Page 61 of The Love Destroyers

I think about Emma. The situation she’s in, plus a few of the cases she’s told me about, have made me more sensitive to the shit women put up with on a daily basis. Truthfully, it’s made me look at my own past behavior differently.

Lia was bad to me, sure, but I’ve been a dick to other women. I’ve never promised anyone anything I wasn’t willing to give, but I’ve still upset women.

It’s made me want to step up and be better.

But if I tell him that, then he’ll know exactly what’s going on. My brother’s no idiot, and he’s spent so long trying to take care of my sister and me, he knows exactly how we tick.

“It’s working with Nicole that’s made a difference,” I quip. “She’s so sweet, I can’t help but catch some sugar.”

“I’d rather you weren’t wrapped up in all of this,” he says, rocking a little on the legs of his chair. “I don’t like that that Reed woman is so visible. We can’t risk having eyes on us. But Emma is family. We have to stand up for family.”

Sure. Family.

“Soooo….” he says, and my pulse picks up. Does he know? Is he going to ask? Do I want him to?

“You gonna give me your lighter?”

It’s Dad’s old lighter. He didn’t smoke, but he did like the occasional cigar, and our asshole uncle had given him the silver one as a gift. I’d laid claim to it after he’d died, back when I was a new adult and full of shit. Wanting to make my mark on the world and prove to everyone how tough I was.

Turns out I don’t want to be that kind of tough, but I still love the lighter.

Declan’s going to make something of it if I tell him the truth.

Maybe I do want him to know what’s going on in my head, because I hear myself saying, “Emma has it.”

“Emma?”

“You know, she might be a kleptomaniac. She stole my flask too.”

“And you let her?” Now, he’s studying me like I’m one of his plants, struck down by a spotting sicknesses.

I shrug. “What can I say? She’s a convincing woman.”

My heart is thumping faster yet. How’s he going to respond?

He rubs the bridge of his nose, then takes a big gulp of coffee that probably scalds his mouth before saying, “You like her. I should have known when you agreed to help Nicole, but I figured this was exactly the kind of game you’d like to play.”

“It is.”

He studies me for a bit longer, then says, “It’s nice to see you get serious about someone—”

“Whoa,” I say, lifting my hands. “You’re getting way ahead of yourself. I like her, sure. But I like a lot of women. You know that. And she’s definitely not looking for anything.”

That first part is only partially true. Yes. Ilikewomen. I’m a heterosexual man, so this is news to no one. But the connection I have with Emma is stronger than what I’m used to. It’selectric. It’s unsettling, in all honesty.

“Yeah, I know,” he says, because no doubt Rosie has told him that I kept company with a lot of different women in the couple of years we lived together in New York City. It was a distraction. A way to avoid the loneliness that comes from being by myself.

“It’s just…” He heaves a sigh. “You’ll want to be careful there, Shay. The Rosings are nice and all, but they’re not like us. Money does something to people.”

“Tell that to Rosie.”

He smiles. “I tried. You can see how far I got. But this is different than with Rosie.”

I’m pretty sure I know what he’s not saying. It’s different for a rich man to get with a girl from nothing than it is for a rich woman to take up with someone like me. Princesses don’t take up with mechanics in the real world. That would be the ultimate statistically unlikely event.

No doubt Sophie’s aunt would encourage me to go for it on the full moon Leap Day, but I’m guessing it wouldn’t turn out so good. Because my brother’s right. Rosie would claim that’s sexist as shit, and she’d have a point, but even so…

I nod, trying to play it cool. “Yeah. I got you. There’s only one thing she’d want with a man like me.”

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