Page 45 of No Sweet Goodbyes

“No.” I shake my head. “You couldn’t take me. You’re out of shape and squishy.”

“Like a marshmallow.” Emma scrunches her nose and sits right next to me at the table, draping her leg over mine. “I don’t like marshmallows.”

“Is that a fancy way of saying that I’m not your type?” Ian raises an eyebrow, offering a mock-question to Emma, who just laughs it off.

“Absolutely.” She laces her fingers with mine.

Ian cackles. “It’s okay. We can’t all have a monster dick like Dom here. And Chloe loves mine the way it is.”

When Emma’s eyes dart to mine, all I can do is shrug. “Boot camp, deployment, and living together in the barracks.”

She nods and then turns back to the others with a bright smile. “If you know how big he is, why would you even try your luck?”

That gets a laugh, not only from Linc and Ian, but from the rest of the guys who came out after work, too.

“I’m gonna go.” Emma squeezes my fingers and then gets up from the table. “See you later.”

She kisses me, pressing her lips to mine with a smile, and then I watch her walk away.

“That’s my sister,” Linc says, and I know he’s trying to distract me from staring at Emma’s ass.

When she is gone, I turn back to him without blinking. “I know. And she’s my girlfriend.”

Linc groans. “Come on, man. It’s been like three days. I don’t want to know about that shit.”

“Why not?” Remy says around a mouthful of rice. “I had to hear about you and my sister. I think it’s only fair that he gets a little bit of payback.”

“I hate you all,” Linc announces. “I don’t need to take this abuse. I’m going home. Where Kennedy won’t subject me to the torture of seeing my sibling hooking up with a friend.” He flounces away, overly dramatic for the situation, and everyone laughs as he goes.

“Do you think he realizes that Kennedy and Emma are like best friends?” Ian asks the table at large. “Or the fact that Emma and Parker were actually sisters-in-law?”

“He knows,” I say quietly. “I think he’s just pissy that his little sister beat his ass on the range.” With a shrug, I push back from the table. “I’m leaving too.”

“Hey, Dom.” Remy stops me, and I give him a minute to get whatever’s on his mind out in the open. “Stop by the house before you leave. Parker wants to have dinner before you go overseas.”

I nod curtly and walk away. But I pause at the counter, needing to talk to my mom first. She locks eyes with me, glancing over my shoulder at the group of men and then back. In those brief moments, an entire conversation seems to take place. “Adios, Mama. Te veo mañana.”

“Te amo, pobrecito.” Mama pops her hip against the counter and smiles brightly. “I’ll see you tomorrow. Give Emma a kiss for me and make sure she’s there for dinner. Bee would love to see her before she moves in with her family.”

When I pull up to Emma’s house, the front light is on, and Emma sits on the front porch, illuminated by the open door.

“Mama says to remind you that you’re coming for dinner tomorrow.” As soon as I get out of the truck I give her the message, because if I don’t, I’ll forget, and then both of the most important women in my life will be mad at me.

“She called.” Emma smiles in the darkness, her eyes shining. “Are you spending the night with me? I didn’t expect to see you for a little while. I barely got home.”

“If you want me to.”

That simple statement, giving her all of the power over what happens, feels natural. In any other world, with any other woman, I wouldn’t be comfortable. But Emma? She is the calm in the middle of the chaos.

“Come on.” She gets up and holds out a hand for me to take. “Let’s go.”

There are very few things in my life that I don’t question. Emma tops that list. So I take her hand, and instead of walking inside, I pull her into the briefest of kisses, making sure she feels the same emotion I do.

With a smile, I let her go and watch her walk inside.

Closing and locking the front door behind me, I follow her upstairs and into her room, in time to watch her strip out of everything. I pull the shirt over my head and hand it to her so that she can wear it like she’s done since the first night we spent together.

“Thank you.” Emma beams. Then she crawls into bed and watches me take off my clothes.

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