Page 106 of That Kind of Guy

“I want to be married for real, Avery.” His gaze was hungry, dark, and glazed.

I nodded against his mouth and whimpered as he thrust into me again. “We’re doing this. It’s real.”

His hands grasped my hips, and he tilted me so that his arousal hit exactly the right point and with no warning, I came again, tipping back over that cliff of pleasure. He was right there with me, groaning my name into my hair and urgently shuddering his release into my soul.

The room was silent save for our breathing and my heart thumping in my ears.

All that worry about this all being fake, for nothing. His vows sounded sincere because hewassincere. Emmett wanted me the way I wanted him. I could kick myself, for keeping it a secret. What if I had never blurted out that I loved him?

At one point, I got up to use the washroom, and when I returned to bed, Emmett was looking at his phone with a funny expression on his face.

“What is it?”

He shook his head and put the phone down. “Nothing. Come back to bed.”

I settled in with my head against his chest, listening to his heartbeat.

“I love you.” He kissed my temple. “I mean it.”

I nodded and turned my head to catch his mouth. “I love you, and I mean it too.”

27

Avery

Monday morning,I sat in the kitchen reading the Queen’s Cove Daily article about our wedding while Emmett made us breakfast. “There’s a nice picture of my mom with your parents.”

He turned. “She’s coming back for Christmas.”

“Who?” My eyebrows went up.

“Your mom. My mom invited her to stay with them.”

I looked out the window, watching as a hummingbird hovered before it zipped off. Christmas was more than six months away. My gaze strayed to Emmett, where he stood with his back to me in his running shorts and t-shirt, and my mouth lifted into a soft smile.

This marriage was real. It wasn’t just me who had gained family. My mom had, too.

Emmett’s phone started buzzing on the counter. He tapped a button to answer it on speaker.

“Morning, Div. You’re on speaker in my kitchen with Avery.”

“Hi, Div,” I called.

“You both need to get to the town council meetingnow.” His voice was a sharp whisper. I could hear someone talking in the background, a receptionist maybe.

I sat up straight. “What? When?”

Emmett froze, frowning at the phone, waiting.

“Chuck has put forth a motion to stop the sale of the restaurant to you, Avery.” Div’s words tumbled out. “He’s speaking in a few minutes.”

My stomach dropped through the floor, all the way to the core of the earth.

Hannah. The bookstore. The other day, with Cynthia. I still wasn’t sure if she had overheard us but something heavy and ugly settled in my gut. I had a really, really bad feeling about this. I thought I was finished with Chuck when Keiko said she wouldn’t sell to him.

I guess not.

“Max and I are here and we’re going to try and stall, but you need to get here.”

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