Page 85 of Home Game

“Well, I… quit,” he said.

I furrowed my brow. “Quit what?”

He swallowed, shifting on his seat. “I quit my job.”

“Very funny,” I said. “That’s your number one pride and joy in life.”

“Well, I’m going to have to find a new one,” he said. “I turned in my resignation letter to Cutmore earlier today.”

I watched him for a moment. “Holy shit. You actually quit, didn’t you? This isn’t a joke?”

“Not a joke. Also, you look really good.”

Disbelief hit me like a ton of bricks, followed by a strange sense of pride. The type of pride that usually only flooded me when my football teammates made incredible plays.

But this went so much deeper than that. Emmett had an expression I’d never quite seen before on his face. Like he’d shed a mask that I hadn’t even known he’d been wearing, and he’d revealed somethingradiantunderneath.

It was surreal.

“Who cares how I look?” I said. “Fuck, I’m so happy for you.”

I leaned over, acting on instinct. I caught his lips in a kiss and cupped the side of his face with my hand. It would be hardernotto kiss him right now.

It was the kind of thing partners would do. A level of intimacy that would usually be reserved only for if Emmett was my boyfriend.

And when the idea of that word floated through my head—boyfriend—I felt like a swarm of butterflies was suddenly coursing through my body.

I hadn’t been expectingthat.

“Thank you,” he told me, leaning his forehead onto mine.

“You fucking did it,” I murmured, holding my face close to his. “You’re a badass.”

“Going to be a badass in a career tailspin if I don’t snag myself some incredible clients of my own, though,” he said.

“You’re going to go it alone?” I asked. “Start your own firm?”

“It’s all I really know how to do,” he said with a nod. “Landry will follow me. I’ll have to start small, compared to the Goliath that is Lux Marketing. But once upon a time, Lux Marketing was small, too.”

I squeezed his arm. “If your dad grew it from nothing, you can grow your own company from nothing, too.”

He breathed in, his eyes looking me over. “You really do look good, you know.”

I pulled in a breath, leaning back a little and looking down. I’d chosen a black button-up shirt and slacks, and luckily they fit my body pretty well.

“I figured wherever you were going to dinner, it wouldn’t exactly be a dive,” I said. “Hope this is good enough.”

“My client picked the restaurant, but it should be perfect,” Emmett said.

I bit my lower lip, looking him over, too. He was in one of his tailored suits, this one a dusky blue-grey that looked like a darker version of my eye color, actually.

“I like this,” I said softly.

“This suit is one of my favorites. But as you know, I have a lot of favorites.”

“Not just the suit,” I said, running my hand along his chest. “But…us. It feels strange, being all nice to each other.”

He hummed. “Want to go back to fighting? Because I can pretend to be really, really mad about something, if that’s what makes you comfortable.”

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