Page 30 of For Emery

She rolled her eyes. “I hate when he does that.”

“Then tell him to knock it off. He’s giving guys everywhere a bad name.”

She laughed.

It had been so long since I’d heard the sweet sound of her laughter. I reached across the table and placed my hands over hers around her coffee cup. “I’ve missed you.”

Her eyes dropped to my hands over hers. “I’ve missed you too.”

And I may have been a pussy for admitting this, but my heart felt like one of the broken pieces—the ones created when she disappeared—had fixed itself back into place.

“So, where do we go from here?” she asked.

“Well, I wouldn’t mind you sleeping in my bed again.”

She snorted. “Jordan Grady. A gentleman does not proposition a lady like that.”

My head twisted around. “You see a lady around here?”

“You’re still the same stupid boy, aren’t you?”

“I guess I am.”

She slipped her hands from under mine and checked the time on her phone. “I should get going.”

“Let me walk you.”

She laughed. “Don’t you have your own classes?”

I shrugged as I stood. “There are plenty of girls willing to share their notes with me.”

Her smile faltered for all of two seconds before she grabbed her bag from the floor and stood. “Some things will never change,” she mumbled.

Emery

“You haven’t told me where you’re living,” Jordan said as he walked me along the sidewalk to my next class.

“Maybe I don’t want you to know,” I countered.

“Scared?” He laughed, and when he laughed all deep and gravelly like that, it shot straight to my toes. And, all the feelings I’d once had for him—scratch that—I still had for him, barreled back with a vengeance. And though my feelings remained just as strong as they’d been the night he kissed me, I needed to know if he’d ever see me as more. Being on campus was the only way to know once and for all if his feelings for me could move past the friend-zone.

“Fine. I’ll have to keep stalking you,” he said. “I’m harmless, you know. Except when I see you with Flip. Then I want to crush the idiot.”

My brows shot up. “Jealous?”

He shrugged, his eyes averting mine. Was there a possibility he could be jealous?

“Like I said,” I continued. “Flip and I are friends.”

Jordan grunted. “Well, if he touches you in a way you don’t like, you need to tell me.”

“Agreed.” I turned and glanced to the building beside us. “This is me.”

He nodded.

“Thanks for the coffee. It was nice catching up.” I turned to walk inside, wishing more than anything he’d stop me and tell me to stop hanging out with Flip. That he’d show me something that would affirm all my efforts to get there were worth it.

“Emery,” he called.

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