Page 14 of Single All the Way

“You sure about that?” he asked.

“Just friends. We’ve known each other forever.”

“She’s living in your house. You’re sharing meals, kids, animals, even holidays. That’s a lot of togetherness. Lots of chances for some off-script.”

Didn’t I know it. I was the dumbest ass alive to have taken her and her kids in, yet if I had to make the decision again, I wouldn’t change it.

“Emerson’s important to me,” I said. “Blake and I were friends from the age of three. She was his wife.”

That I’d been attracted to her first, before Blake had ever asked her out, didn’t matter.

Though I’d known Emerson in a surface way since grade school, I hadn’t gotten to know her on a deeper level until sophomore year in high school.

We’d been assigned as biology lab partners for the semester. She was outgoing and popular. I wasn’t an outsider, but I wasn’t as social as Blake or the others in that circle. Shy, serious, and studious was probably how someone would’ve described me even though I did play basketball and run cross-country.

Emerson had been social, friendly, the kind of girl who always had a smile. I don’t know why it took being her lab partner for me to notice how pretty that smile was. Maybe it was because I got to know her beyond the surface. The better I’d gotten to know her, the more I’d liked her.

I’d been a late bloomer, more interested in grades and science than girls. She was my first crush.

Back then, I hadn’t been overflowing with confidence. I’d kept my feelings to myself, looking forward to fourth-period biology in a way I never would’ve guessed or admitted to anyone. I started to care more about lab days and what Emerson and I might talk about than the biology lesson itself as we extracted DNA from a banana or dissected a frog, and that was saying something for a kid like me.

In hindsight, not confessing my feelings to Blake had possibly changed the course of my life—and his and hers. Oblivious to my interest in her, Blake had asked Emerson to homecoming that year. They’d started dating, stayed together throughout high school, and the rest was history.

I’d never stood a chance.

Our lives had gone in different directions, with Blake enlisting after graduation, them getting married soon after and moving away, and me heading off to college.

Max was studying me as I examined Mahomes’s ears and eyes, then checked in his mouth for teeth. There were a couple breaking through, confirming my guess on his age.

“I knew Blake from sports,” Max said. “He seemed like a decent guy—the type who’d want Emerson to be happy if something happened to him.”

I nodded, pretending not to understand what he was hinting at.

Blake and I had been inseparable as kids. His grandma had lived next door to me, so whenever he visited her, which was several times a week, we got together. We played T-ball together, hung out in my treehouse, played video games in person and online.

In the four years Emerson had been back in Dragonfly Lake, she’d been grieving and raising her kids, much like I had. There was nothing deeper between us, just platonic support that went both ways, mostly where our kids were concerned. Only since she’d moved into my house had those adolescent sparks of attraction been reignited.

It felt wrong to think of her in any way but as a friend.

“Emerson’s holding her own during a challenging time,” I said. “Her little girl’s having a hard time. Slept with Emerson last night instead of in Ev’s room. She didn’t want to go to preschool today, so Emerson kept her home.”

“Kizzy threw them into a mess, didn’t she?”

“Sold the house out from under them. I’d be pissed, but Emerson says her mother-in-law deserves whatever happiness she can find. I think she’s genuinely happy for the woman.”

“She’s a better person than me then. I’d be hot too,” Max said, stretching to catch Monet before he skittered from Max’s shoulder down his back.

“It could be a tough few weeks for them—or longer—before Emerson finds a house. I can’t change the real estate market or the lack of housing, but I can help in other ways.”

Max’s brows shot up suggestively. “I can think of a few ways.”

“Quit acting twelve,” I told him, laughing. “I’ll just be there for her. Someone to pour her a glass of wine when the kids are making her nuts. She’s a single mom, but she’s had Kizzy’s help since moving back. Now she doesn’t.”

“Parenthood is sure as hell a little less difficult when you have a partner.”

“That’s what I’m thinking.” I didn’t hate the idea of teaming up while the Esteses were staying with us. “We’re including them in our Thanksgiving in every way, with all the trimmings and traditions.”

“The kids will love it. Emerson too.”

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