Page 125 of Engulfing Emma

She looks sad, and I guess what must be going through her head. “You’re his family, too. I want you to know you’ll always have a place with us. No matter what.”

She waves my comment off and wipes her eyes. “I’m not a fool. I know things will change one day, and that’s okay.”

“We’ll still need you. Leo is still so young, and who knows? There may be more.”

“More?” Her face lights up.

“Sure. Why not? I think Leo would make a great big brother someday.”

“That he would,” she says, placing a kiss on his head.

“I have to go get ready for this thing.”

“Ah, the wedding.” She smiles. “Watching two people declare their love for each other sometimes brings out our own feelings.”

“We’ve only been together a week, Bonnie.”

“Yeah, but when you know, you know,” she says.

I cock my head thinking how those are the exact words I said to Emma.

~ ~ ~

Emma looks incredible in her light green bridesmaid’s dress, despite running around the church, making sure everything gets done.

“I’m sorry,” she says as she races past, then comes back and stops. “I don’t mean to ignore you, but no one has a safety pin. Can you believe that? I have to find one.”

“Go. You don’t have to babysit me. I’ll see you after.”

She kisses my cheek. “Thank you for not being mad.”

She jogs down the hall in bare feet. She took off the five-inch heels she was wearing when I picked her up an hour ago. I’m glad she did. She’d break a leg otherwise.

A man comes over and offers me his hand. “You must be Emma’s plus-one.”

“What gave it away?” I shake. “Brett Cash.”

“Brian Kaling. Lisa, my wife, is also in the wedding party. She works with Emma and Becca.”

“Right. I think I met her at a Mexican restaurant a while back.”

His eyebrows shoot up.“You’rethe firefighter from the school hostage thing?”

“That’s me.”

“I’ve heard a lot about you,” he says. “And you went to Germany with Emma and her daughter?”

“Yup.”

“Lisa and I traveled overseas quite a bit this summer.”

“What do you do, Brian?”

“I’m in banking.”

Banking. It makes me think of Tony or Monty or whoever it was that Emma dated last month. Emma liked that he was a banker. She thought it was safe. I wonder if Brian was the one who introduced him to Emma.

Brian laughs. “I know banking isn’t as exciting as firefighting, but I didn’t mean to bore you into silence.”

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