Page 34 of Play Action Pass

“What are you two doing here?” Emmie demanded.

“Donot talk to us like that,” Bunny Adinson ordered in a cold tone. “What have you done to your hair? Brown looks horrid on you.”

“Gee, thanks,” she sneered back, matching the chill. “And don’t you tell me what to do. Why the hell are you both trespassing into my vacation?”

Her father raised his hand, as if to strike her, but Crew caught McBride’s arm before it connected.

“Don’t touch her,” Crew warned.

Her father yanked back his arm. “I beg your pardon? Who the hell are you?”

“I’m hers,” Crew said confidently. Boldly. It turned her on. “And she’s mine. There’s no place for narrow-minded parents.”

“How dare you!”

“No.” Crew shook his head. “How dare you? This isn’t the Dark Ages. There’s no gilded cage.”

At that moment, a car rolled by, slowing down as if curious about what was happening.

“Let’s go inside so we can talk.” Bunny turned to march toward the front door.

“Why don’t you just leave and I’ll call you in a few weeks?” Emmie suggested.

Her mother didn’t even break her stride. Sharing a look with Crew, they followed her parents. Once inside, all pleasantries dropped.

“All right. Mother, Father, what are you doing here?”

Bunny looked around the beach house with disdain.“Saw you’re infamously shamming your status in some derelict country bar and came here to take you home.”

Crew opened his mouth, ready to defend her. Emmie laid a hand on his arm, shaking her head. She didn’t need him to rescue her.

“I’m not going back with you. I’m finishing my vacation and then after, I’m…” She looked at Crew, who watched her with a smirk lifting the corner of his mouth. He gave an almost imperceptible nod of encouragement. “Then after, I’m moving to St. Louis.”

“Hell, yeah, you are,” Crew said, smiling.

“You willnot,” her father snapped. “You will return to New York. You will marry who we’ve chosen—”

“I’m not marrying anyone,” she interrupted. For the first time in her life, she took a stand against them. “Least of all to a manyouthink is the best choice.”

“You forget, without us you have no money,” her mother spat. “No future. No hobbies. Not even your precious animals.”

Emmie crossed her arms over her chest. “You forget that you weren’t privy to Jacoby’s will.”

Her parents blinked at her, looking like they just ate a lemon.

“What will?” her father asked.

“Jacoby’s death opened up his trust fund, and he left it all to me,” she explained. “And there was enough to secure the animals in the shelter. You can’t touch them. Plus, I had a lawyer investigate that little threat you gave about locking up my inheritance. And it was bullshit. If you try to hold it up in court, it’ll beyoupaying the price. My birthday is next month, and then I’ll have enough to live comfortably, until I figure out what I want to do. Now I know I’ll be in St. Louis. In any case, however, I never want to see either of you ever again. So kindly fuck off.”

She opened the door and stood by, staring expectantly ather parents.

“If we walk out that door, you are cut off!” her mother yelled.

“I suppose you’re deaf now, too.” Emmie shook her head. “Leave. I’m divorcing both of you.”

She held her mother’s gaze for a long moment, and then true to form, Bunny Adinson stuck her nose up and marched out of the door. A heartbeat later, her father did the same and Emmie slammed the door behind them.

There was a moment of silence, then her eyes grew wide. “Did I just do that?”

---