Page 66 of Engulfing Emma

I try to ignore the fact that I’m approaching creepy-stalker territory here.

To prove that I don’t care about what’s happening across the street, I busy myself making cookies for Evelyn for the next few hours. Then I grade some online papers. After lunch, despite my efforts to keep my mind occupied, the urge to look overpowers my sense of decency and I return to the upstairs window.

Looking over at Brett’s, I’m not sure what I expected to see, but it wasn’t this.

Amanda is holding Leo in full view of his window. It looks like he’s fallen asleep on her shoulder. I don’t miss the fact that she’s standing right there, looking out as if taunting me.

I know she can’t see me, but I hide even more, watching only through a small slit between my curtain and the window frame. She stands there for a few more minutes before walking out of view. Then Brett appears at the window.He’s there. I wasn’t sure he would be. But it makes sense, it’s his day off. That he’s there,with her, as a family, doesn’t sit well with me, and I feel something I haven’t felt in my entire life. Pure unadulterated jealousy.

I think maybe Brett is looking for me, too. I’ve caught him doing it before. Just as I know he’s caught me. Suddenly, hands cover Brett’s eyes from behind. He turns around and bumps into Amanda, who pulls him into a kiss.

My heart sinks.She’s kissing him?

But it’s not exactly her kissing him that saddens me. It’s that he’s not pulling away.

I hang my head and go over to my bed, landing on my mattress with a thump.

He hates her. How could he have kissed her? Especially after last night.

Then again, she’s Leo’s mother. If she wants to give it another go with Brett, maybe he’s thinking of his son and what’s best for him.

Sometimes I wonder what I would do if Stefan showed up on my doorstep. What if he said he was sorry? That he’d been young and immature, and now that he’s older, he wants another chance. Would I do that for Evelyn?

I pick up the pillow Brett dozed off on last night. I pull it close and hug it. Never before have I wanted something so passionately, yet at the same time,notwanted it with the exact same passion and fervor.

Chapter Twenty-one

Brett

Bass nudges me across the bar, pulling my attention away from the baseball game on the TV. “Hey, isn’t that what’s-her-name who bakes like an angel?”

I look over to where he nodded and see Emma sitting at a corner table with several other women and one man. I smile. We come here a lot to watch baseball games. I wonder how often she comes here with her friends. Maybe we’ve been here at the same time in the past and never knew it. Like how we’ve lived across the street from each other for years, yet we had to be held at gunpoint to meet.

“Emma,” I tell him. “Yeah, that’s her.”

“You ask her out yet?” Denver asks.

“She doesn’t date firefighters.”

I don’t tell them we’ve slept together.Twice. But we’re not dating. I have no idea what we’re doing. Other than having great sex.

“She get burned by one?” Justin asks, chuckling. “Get it?Burnedby one.” He laughs a little too hard at his own joke, and the three of us throw the limes from our beers at him.

“No. That’s not it.”

One of Emma’s friends catches me staring and elbows her, nodding in my direction. She looks shocked to see me here. Not surprised. Not happy.Shocked. She barely acknowledges me before returning to her conversation.

“Wow,” Justin says, shivering. “I can feel the chill all the way over here. She totally just froze you out.”

I put down my beer and make my way to her table. “Hi,” I say to her. “Emma, right?”

“Yeah. Brent, was it?”

“Brett,” I say with a smirk.

I notice a familiar face and hold out my hand. “Becca, I presume?”

She shakes my hand. “It’s nice to meet you. Especially under better circumstances.”

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