“No.”
Her eyes narrowed. “We already agreed that was wrong.”
“Yes.”
“Good. I did not want the emotional confession to erase the previous complaint.”
“It does not.”
“And now?”
“What about now?”
“Do you still like me?”
The directness caught him off guard.
Piper saw it.
Her confidence returned immediately. “Interesting.”
“What?”
“You hesitate.”
“I was deciding whether honesty would cause another rule.”
“It might.”
“Yes.”
Her lips parted slightly.
Emmett had answered without saying the word.
That was still an answer.
Piper reached for the hot chocolate, then seemed to remember it had gone cold. She set it down again.
“This cannot work.”
“Why?”
“Because fake dating requires two people who understand it is fake.”
“I understand.”
“No, you understand the arrangement. That is different.”
“I am not expecting anything from you.”
“You brought me my favorite dinner.”
“You needed food.”
“You remembered that I hate eating in public.”
“You do.”
“You set up lanterns.”
“It was dark.”
“There is moonlight.”
“Unreliable.”
Piper stared at him.
Emmett held her gaze.
The lanterns had been excessive.
He had known that while placing the fourth one.
“You planned a real date,” she said.
“I planned a private one.”
“That is not better.”
“It was not meant to trap you.”
“I know.”
Her quick answer surprised him.
Piper looked toward the water. “That might be worse.”
“Why?”
“Because it means you are naturally good at this.”
“At bringing food?”
“At paying attention.”
The accusation sounded almost painful.
Emmett leaned forward, resting his forearms on his knees.
“What did Owen do when you told him what you needed?”
She laughed quietly. “Usually explained why I did not actually need it.”
Emmett looked down at his hands.
He had already disliked Owen.
The feeling remained capable of growth.
Piper picked up her phone again. The notifications continued arriving in clusters.
“We need to respond.”
“No.”
“We cannot leave his version as the only one.”
“Responding gives him more attention.”
“He has attention. He is currently using it to tell the world that you spent the summer waiting to take his place.”
“I did not.”
“I know that.”
“Then it does not matter.”
“It matters to everyone who is now calling me a cheater.”
Emmett reached for his phone.
He had not checked the comments since the video appeared. That had been intentional. Piper had apparently made the opposite choice.
He opened the first repost.
The comments were worse than he expected.
Some accused Piper of using Owen to build her business. Others said Emmett had deliberately interfered in the relationship. Several had assembled more summer photographs into a timeline that looked convincing if someone ignored reality.
One comment had been liked more than three thousand times.
She had Emmett waiting and still acted surprised when Owen left.
Emmett locked his phone.
“They are wrong.”
Piper gave him a patient look. “Thank you for completing your first day on the internet.”
“You do not have to read it.”
“You do not get to keep saying that.”
“What?”
“Do not watch. Do not answer. Do not read it. You keep trying to protect me by removing information.”
Emmett looked at her.
The accusation was not really about him.
That did not make it untrue.
“You are right.”
Piper blinked. “That was alarmingly easy.”
“I can disagree if you need more time.”
“Do not ruin it.”
Emmett nodded.
She opened the camera on her phone.
“What are you doing?”
“Recording a response.”
“Now?”
“People like immediacy.”
“You are angry.”
“I am excellent when angry.”
“That sounds unsafe.”
“For other people.”
Piper adjusted her hair using the screen.
The movement was practiced. So was the expression that appeared when she pressed record.
Bright, controlled, untouched.
Emmett hated it more now that he had seen her real laugh.
“Hi,” Piper began. “Since Owen has decided to release security footage from an event where he was a guest, I thought I would provide some missing context.”
Emmett watched the performance build around her.
Her voice remained calm. Her smile looked natural. Anyone watching would assume the video had not hurt her.
Piper continued. “Emmett saw Owen outside the gala with another woman. He confronted him privately. Emmett and I were not involved, emotionally or otherwise.”
She stopped recording.
Emmett looked at her. “That is not completely true.”
Her head turned. “Excuse me?”
“I was emotionally involved.”
Piper stared at him.
“You cannot say that in the video.”
“I did not.”
“You are making the distinction now.”
“You said otherwise.”
“Because explaining your private crush will make everything worse.”
“It was not private after Owen posted the footage.”
“Then what would you like me to say?”
“The truth.”
“The entire truth?”
“Yes.”
“That you had feelings for me while I was dating someone else?”
“Yes.”
“That you confronted my boyfriend?”
“Yes.”
“That you agreed to fake-date me less than two weeks after our breakup?”
“Yes.”
Piper held up the phone. “You understand how this looks.”
“Yes.”
“And you still want honesty.”
“Yes.”
She lowered the phone slowly.
“You are either unusually principled or catastrophically bad at public relations.”
“Both.”
“That was not a compliment.”
“I know.”
Piper deleted the recording.
Emmett had expected an argument.
Instead, she shifted closer and angled the phone to include both of them.
“What are you doing?”
“Telling the truth.”
“Together?”
“It concerns both of us.”
Something warm moved through his chest.
Dangerous.
Piper pressed record again.
“This is Piper Quinn and Emmett Novak, reluctantly responding to a video posted tonight.”
“Reluctantly?” Emmett asked.
She looked at him through the screen. “Would you prefer enthusiastically?”
“No.”
“Then cooperate.”
Emmett looked at the camera.
Piper continued. “The Founders Gala footage was edited. Emmett saw Owen outside with another woman and told him to leave before he embarrassed me at my own event.”
She paused.
The phone shifted slightly in her hand.
Emmett steadied it.
His fingers brushed hers.
Piper’s breath changed, but she did not pull away.
“Emmett did not tell me afterward,” she said. “I am still angry about that.”
Emmett looked at the camera. “She should be.”
Her eyes moved toward him.
“He did have feelings for me,” Piper continued. “I did not know. Nothing happened between us while I was with Owen.”
Emmett leaned closer to the phone.
“I liked Piper. She was in a relationship, so I stayed out of it. That is the entire story.”
Piper waited.
“Anything else?” she asked.
“Yes.”
Her expression warned him not to improvise.
Emmett ignored it.
“Owen knew Piper would be blamed if he posted the clip without context.”
The warning in her eyes sharpened.
Emmett continued. “He did it anyway.”
He ended the recording before she could stop him.
Piper snatched the phone from his hand. “You cannot accuse him of deliberately targeting me.”
“I just did.”
“We need proof.”
“The editing is proof.”
“It is evidence.”
“That sounded like proof with more syllables.”
She glared at him.
Emmett felt the corner of his mouth move.
Piper saw it.
“This is not funny.”
“No.”
“You look like you are enjoying yourself.”
“I like when you argue with me.”
Her glare weakened.
Only slightly.
“That is not healthy.”
“It has been manageable.”
Piper reviewed the video. Emmett watched her expression shift as she replayed the moment their hands touched.
Or perhaps he imagined it.
She reached the end and sighed.
“This is going to explode.”
“It already exploded.”
“This will create a second explosion.”