Page 90 of Home Game

What was I supposed to say? That for most of that dinner, I’d been feeling like I was an outcast, even among nice people?

I swallowed, crunching my shoe onto a leaf on the sidewalk.

“Can we take a walk?” I asked.

19

EMMETT

“You must be freezing,” I told Storm as we headed off down the bustling downtown Denver street.

“For once, I’m good,” he said. “I was overheating inside with that jacket. I need the cold air.”

“I love it, too,” I told him. “But I really want to know if that dinner was okay for you. I’m sensing that it kind of wasn’t.”

He winced. “I was hoping you couldn’t tell.”

My heart sank. “Shit. I’m sorry. I didn’t realize—”

“I’m glad you didn’t realize it, during the dinner,” Storm said. “Becauseyourocked it, and I watched you set yourself up for an incredible client.”

We walked under a cluster of trees on the sidewalk. “Forget about that for a second, though. What was going on for you?”

Storm glanced sideways at me. As we slowly walked, he thought for a while, not saying anything. When he finally spoke, he paused underneath a street lamp, his face illuminated in the glow.

“Am I a burden on your life?” he asked.

It felt like my heart cracked a little, just hearing him ask it.

His voice sounded smaller than I’d ever heard it before. The usual Storm Rosling bravado had been shelved, and I realized that he was probably being more vulnerable with me now thanever.

I turned to him, the breeze chilling the back of my neck as I held his gaze.

“I think you’re the best thing that’s happened to my life in a long time, actually,” I said.

I was meeting his candidness with my own.

And while that would have felt impossible with him just a couple of weeks ago, now it felt inevitable.

Storm was starting to know me better than almost anyone else. What did I have to lose by laying it all on the line with him?

He shifted on his feet, looking down before looking back up at me. “Do you think that I could reflect badly on you?”

“Storm, the Racks deal was my fault, not yours.”

“I know that,” he said, waving a hand.

“I was so worried that your reputation would affect it, but the fact is that the company just didn’t mesh with the project, and that happens, sometimes.”

Storm nodded, chewing on his lower lip for a moment. “But what about you and me?”

It was the first time I’d ever seen him struggle for words. He was almost acting awkward, which I didn’t know was possible.

“You and me?”

“Like, let’s say we were… together. At other dinners like tonight. Would that reflect badly on you, or some crap like that?”

“Together,” I repeated, turning the word over in my mind.

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