Page 60 of Home Game

“I hate to jet, but I really do need to talk to Emmett,” I said. “Are you guys okay wrapping up here?”

He gave me a little salute. “All good,” he said, but he furrowed his brow. “Is everything all right, with Emmett?”

“It’ll be okay,” I said, hoping it wasn’t a lie. “Just need to talk with him.”

I was in the Bronco within another ten seconds, zooming down the roads toward the center of Jade River. I hit Spruce Street and beelined for the Fixer Brothers main office, pulling into the lot and seeing the red Porsche parked there, too.

Inside the office, I found Sawyer, the Fixer Brothers’ landscaping guy.

“Hey, Sawyer. Any chance you’ve seen a fancy looking guy in a suit?” I asked him.

“Emmett?”

“Yes sir.”

Sawyer rolled up the blueprint he’d just printed out. “He actually just left. Said he was gonna take a walk to clear his mind,” Sawyer said. He bit his lip as he turned to me. “He didn’t seem happy. The meeting with the Racks people didn’t go great, or something. He didn’t tell me the details.”

Double fuck.

“Thanks, Sawyer,” I said, waving to him and already heading for the doors. I jogged out onto Spruce Street, my eyes immediately scanning the tree-lined road for Emmett’s suit.

It was chilly out, and I’d left the house in nothing but a white T-shirt and shorts. I noticed with a bitter irony that today was exactly the type that Emmett must love: the fall leaves were in their full glory now, red and gold and yellow on every tree that wasn’t a green pine.

I jogged through the crunchy leaves on the stone sidewalks, looking for any man in a suit. I saw nothing other than the usual slight bustle of the area. A mom herding her three kids toward the park, all of them wearing little plaid scarves. A guy walking his huge Labrador. Squirrels jetting back and forth across the sidewalk, rustling up the leaves.

My heart sank as I reached the end of the town center without finding him.

I doubled back, worry gnawing at me.

I’d made so many mistakes in life, but I rarely regretted any of them. I always had to move forward. Had to do my best. I always had plenty to be happy about, even if I’d disappointed someone.

But disappointing Emmett felt different. The look on his face this morning—the sheer defeat, after so many attempts to rise to my level—had made me feel like I’d done something wrong, for the first time in a long time.

I didn’t want Emmett to feel that way. I didn’t want to spar with him if I was really just kicking him when he was down. And I sure as fuck didn’t want to truly hurt him.

I’d almost given up when I finally caught sight of a suit. I ran over past a group of people, looping around and getting closer.

It was Emmett. He was on a bench in a little grass patch at the edge of the small river that went through town.

My shoes crunched on leaves that had fallen onto the grass patch.

He looked up at me like he couldn’t really believe I was there.

“Storm,” he said.

I breathed in deep. “I don’t know what happened with the guys from Racks, but I can smooth it over,” I said. “I’ll pay them anything. Say on social media that they’re the best company ever, or something. I don’t care. Whatever happened, I can make it right. What was the meeting about?”

Emmett looked at me with a faraway expression, like he was elsewhere.

“The meeting was to let me know that they’ve decided to go in another direction,” Emmett said, furrowing his brow as he looked away.

I couldn’t have heard him right.

“What?”

“They’re not going to be working with the Fixer Brothers. I couldn’t make the deal happen.”

My heart sank like a stone.

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