Page 61 of That Kind of Guy

He sent a quick glance to me. “Thanks.” His thumb absent-mindedly stroked my shoulder.

“Emmett?”

He looked down at me. The side of his mouth hitched, tilting the little white scar, and my finger twitched. I wanted to trace that scar with my fingertip.

“Thanks for cosigning on my loan.” My throat tightened and I had the urge to shut my mouth but I knew I needed to say this. If it wasn’t for Emmett, Chuck would be swapping out Table Three for a stripper pole and installing neon lights behind the bar. I could go the route of kicking myself for every time I bought name-brand cookies instead of the cheap ones, every useless dollar spent on jewelry, but instead, I just felt grateful to Emmett for trusting me with the loan.

“I know I give you a lot of crap but…” I bit my lip and gave him a rueful smile. “I’d be totally screwed without you, so thanks. I promise to do what I can so that you’re elected.” I swallowed. “I really do think you’d do a better job than Isaac.”

He watched me with a little knowing smile on his face, like he knew a secret. His thumb still brushed my skin and I found it difficult to focus on anything else. “Thanks, Adams. I appreciate that. I know you’ll hold up your end of the bargain.” He chewed on his lip. “I trust you.”

My face felt warm. This was a lot of seriousness for us.

I swallowed and my gaze dropped to his mouth again. “How’d you get that scar?”

“This?” He pointed to his lip.

I nodded.

“Wyatt and I were horsing around as kids in the living room and I slipped and hit my face on the coffee table.” His mouth tilted again. “I wish it was from something cooler, like skateboarding.”

I snorted, letting my gaze linger once more on the scar, before grabbing his arm. “Come on, let’s go get you some green juice, or whatever.”

He laughed and let me pull him into the farmer’s market.

We wandered through the booths, saying hello to the vendors and buying veggies from local farms. The restaurant purchased from many of the vendors but they were usually so busy on deliveries that we didn’t have much time to chat, so it was nice to have a few moments to catch up. Emmett shook hands and held babies that were pushed into his arms and tasted the samples that were thrust into his mouth.

“Do you want to buy a raffle ticket?” a teenage girl asked, holding a string of tickets. “We’re raising money for our prom.”

“Sure.” I fished out my wallet.

“I’ll buy some, too,” Emmett told her. “When’s the prom?”

She accepted our money and handed the tickets over. “It’s tomorrow night.”

We thanked her and wandered on to the next booth.

“I wore a floor-length ice blue dress to my prom,” I told Emmett. “My friends and I couldn’t get a limo because they were all booked up so we rented a horse and carriage.”

He nodded a quick hello to the booth owner and grinned at me. “That sounds fun.”

“It was. What about you, what was your prom like?”

He shrugged. “I didn’t go to mine.”

I reared back, touching his arm. “I’m sorry, what?Youdidn’t go to your prom? Were you in the hospital or something?”

The side of his mouth hitched up as he glanced over the little jars of honey on the table. “Nope. It just didn’t work out.”

I followed him to the fruit stand. “What does that mean?”

“My girlfriend in high school broke up with me the day before,” he said with a rueful smile while he placed apples in a bag, “and I didn’t want to go to prom and watch her make out with another guy.”

I frowned. Inside my chest, my heart twisted for him. “That’s terrible. What a shitty thing to do.”

He shrugged. “It’s fine, it was for the best. They’re happily married now so I can’t blame them. And I think he had a crush on her for a while and I didn’t know it.”

“I can’t believeyouhad a girlfriend.” I gave him a little teasing grin. “Thought you weren’t that kind of guy.”

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