Page 58 of Never Kiss Your Brother's Best Friend

She picks him up, then turns around. I give her a little wave and a smile. She doesn’t return the smile and turns back to the girls right away. They shrug innocently.

They both stand and I hear Zoe say, “Boy, I’m thirsty, you Mia?”

“Parched,” she answers and follows Zoe inside.

I make my way over to the chairs and motion to one. “May I?”

“Of course,” she says as she strokes Buddy’s fur. She continues to look down at him, not lifting her eyes to meet mine.

When I can no longer take the silence, I move my chair closer to hers.

“Emma, what you saw today was…”

“None of my business,” she answers before I get out the rest of my sentence.

“What you saw was nothing. It’s a misunderstanding. Her name is Sarah and she’s my vet tech.”

Emma sighs. “Yes, I remember seeing her the last time I was there.”

“Well, if you were around for any extended amount of time during the day, you would see that she has a habit of flirting, a very bad habit of flirting.”

Emma finally looks up at me with curious eyes.

“She’s only been working for me for a few months. I thought it was just a passing thing. That she would quickly see I’m not interested. But she won’t take the hint. I’ve been meaning to talk to her about it, remind her she needs to keep her behavior completely professional, like I do.”

I feel my lips form a smirk. “But I’ve been... distracted.” I reach up to trace the side of Emma's cheek before realizing I’m overstepping. “Sorry.”

She blushes, “It’s okay.”

I lean back in my seat. “What you saw today was her tripping over Buddy. I couldn’t let her fall into the counter, so I grabbed her. But she used it as an opportunity to try to get my attention.”

Buddy looks up at me when he hears his name. I snap to call him over. He hops off Emma’s lap and leaps up onto mine. “Hey,” she protests, but she’s smiling.

“I’m sorry it looked the way it did to you.”

She leans over and snatches Buddy back. “We have joint custody, remember?”

I laugh.

“We’re just friends so what I saw shouldn’t affect me.” She pauses. “But it does. I know I said I’m not ready, but I still didn’t like seeing another woman in your arms.”

“There’s only one woman I actually want to hold in my arms. And I’m willing to wait for her, no matter how long it takes.”

Her cheeks flush in an instant.

“But,” I continue, “if in the meantime, you happen to trip, which you seem to have a tendency to do...” I give a little wink. “I will be ready to catch you.”

I lean down to scoop Buddy out of her arms and softly kiss her on the cheek. “Good night, Emma.”

“Good night, Sterling.”

Chapter twenty-five

EMMA

I’m so embarrassed. I ran out of Sterling’s clinic like a schoolgirl who caught her elementary school crush on the playground playing freeze tag with someone else.

It was ridiculous.

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